>> Speaker 1: Please
welcome Librarian
of Congress, Dr. Carla Hayden.
[ Applause ]
>> Dr. Carla Hayden: Thank you.
Thank you, thank you, and
good evening and welcome
to the Library of Congress.
It is our pleasure
to have everyone here
for a very special night to open
the library's newest exhibition,
Shall Not Be Denied.
[ Applause ]
It is my honor to welcome
Madame Speaker of the House,
Nancy Pelosi, members
of Congress,
members of the Women's
Suffrage Centennial Commission.
I think they deserve
a special hand.
[ Applause ]
Including its Chair,
Ms. Kay Cole James,
and co-chair Senator
Barbara Mikulski,
[ Applause ]
who is the longest-serving
woman in Congress
in United States'
history [applause].
A special welcome also
to the leaders and staff
of the different cultural
institutions across Washington.
We're so pleased that you're
joining us tonight and,
of course, library staff,
guests, and the viewers online.
We're live streaming.
This wonderful exhibition
is part
of the library's commemoration
of the National Centennial
Celebration of women's suffrage.
And the library's
year-long initiative
to explore America's
changemakers will spotlight
stories of diverse women
who shaped the suffrage
history and made history.
We are opening this exhibition
on this day, June the 4th,
because it holds an important
part of this nation's history.
On this day, and I should
tell you, this is in bold,
100 years ago today, Congress
finally approved the 19th
Amendment for women's suffrage.
[ Applause ]
As you may know, it was
a long road to get here,
from the first women's rights
convention in Seneca Falls,
New York, in 1848, to the State
of Tennessee becoming
the last state needed
to ratify the 19th Amendment
on August 18th, 1920.
And today, because the efforts
of those courageous suffragettes
and the people who
supported them,
nearly 70 million women
vote in this country.
That's an applause.
[ Applause ]
Now, the Library of Congress's
exhibit, Shall Not Be Denied,
will tell the story of the
largest reform movement
in American history, with
documents and artifacts
from the women who
changed political history.
The exhibition will show you
how women were prevented to vote
and the 19th Amendment
removed that barrier.
It should be clear, women were
not granted the right to vote.
Instead, as this
exhibition will show you,
women earned it [applause].
And so, from rallies to even
imprisonment, we owe a lot
to these heroic women
from a hundred years ago.
This exhibition is also
unique because the Library
of Congress holds the
personal collections
of many American suffragettes
and leaders of the movement.
This includes their
handwritten letters, speeches,
and scrapbooks created
to document their work.
The suffragettes donated
their materials to the Library
of Congress because they wanted
their stories to be remembered.
And this exhibition
will tell those stories.
We'll draw from the
collections of Susan B. Anthony,
Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Lucy
Stone, Mary Church Terrell,
Carrie Chapman Catt, and the
significant organizations,
the National Women's Party
and the National American
Women's Suffrage Association.
Through the personal collections
of these extraordinary women,
you will get a more intimate
view into the struggles,
the rivalries, and
ultimately the challenges
of this 70-year movement.
And as you walk through
the exhibit,
I hope you'll take a moment to
read passages from the letters
on display to get a glimpse
of the women's personalities.
For example, Abigail
Adams telling her sister
that she will never consent
to have their sex considered
in an inferior light; Susan B.
Anthony pushing Elizabeth Cady
Stanton to write an address
for her on equal education,
while she said she knew
that Elizabeth Cady Stanton
was juggling a baby on her knee
and her four boys were
buzzing about her,
but she was the better writer;
Nellie Grunder [assumed
spelling]
of Howard University asking
if black women were welcome
in the March 3rd, 1913, parade.
They were not.
And also on display are
artifacts describing the
suffragettes' harsh treatment
in jail, force-feeding them,
rare printed versions of the
1848 Declaration of Sentiments
and the 1878 Declaration
of Rights for Women,
a bust of Susan B. Anthony that
she personally wanted Congress
to buy and install in
this very building.
So it's finally here; a
sash and buttons belonging
to the suffragette Cora Week,
whose photo shows the petite
artist staring defiantly
into the camera as she heads off
to the White House shortly
before being arrested.
The Library of Congress's
mission is to engage, inspire,
and inform the American people,
and we know that this
exhibition will do that.
It would not have been possible
without the generous support
of the library's James Madison
Council and additional support
from 1st Financial Bank USA, the
Democracy Fund, Mr. Tom Girardi,
who's with us tonight,
AARP, I'm a personal member,
the Barbara Lee Family
Foundation Fund
at the Boston Foundation,
the History Channel and Roger
and Julie Baskes,
[applause] the creative team.
