Read aloud this quote from historian Lisa Tetrault, associate professor of history at Carnegie Mellon University and author of The Myth of Seneca Falls: Memory and the Women’s Suffrage Movement, 1848–1898. She is featured in the The Soul of America’s Interview Archive:

“We tell stories about the past. . .to make sense of who we are in the present, and what our priorities should be, and what other people’s priorities should be, who matters, who therefore deserves to have power, who ought to be getting more power, who’s been overlooked, people who are in the silences. All of that is about the present. It’s not really about the past. What facts from the past we choose to highlight says something about who we are.”—Lisa Tetrault

In pairs, have students interview one another to answer the following questions: 

*What does this quote mean to you?

*What do you know about how women gained the right to vote?

*Why does the right to vote matter?

*What questions might you ask to deepen your understanding of the story, including as Lisa Tetrault says, “who matters… and who’s been overlooked.”

Watch a clip from The Soul of America about women’s suffrage

Teacher Note: Distribute “Handout One: Women’s Suffrage Note Catcher” to help students watch the film clip actively and with critical eyes. Review the Note Catcher questions with students before showing the clips to give students a sense of what to watch for.

This clip introduces students to Alice Paul as a leader in the suffrage movement, the successful strategies the movement undertook to effect change, the exclusion of women of color from the movement, and ultimately, the ratification of the 19th Amendment. 

Watch: 

1:13:50 - 1:20:30 (6:35 mins)

Begins: “Alice Paul started a direct campaign…”

Ends: “That’s a caution to us today because we’re no different.” 

After watching the clip, offer students a few minutes to finish the questions on their note catchers.

Note Catcher Questions:

*As you are watching, write down the names of activists, events, and organizations that you hear about or see in the clip.

*Who is against the right to vote for women and why?  

*What do you learn about Alice Paul as a leader of the movement?

*If you could ask her a question about any of her decisions, what would it be?

*What does the decision to exclude women of color from suffrage tell us about race in America at the turn of the 20th century?

In order to analyze the historical evidence presented in the film, students will investigate excerpts from The Interview Archive and primary resources to investigate one of the suggested topics below.

They will prepare to present back to the class on the following questions: 

1. How is the topic relevant to the history presented in the film clip? 

2. What did you learn in your investigations that deepens or changes your understanding about the Suffrage March of 1913, or the women’s suffrage movement overall? 

3. Whose perspectives were illuminated in your investigation, and how did they differ from one another? Which perspectives are in need of more investigation?

As they conduct their research, encourage students to record data such as an author’s citations, and the names of other people, places, or events mentioned, and use those to further their research. To facilitate this, transcripts of the suggested excerpts from The Interview Archive are included in Handouts Two and Three.

The suggested evidence for each topic is meant as an introduction, and students are encouraged to use what they learn to seek out further evidence and information.

As students are reviewing the primary resources ask them to assess the historical evidence using the following questions as guidance:  

*Where and when is the evidence from?

*Who wrote or produced it?

*Why was it produced?

*Do we know anything about the context in which it was produced?

Topic One: 

The Roots of the Suffrage Movement - 19th Century, Beginnings of Suffrage’s Narrative

Suggested Resources:

Interview Archive Material

Lisa Tetrault (01:17:24:21 - 01:22:29) Split in Suffrage Movement over 15th Amendment, and Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony’s Suffrage Narrative

Or

“Inventing Women’s History 1880-1886,” Chapter 4., Tetrault, L. The Myth of Seneca Falls, The University of North Carolina Press, Chapel Hill, NC, 2014, pp 112-144.

National Women’s History Museum: Crusade for the Vote Primary Resources Set

Topic 2: Tension Within the Movement

Suggested Resources:

Interview Archive Material

Lisa Tetrault (1:06 - 1:09:53) Fractures within social movements,  1:38:22:19-1:44:38  “Carrie Chapman Catt”-”Complexity of the struggle”

Ida B. Wells’ Recollections (Chicago Tribune)

https://suffrage2020illinois.org/2020/02/02/for-the-future-benefit-of-my-whole-race-ida-b-wells-and-the-alpha-suffrage-club/

Alice Paul’s Oral History: 

http://content.cdlib.org/view?docId=kt6f59n89c;NAAN=13030&doc.view=frames&chunk.id=d0e151&toc.depth=1&toc.id=d0e151&brand=calisphere

(p. 131 under the heading: 1914 - The Formative Year)

Discuss as a class or assign as a short reflective writing assignment:

How does the story of the women’s suffrage movement in the early 1900s support Jon Meacham’s historical argument about the “soul of America”? Identify a social movement that is active today? What is its goal? What are its tactics and strategies? What does it reveal about our worst instincts and our better angels?