Celebrating 100 years since the 19th Amendment to the US Constitution is something to be thankful for! No social movement is without its challenges and contradictions.
A HOLIDAY MESSAGE FROM MARGUERITE KEARNS
“Learning about the women’s suffrage movement hasn’t without its challenges. For me in my writing, this has involved what to include in my writing and what to leave out for reasons of space, reasonable privacy concerns, as well as the compromises and utter frustration of some activists working for generations without expected results. Winning voting rights was extremely difficult in its time.
“Over the 20th century, many attitudes have shifted. The winning of the 19th Amendment to the US Constitution was generally marginalized and not considered relevant when I was attending school. When I started blogging in 2009, most folks had no idea what I was talking about when I used the word ‘suffrage.’ Their eyes glazed over. Many people yawned in my face.
“I blogged until I found others like me who wanted to reverse the silence, secrets, and marginalization. I had an amusing term for others like me—cradle rockers. The year 2020 is astonishing in terms of what many Americans are learning and thinking about. The decentralized and once radical movement of women’s voting rights has taken on a life of its own.”
Marguerite Kearns
“An Unfinished Revolution: Edna Buckman Kearns and the Struggle for Women’s Rights” is in the publishing pipeline by SUNY Press (State University of New York) for release in June 2021.
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