And thank you, thank
you to all of them.
Now the creative team that
made this exhibition possible
and brought it to life includes
lead curator Janice Ruth
and Miss Elizabeth Novara.
They're right here in front.
[ Applause ]
The library's Center for
Exhibits and Interpretation
and its director, Mr.
David Mandel [applause],
accompanied by our later
suffragette, his daughter,
Zoe [applause], and
Ms. Carol Johnson,
the exhibit director [applause].
We're also joined tonight
with our creative partners,
Pure and Applied for
exhibition design
and the Upswell [phonetic]
for the interactive videos.
And both firms, you should know,
are women-owned businesses,
who brought a real passion
and energy to this project.
[ Applause ]
Now the exhibition will
share the remarkable stories
of courage, perseverance,
creativity, and the hope
on the part of many
generations of women fighting
for the most fundamental right
in a democracy, the
right to vote.
And in so, I am hoping
that you will join me
in a rousing welcome
for our next guest.
Hello. You are here.
Thank you.
>> Speaker 1: Please welcome
United States Senator,
Shelley Moore Capito.
>> Carla Hayden: Thank you.
[ Applause ]
>> Shelley Moore Capito: Wow.
Well, good evening to everyone.
Thank you.
It's a very special
evening in this beautiful,
I think probably the most
beautiful building in this city,
very historic, with some
of the most accomplished
and inspiring female leaders.
Where is Senator Mikulski?
I know she's here.
There. How can I miss you?
I mean, really, how
could I miss you?
And many trailblazers
in the room.
Dr. Hayden certainly
one of our trailblazers.
Yes. And Speaker Pelosi, who I
know will be here any minute.
So it's only fitting that we
are here this evening I think
to remember and to honor
the women who really helped
to make all of this possible
for all of us, the suffragists.
I think we all know the
history, or at least we should.
We've recounted a bit of it all
through the day over
in the Senate.
And we have hopefully heard many
of the names in the documentary
and many more that
I've heard today
that I hadn't really recognized,
but certainly Elizabeth
Cady Stanton,
Susan B. Anthony,
and Sojourner Truth.
Those are just three.
Their deeds were certainly
great and the outcomes,
monumental, monumental.
Over the past several months,
we've celebrated various key
moments in women's suffrage
and the ultimate, we
will be celebrating soon
in another year, the
ultimate ratification
of the 19th Amendment,
House passage
and Senate passage today.
And with each of the
celebrations, like the opening
of this exhibit tonight,
I'm constantly inspired
by these women that I
read and hear about.
Their words, their images
that we're going to see,
some of the letters that
Dr. Hayden talked about.
As Susan B. Anthony said, and I
quote, "It was we, the people,
not we the white male citizens,
nor yet the male citizens,
not yet we the male citizen,
but we the whole people
who formed the union.
Men, their rights and
nothing more; and women,
their rights and nothing less."
That is powerful and, given
the times, very brave.
Of course, in the words
of another suffragist,
Elizabeth Cady Stanton, she
said, and I quote briefly,
"The best protection any
woman can have his courage."
These women were
certainly courageous.
This was not an easy
effort that they undertook,
and it certainly
didn't happen overnight.
It certainly did not
happen overnight.
The suffrage movement
actually lasted
for more than seven decades.
Now, you get a perspective
of a young child here
thinking, are you kidding me.
It took 70 years.
That just shows you
what is so important
to retrospectively back
and remind ourselves
of the struggles.
Can you imagine having ideas,
having opinions knowing
in your head and your heart
that you should be able
to express opinions and ideas,
share them with the world
and take them with you to the
ballot box that we're gifted
to do in this country, and
then being told that your ideas
and opinions don't
really matter?
Being told that your ideas and
opinions don't really matter,
many of you, I think
many of us have felt
that at one time or another.
But to suffragists,
it wasn't a question.
It was the way things
were until these women,
the suffragists said
enough and they stood up.
They organized.
They put on their purple and
their white and their gold
and their sashes, and they
paraded in the streets.
They made their voices heard,
and they changed history.
The 19th Amendment
gave women more
than just the right to vote.
In many ways, it gave
women the courage to run
and to advocate and to lead.
And it's that courage
that we are here today
to celebrate tonight
with this exhibit,
the courage of the suffragists
and the courage that they worked
to impart on generations and
generations of women to come,
of which I'm blessed to
be in their footsteps;
the courage to turn an
idea into an achievement;
the courage to turn a
passion into an action;
the courage to think yes,
yes when so many people
are telling you no and then
to say it, not just say it,
but yell it I'm sure,
and say it out loud.
