The upcoming 2020 national suffrage centennial is getting closer. One way to tell is the appearance of first wave women’s rights activists like Alice Paul appearing in a major network show, “Timeless.” She is framed for murder and needs a top woman Sherlock type to bail her out. It’s the second season of “Timeless,” episode 7.
Alice Paul is identified as being responsible, due to her persistence, with the passage and ratification of the 19th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. Alice herself wouldn’t have insisted on the credit. Many tens of thousands of women across the nation participated in the agitation for decades.
And Alice Paul wouldn’t have called herself a “suffragette,” which is part of the TV promotion for the show, even though she did work in England with the suffrage movement there. American activists would have more likely called themselves “suffragists” than “suffragettes.”
It is about time that the entertainment industry recognizes a part of American history that has been marginalized for most of the 20th century. We’ll be hearing more about these courageous activists as 2020 approaches when U.S. women will have been voting for 100 years.
Follow SuffrageCentennials.com. We have been publishing since 2013. The UK is celebrating its suffrage centennial in 2018. Image is from “Timeless” publicity.
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