I work every day in my state
of West Virginia to make sure
that girls and young
women across our country
and in my state understand
that they can do the same.
And I know that so many
others in this room do that,
through your words, your
actions, your example.
It doesn't have to be
running for office.
It doesn't have to be
starting a movement
to change the very fabric of our
nation like the suffragists did.
It can be anything.
And no matter what
the situation,
no matter what the goal, no
matter what the barriers,
you just got to take
that first step.
You have to breathe life into
that idea or that opinion,
and you just have to act on it.
Thankfully, the women we're here
to celebrate tonight
did just that.
Their actions led to
so many opportunities
for so many other women
throughout history.
And that will be the case
for generations to come.
That's a good thing
because we still have
so many mountains left to climb.
We still have a lot
to accomplish,
and we still have many
first to celebrate.
But if history is any
indication, these days are here
and they will keep coming.
And they will become, because
of the confidence to say yes
to ourselves, the determination
to say yes to the world
and the courage to do
something about it.
Thank you so much.
[ Applause ]
>> Speaker 1: On
this day in 1919,
the United States Congress
approved the Women's Suffrage
Amendment for the right to vote.
Today, we invite members
of Congress to the stage,
to read this historic amendment
in commemoration
of its centennial.
We also welcome the chair
of the Women's Suffrage
Centennial Commission,
Kay Coles James,
and the vice chair,
Senator Barbara Mikulski,
to join the reading.
[ Applause ]
[ Multiple Speakers ]
>> Barbara A. Mikulski:
You got the mic.
This is kind of a
congressional karaoke here.
>> Carla Hayden: And so.
>> Barbara A. Mikulski:
Suffrage karaoke.
>> Speaker 2: It might be great.
>> Shelley Moore Capito:
And so, let's begin.
Three, two, one.
>> Multiple Speakers: The right
of citizens of the United States
to vote shall not be denied or
abridged by the United States
or by any State on
account of sex.
Congress shall have power
to enforce this article
by appropriate legislation.
[ Applause ]
>> Speaker 1: And we thank
the members of Congress
who are joining us
today, former,
the members of the commission.
We thank you so, so much.
[ Applause ]
Please welcome United States
Senator, Marsha Blackburn,
and United States
representative, Brenda Lawrence,
sponsors of the Women's Suffrage
Centennial Commemorative
Coin Act.
[ Applause ]
>> Marsha Blackburn: Well
Brenda and I should have just --
We came up the steps together.
We should have come here.
I have to tell you, today's been
a magnificent day in US Senate,
and we have truly kicked
off our year of celebration
as we have celebrated 100 years
past that this was the day
that we sent the 19th Amendment
to the states for ratification.
And for us, we've had such
a good time celebrating this
and just recognizing the
women from our state who did
so much to make this happen.
And as we have talked
about the day,
we've talked about Tennessee.
And Carla mentioned this.
We were the 36th state.
And ratification came
on August 18th, 1920.
And we know that the 72 years,
just think about it, 72 years,
that this movement carried the
momentum that was necessary
to empower each and
every one of us.
And then, in that August, when
everyone came to Nashville,
all the suffragists and
all the pros and cons came,
it was 72 steps from
the Hermitage Hotel,
where they gathered for tea and
organized to the state capital,
where they were successful.
So we've had a wonderful
time celebrating.
And also today, in the house,
we passed the Women's
Suffrage Centennial Commission
Commemorative Coin Bill, S.1235.
And this is being handled
in the House by Brenda
and also our colleague, Elise
Stefanik, who is from New York.
And this coin will commemorate
the 72 years that it took
to get women's suffrage passed,
and the US Treasury will mint
a silver commemorative coin
in honor of this centennial.
Brenda.
[ Applause ]
>> Brenda L. Lawrence:
Good evening.
And so, I'm so excited
to be here.
We had our celebration
last month.
And to be here today
in our white
with our yellow roses,
it's such an honor.
I just want to give a little
reflection on history today
at a time in our country where
there were decisions made
that women would not
have the right to vote.
Think about it, the
actual conversation,
legislation protests
that was needed for us
to have the right to vote.
And ladies and gentlemen,
I stand here today
as a black woman in America.
And while we celebrate the women
who fought and who protest,
went to jail, because they would
not give up, they had courage,
also want to remember and make
sure that history reflects
that black women did
not get the right
to vote until 60 years later.
[ Applause ]
Native American women
did not get the right
to vote till four years later.
[ Applause ]
And so often, people
don't realize
that Sojourner Truth
was a suffragist.
She was one of the
original ones.
And I just want to use one
of her quotes because she was
such an amazing woman.
"Then that little man in
black, he says women can't have
as many rights as men,
because Christ wasn't a woman.
Where did your Christ come from?
Where did your Christ come from?
From God and a woman.
Man didn't have nothing
to do with it."
[ Applause ]
And then she continues, "If the
first woman God ever made was
strong enough to turn the
world upside down all alone,
these women together ought
to be able to turn it back
and get it right side up again.
And now, they are
asking to do it,
and the men better let them."
[ Applause ]
I am so glad to be standing
here today because I stand
on the shoulders of those women,
those leaders who had courage.
And I say this constantly,
women,
we are writing history today.
As we reflect on these
amazing and brave women,
we are 52% of the population
and the largest voting
bloc in America.
And so, when I listen to the
words that were said back
at the first women's convention,
that we as women can turn
it back right, I'm counting
on every woman in this room.
I'm so glad for us to
reflect on our history.
I'm also proud that we'll
be able to have a coin
that will commemorate and
to stand with the leadership
of Senator Blackburn to be
able to make that happen.
You know, I'm going
to tell my children,
like this young lady there, I'm
going to tell my grandchildren,
your grandma did that.
[ Applause And Laughter ]
We are also leading a
house and senate letter
to the Citizens' Stamp
Advisory Committee to make sure,
next year, we actually get
a postage stamp as well
to commemorate our
official 100th year.
I'm proud to be the Democratic
lead on the stamp and the coin,
and I just want to
leave you with this.
I fight every day and show up
because I love this country.
I love America.
And those who've
heard me speak before,
I love America even though
sometimes she didn't love
me back.
She didn't love me
because I was a woman.
She didn't love me because
I was an African-American.
But our democracy of
this amazing country,
with persistence and with
the hard work and sacrifice
and the courage of Americans, we
change things in this country.
And I will continue to
show up and walk the halls
of Congress built by slaves,
to show up to understand
and to fight and make
sure that the democracy
that we love continues.
I am the bipartisan chair
of the women's caucus,
and I'm zero focus on ensuring
women in America will continue
to have the rights
and the freedoms
that were fought
for in this country.
And I will continue to show up
because I believe in one nation
under God, indivisible, with
liberty and justice for all,
and that includes us women.
Thank you.
[ Applause ]
>> Speaker 1: Please
welcome the chairman
of the 1st Financial
Bank, Albert Hegyi.
[ Applause ]
>> Albert Hegyi: Good
evening, everyone.
This has been a wonderful
celebration,
and it's really a
privilege for 1st Financial
to be supporting
this exhibition,
along with the other
generous sponsors and donors
of this exhibition
celebrating the centennial
of women's right to vote.
We're here to support
the Library of Congress
and to support the first woman
to lead this institution
since 1802.
[ Applause ]
That's much more than 72 years.
So congratulations.
Carla Hayden is also the first
African-American librarian
of Congress.
[ Applause ]
How appropriate it is that Dr.
Hayden now holds this prominent
position on a day that we
celebrate a great milestone
for America: the enactment
of the 19th Amendment.
Already in the rather short time
Dr. Hayden has been at the helm,
she exemplifies change
and progress.
For example, Dr. Hayden
has a new strategic plan.
Sometimes papers stick together.
Sorry. For the future
of the library,
including the new digital
plan to benefit the public.
And she's even announced
efforts to redesign parts
of this Thomas Jefferson
building
to create the optimum
experience for its more
than 2 million visitors
every year,
all for the public,
all for the future.
Through her many exhibitions,
displays, celebrations, awards,
symposiums, and programs, she
has proven throughout her life
to be a trailblazer and
a very decisive leader.
Now, Dr. Hayden, as librarian
of Congress, is on a mission.
In her words, she wants
to open to the world
to the treasure chest that
is the Library of Congress.
I'm honored to welcome
the librarian of Congress,
Dr. Carla Hayden,
back to the podium.
Dr. Hayden.
[ Applause ]
>> Carla Hayden: Thank you, Mr.
Hegyi, for those very kind words
and your support of
this institution.
And I want to know that
we do support equal rights
and you were able
to speak [laughter].
Now, it is my pleasure
to introduce two
very special guests.
We have two very
accomplished writers
who have done extensive research
on the suffrage movement
and have written
brilliant books about it.
So please join me in welcoming
Rebecca Boggs Roberts,
author of "Suffragists in
Washington, DC: The 1913 Parade
and the Fight for the
Vote," and Elaine Weiss,
author of "The Woman's Hour: The
Great Fight to Win the Vote."
[ Applause ]
>> Rebecca Boggs Roberts:
So much for having us here
on this historic night
in this historic room.
We got a sneak peek of
the exhibit upstairs,
and it is jaw-dropping.
We both had to be
dragged out of there.
And you all will get a
chance to see it later on.
It just showcases not just
the extraordinary story
of women's suffrage, but the
resources this institution has
to offer to historians and
visitors and people interested
in learning more
about our country.
Both of us did lots
of research here.
The collections are unrivaled.
And if you want to learn more
about the suffrage story,
and we certainly hope
you do, read our books,
but then also come and learn
what there is to learn here.
And you got a chance to be in
another historic room today.
>> Elaine Weiss: I did.
I was, along with other members
of the commission
and other guests.
I was able to be in the gallery
of the Senate this afternoon
to hear her some very beautiful
tributes to the passage
of the 19th Amendment
on June 4th of 1919.
And it was very stirring
for me for someone
who had studied the
Congressional record
of that day and, of
course, spent many,
many hours of working with
Library of Congress materials.
I tried to imagine what it
was like for the suffragists
to be sitting in
that very gallery,
watching their cause being
decided, something again we know
of the 72 years that the
movement had to work in order
to finally achieve
equal rights for women.
But in the Senate and in
the House, in Congress,
it had been stalled,
the amendment,
a federal amendment had
been stalled for 40 years.
And it had been voted
down 28 times.
>> Rebecca Boggs Roberts:
And sometimes so close.
>> Elaine Weiss: Yes, either
in committee or on the floor.
And so, the women must have
had a sense of both elation
and dread and exhaustion and
a sense of final justice,
but they didn't celebrate.
In fact, we know that
Alice Paul and Carrie Catt,
the leaders of the two wings
of the suffrage movement,
were not in the gallery
as some of us were today.
They were out already planning
for the ratification fight,
which was going to be a
very, very difficult fight.
So we know that, looking
forward, these women and the men
who supported them were
always looking forward.
They were never satisfied.
They didn't just, you know, have
a party and say that's enough.
They had to go to the
next stage of the fight.
And that was very moving.
>> Rebecca Boggs
Roberts: And, you know,
so most of my research is about
the National Women's Party,
especially here in
Washington, and Alice Paul
and all the things she did here.
Elaine focuses on the
ratification fight
and Carrie Chapman Catt, who
was the general of that success.
And those two women really sort
of embody something
that comes up a lot.
We discovered when we
talk about our books
and about this movement
that a lot
of people ask what can the
contemporary women's movement
learn from the suffrage fight
and what do you see reflected
in current feminists' work.
And one of the things
that I think we both emphasize
a lot is that, you know,
the National Women's
Party, led by Alice Paul,
and the National American
Woman Suffrage Association,
led by Carrie Chapman Catt,
they, at times, were rivals
and at times post each other's
donors and said nasty things
about each other in the
past and things like that.
But they also really
served each other's purposes
because the radical wing served
to make the moderate
wing look reasonable.
And the moderate wing went
about doing this slow, steady,
exhausting grassroots work,
while the radical wing could do
the massive publicity radical
stunts that they did.
And without the moderate wing,
the women's party was
just stunts, right.
And without the fringe element,
the moderate party would
have kept fighting that slow,
steady fight for
God knows how long.
>> Elaine Weiss: And I,
again, both Rebecca and I
in our research, again
at different moments
of the suffrage fight,
realize how much this idea
of two organizations
with the same goals,
with the same passion, with
the same idea of justice
and equality in their sights
and their reason for being,
but they went about
it in different ways.
They had different strategies.
They had different methods.
And to see them work on
their own tracks but towards
that same goal is something I
think we can really learn from.
We can learn how we can
take different approaches
to the same problem, to the
same goal, and there's a synergy
between the different
approaches.
And what I hope that
we can avoid is some
of the personal animosity that
you see in the letters here
in the Library of Congress
when you do go through them.
You see that the political does
become the personal very often,
and there is distrust between
the women, not just the leaders,
but even the foot soldiers.
So that's something I hope
we can learn from and learn
that that is not
really productive.
But the idea of protest,
you know,
there are different
kinds of protests.
And Rebecca's book gives
enormous, tantalizing detail
about the great march
that was staged here,
right here in Washington,
in March 1913,
one of the biggest protests
in the early last stage
of the suffrage movement.
And Rebecca, you
can talk about that.
And then I'll just mention
how important protest is.
>> Rebecca Boggs Roberts: Yeah.
So, you know, we all
are Washingtonians.
You go down Pennsylvania
Avenue on any given day,
there's always a protest, right.
We think of it as just
a traffic headache.
But that idea of taking an issue
to the core of federal power,
marching very deliberately
from the legislative branch
to the executive branch, right
down Pennsylvania Avenue,
that was Alice Paul's idea.
Civil rights marches
were her idea.
She brought that presence here.
And, you know, the research is
so great because she kept trying
to get the permit for
Pennsylvania Avenue,
and the police chief was
really not down with that plan,
in part because she
wanted to coincide
with the Wilson's inauguration.
The parade would be March 3rd
and Wilson's inauguration
would be March 4th.
And the police force was
sort of stretched thin
with the inauguration coming up.
And the end of Pennsylvania
Avenue
where Freedom Plaza is now,
where the National Theater is,
like 12, 13th street
was Rum Row.
So he thought, you know,
a bunch of women marching
in the street plus thin
police force plus booze equals
bad news.
And he kept saying things
like how about 16th Street.
You can still end at
the White House, right.
And Alice Paul didn't
want the safe,
leafy street of Shepherd Park.
She wanted to march down
the middle of the quarters
of federal Washington.
And the other part of the
story, I mean, it is amazing
that she was that bold.
It was pretty transgressive
for women to march
on the streets in 1913.
It was not something
nice girls did.
The organization level
is extraordinary.
The women had matching costumes.
But also, she was such a
great publicity manager.
I mean, she managed
to plant stories
in newspapers all
over the country.
She thought through how
things would look in pictures.
There was this whole sort of
tortured allegory of a tableau
on the treasury steps that had
very little to do with suffrage.
But, boy, are those
pictures amazing.
You can find them all here.
And she just was such a pro
about how all of that worked.
And now, we look back and,
you know, we look back
through the lens of history
if it's a hundred years ago,
all that, but they
were really thorough.
Today, as activists today,
think what they would do
with social media, right.
All those banners are tweets.
>> Elaine Weiss: Exactly.
And all those photographs.
There's an enormous
collection here at the library,
which is so valuable
to both of us.
It's called Women of Protest.
And it is the photographic
record of the women's party,
which Alice Paul knew this
was going to be important.
And she has pictures of
every woman who is serving
at headquarters, which was
right on Lafayette Square right
across from the White House.
No accident that that's where
their headquarters would be.
And this is a wonderful,
wonderful picture
from that collection when the
36th state was finally won.
And in my book, I tell
you how close it comes
to not being ratified at all.
So we shouldn't take
for granted that just
because we have this
wonderful moment right now,
that Congress finally after 40
years has passed the amendment.
It now has to go and be ratified
by three-quarters of the states
of the union, which was 36th
of the time, the 48 states.
It's a terrible fight.
It was not easy at all.
The first few come in very
early, which is Wisconsin
and Illinois and Michigan.
But then it begins to slow down.
And it's a very,
very difficult fight.
But what this shows is Alice
Paul, again, a publicity ploy,
would sew -- She called herself
the Betsy Ross of ratification.
And she would sew a
star on that banner
in the women's party colors
for each state they ratified.
And on August 18th,
when Tennessee finally does
just ratify by the smallest
of margins, she puts the
36th star, and she unfurls it
on Jackson Place, which
was the headquarters then.
And this is this
wonderful picture
of the women's party
members and workers saluting.
And then there's
another picture of her
at that a few moments later when
she's toasting the ratification.
Yes. Now you know that
that is not champagne.
Prohibition's in effect.
And she didn't drink.
But you know that that
grape juice is really,
really sparkling.
But again, the idea
of protests coupled
with political strategy
I think is what comes
through for us as researchers.
And here, we could find not only
these wonderful photographs,
not only the historic
newspapers,
which the library has
digitized, which is an enormous,
enormous gift to any
researcher or writer.
I can look up what was
being said in Kingsport,
Tennessee in the summer of 1920,
from the comfort of my home.
So this is important resources,
but also there's letters,
the letters that we find here
in the manuscript collection,
which we read on microfilm.
We don't touch them.
We don't, you know, soil them.
Your eyes do begin to cross when
you've read a lot of microfilm.
But what we find is
this idea that, yes,
we're going to protest, we're
going to be in the streets.
We are going to write our
congressmen and senators.
We are going to lobby.
We are going to keep files.
There was opposition research,
very sophisticated
opposition research
that the suffragists were
able to have in their offices.
So they knew exactly
which representative
was beholden to whom.
They used these sophisticated
political tools in conjunction
with the in-the-streets kind of
publicity gathering protests.
And I think that's
important to realize.
Again, we have two groups
on different tracks,
but they are complementing
one another.
And when young people ask me
what can the suffrage movement
teach us, I think it's
that there is a place,
an important place,
for nonviolent protests
and of course, the
kind of techniques
that the suffragists pioneered,
the marches, the pickets,
the using test cases to go up to
the Supreme Court, legal cases.
Those would be used by the
civil rights movement later
in the 20th and in
the 21st century.
>> Rebecca Boggs Roberts: So I
would say yes, take the lessons
of nonviolent protests.
Vote all the time, even
in a weird off your
school board elections,
and learn the history,
learn it here;
learn it in the exhibit;
learn it in our book.
And thank you so much for
being here and having us.
[ Applause ]
>> Carla Hayden: Thank you both.
That was wonderful.
And we would like to
show our gratitude
with a few special
gifts, being brought
in by ladies you
might recognize.
These are framed facsimiles
from the library's collection,
the official program of the
Women's Suffrage Procession
that was held on that
day, March 3rd, 1913.
And you can see that we've
come a long way, baby.
>> Rebecca Boggs Roberts: Wow.
>> Carla Hayden: So thank
you, thank you both.
Really appreciate it.
>> Elaine Wiess:
Thank you so much.
>> Rebecca Boggs Roberts:
This is extraordinary.
Thank you.
>> Carla Hayden: Thank you both.
>> Elaine Wiess: Thank you.
[ Applause ]
>> Carla Hayden: And before --
This has been a wonderful
evening.
And before, we've talked
a lot about the exhibition
and told you some
things about it.
We were able to have Congressman
Lawrence be reassured
that the role of
African-American women
and their struggle is well
represented in the exhibition.
And so, we will invite
everyone upstairs to see it
and enjoy another reception.
And on the way up to the
mezzanine, you'll be serenaded
by the cast of the musical 19.
It's a dynamic show that tells
the stories of the suffragettes
who were the women who
fought for our right to vote.
And so, to end before we
make it to the exhibition,
it is my honor to welcome
to the stage speaker
Nancy Pelosi [applause].
[ Applause ]
>> Nancy Pelosi: Good evening.
Thank you [applause].
Thank you all very much.
What a wonderful,
wonderful evening and program
to hear Becca and Elaine talk
about the research they
have done, the appreciation
that they have, and to
make it possible for --
Hello, hello, how are you?
The future.
So here we are.
On May 21st, we passed
the 19th Amendment,
giving women the right to vote,
in the House of Representatives.
We regaled that day by
Senator Barbara Mikulski,
who boasted of her
service in the House
and in the Senate [applause],
and Kay Coles James.
So thank you, madame
chair on the committee.
Thank you.
And I know you have heard
from some of our colleagues,
including Brenda Lawrence
from the House, and others.
I don't know everyone
who was here,
so I don't want to
go down that path.
But House and Senate women.
Now here we are.
Here we are seated in
the Library of Congress.
In this Congress, we have
over 100 women serving
for the first time, 100 women
serving at the same time,
[applause] in the Congress
that will observe
the 100th anniversary
of the 19th Amendment
being ratified.
Pretty exciting,
and in a congress
and this anniversary happening
when we have the first
woman librarian of Congress.
[ Applause ]
Thank you, Carla Hayden, and,
from Baltimore, Barbara
Mikulski.
And I take special pride in the
Baltimore roots of Dr. Hayden.
Congratulations to you.
So you've heard so much about
the work of the suffragettes.
Imagine their courage.
They were starved.
They did starve.
They had to, shall we
say, break with family
in certain instances,
leave home.
Imagine the courage they had.
But they knew their why.
They knew their purpose.
They knew what they wanted
to achieve, and they knew how
to get it done, and
Dr. Hayden referenced,
whether it was court
cases or marches
or whatever it was
to get it done.
What an example to
the rest of us.
We stand on their shoulders.
I'm very proud that the first
partner of California is here.
Where is she?
Jen Siebel Newsom.
Very proud of her role
on the commission.
And I was telling her yesterday,
so you have to undergo it again
today, a couple of the stories
that I like to tell
and my colleagues.
I know Jan Jakowski has heard
these stories so many times.
But when we decided, when
we took house a while back,
we decide that we were going
to, shall we say, add some color
to the House of Representatives,
the statues and the rest,
Rosa Parks, Sojourner
Truth, Helen Keller,
even adding women, et cetera.
So the day we dedicated the bust
of Sojourner Truth,
it was a big deal.
We had newly opened
our Emancipation Center
in the Visitors Center
of the Congress.
And so, more people
than could ever fit
in the rotunda showed
up, thousands of people,
for this important
occasion to recognize,
as Dr. Carla Hayden has
mentioned, the role women
of color and a suffragist
movement.
And so, what was memorable about
that day was that it happened
to be the beginning of
the Obama administration.
And Michelle Obama honored
us with her presence.
And she said this: She was
talking about how wonderful
and remarkable, I mean,
Sojourner Truth is beyond,
I mean, just beyond,
just superhuman,
all the things that she did.
But after she talked about
that, she said I just can't help
but think how happy
Sojourner Truth would be
to see a woman speaker
of the House,
but I can't even imagine what
she'd be thinking to seeing me,
Michelle Obama, the first
lady of America [applause].
How far we have come.
How far we have come.
And our colleagues
who were there
when we celebrate
the 21st will have
to undergo my telling
my favorite story,
which many of you have heard,
but it's my suffragist story
and so I'm sticking with it.
And it's this.
When I went to my first meeting
as leader to the White House,
meeting with the president
of the United States
and the leadership of the
House and Senate, Democratic
and Republican, maybe like
10 people at the table.
Well, I wasn't very apprehensive
of going to the meeting
because Barbara Mikulski
can tell you,
as an appropriator,
you're there a lot.
And as intelligence
and appropriations,
I didn't even give it a thought.
I was just going to a
meeting at the White House.
Another meeting at
the White House.
And poor Becca, you have
to undergo this again.
I'm sorry, my darling.
I've known her since she was a
baby, and I'm so proud of her.
So, in any event, we go to -- A
door opens going to the meeting
and I realized this
meeting is not
like any meeting
I've ever been before
in the White House before.
In fact, it's not like any
meeting any woman has been
at the White House before
because there it was, president,
vice president, House, Senate,
Democratic leader [inaudible].
And so, I sat down thinking,
wow, no woman has ever --
Women have been at
cabinet meetings,
and that's a wonderful thing.
It's a fabulously
wonderful thing,
but your presence there is
derivative of the person
at the head of the table.
But this is different.
The president is there.
You're there as the
representative
of a co-equal branch
of government selected
by your colleagues.
So I go in there.
I sit down ever gracious,
President Bush, just as lovely
as he could be, welcoming
and that.
And while he was speaking,
I was sitting in my chair.
I was all squeezed in.
I couldn't figure out
what was happening.
I was all crowded on my chair.
I was squeezed in.
And then I realized,
Sojourner Truth, Lucretia Mott,
Elizabeth Cady Stanton,
you name it, Alice Paul,
they were all right there on
the chair with me [applause].
And, no, then they said, I
could hear them say, at last,
we have a seat at the table.
[ Applause ]
And then they were gone,
and then they were gone.
Imagine all the time
since they started
and then finally the vote came,
and then all those
many years later
to have a seat at the table.
And as soon as they said that,
my first thought
is we want more.
We want more.
And that's what we do.
We want more.
But this is just
a wonderful time
in our country's history when,
whether it's at the archives
or the Smithsonian and now
the Library of Congress.
I'll tell you Barbara's story.
We were at the Smithsonian
Institution
and they're having the opening
of their display exhibit.
And we were told to wear white.
Barbara didn't wear
a white jacket.
But she said -- That night.
Today, she does.
She said the last time
I wore a white jacket,
I failed chemistry.
[ Laughter ]
She did say that.
I don't believe she
failed chemistry.
We went to the same high school.
I'm not sure she
ever failed anything.
But any event, we
stand on the shoulders
of these really remarkable
people
who did something
so historic really.
And, you know, our founders,
they were entrepreneurial
and brave and courageous
and the rest.
But their families weren't
saying don't do that
and you should stay home and
cook or anything like that.
These women had to
overcome the personal,
as well as the political,
as well as the official.
So we stand on some
pretty broad shoulders.
We understand that
responsibility,
my women colleagues here, Brenda
and Jan, too, whom I have seen,
understand the shoulders that we
stand on and that others stand
on our shoulders, and may we be
worthy, worthy of the tradition
that we are so much a part
of and helping us appreciate
that tradition further as
the Library of Congress
in such a very special way.
So thank you, Dr. Hayden, for,
once again, taking the lead,
having us understand our
history, being the custodian
of our values and our history,
and making it available
to so many people in our
country to appreciate and enjoy,
and that they shall
not be denied.
Thank you, all, very much.
[ Applause ]