WEBVTT - Elisabeth Griffith: Author of "Formidable" 0:00:04.760 --> 0:00:06.920 Well. One way to simplify it is to say that 0:00:07.000 --> 0:00:10.520 white women wanted the same rights as white men. They 0:00:10.560 --> 0:00:15.760 wanted political access, education, employment. Black women had a much 0:00:15.800 --> 0:00:19.840 deeper and larger and broader agenda, So they were fighting 0:00:20.120 --> 0:00:23.599 for even more than just the rights that white women enjoyed. 0:00:23.640 --> 0:00:27.240 They wanted to protect their entire communities and in much 0:00:27.240 --> 0:00:34.640 more dangerous circumstances. That was historian Elizabeth Griffith talking about 0:00:34.640 --> 0:00:38.800 her new book Formidable, American Women and the Fight Free 0:00:38.880 --> 0:00:43.839 Quality from nineteen twenty to twenty twenty. It looks at 0:00:43.840 --> 0:00:47.640 American women struggle for their rights from a perspective we 0:00:47.840 --> 0:00:51.559 usually don't see. I'm a land Ververe and this is 0:00:51.600 --> 0:00:55.560 senecas one women to hear. We are bringing you one 0:00:55.600 --> 0:00:59.680 hundred of the world's most inspiring and history making women 0:01:00.080 --> 0:01:04.160 you need to hear. Elizabeth Griffith is an expert on 0:01:04.240 --> 0:01:09.920 women's history. Her biography of suffragists Elizabeth Katie Stanton in 0:01:10.000 --> 0:01:14.200 her own right, was the basis of Ken Burns documentary 0:01:14.360 --> 0:01:19.240 on Stanton and Susan B. Anthony Not for Ourselves Alone. 0:01:19.840 --> 0:01:24.800 The New York Times called Formidable, engaging and relevant, noting 0:01:24.840 --> 0:01:29.240 that it delivers a multi racial inclusive timeline of the 0:01:29.319 --> 0:01:34.840 struggles and triumphs of both black and white women. Listen 0:01:34.840 --> 0:01:38.440 and learn why Elizabeth Griffith and the women who fought 0:01:38.480 --> 0:01:45.720 for equality are among Seneca's one Women to Hear. I'm 0:01:45.760 --> 0:01:51.920 speaking today with historian, author, and educator Elizabeth Griffith. Betsy, Welcome. 0:01:51.960 --> 0:01:54.680 We're so delighted to have you with us. Thank you. 0:01:54.760 --> 0:01:57.160 I'm delighted to be here now. You and I have 0:01:57.320 --> 0:01:59.600 had the pleasure of knowing each other for many years, 0:02:00.200 --> 0:02:03.800 and I must say I always greatly value your expertise 0:02:03.880 --> 0:02:06.640 on the struggle for women's equality in the United States, 0:02:07.000 --> 0:02:10.920 so I'm doubly delighted to have this conversation. I'm thinking 0:02:11.000 --> 0:02:14.600 we met when Um, the First Lady was preparing to 0:02:14.680 --> 0:02:17.440 go to Seneca Falls, uh in the middle of the 0:02:18.040 --> 0:02:21.280 nineteen nineties to celebrate the anniversary the hundred and fiftieth 0:02:21.280 --> 0:02:26.000 anniversary of the Seneca Fall Falls Women's Rights Convention. Exactly. 0:02:26.080 --> 0:02:30.800 Seneca Falls brings us together always. It's a wonderful, wonderful 0:02:30.840 --> 0:02:35.280 part of America's history that continues today. So let's talk 0:02:35.360 --> 0:02:40.200 about your new book, Formidable American Women in the Fight 0:02:40.280 --> 0:02:45.360 Free Quality nineteen twenty to twenty twenty. It covers a 0:02:45.440 --> 0:02:48.959 hundred years now. You know, there was a lot written 0:02:48.960 --> 0:02:52.760 about women's suffrage in on the hundredth anniversary of the 0:02:52.840 --> 0:02:57.959 nineteenth Amendment. What has been missing from all those previous 0:02:58.160 --> 0:03:02.679 suffrage histories that have vot evading you to write this book. Well, 0:03:02.680 --> 0:03:05.400 they were histories of the suffrage movement, how we got 0:03:05.440 --> 0:03:09.440 the vote, all vital parts of American history. But my 0:03:09.600 --> 0:03:12.359 question was what did we do after we got it? 0:03:12.880 --> 0:03:15.600 The question I wanted to answer was how did women 0:03:15.760 --> 0:03:18.760 use the vote if they were able to? What were 0:03:18.760 --> 0:03:22.359 their causes, what were their issues and what kept them 0:03:22.400 --> 0:03:27.720 from advancing? And what conclusions did you come to? Just 0:03:27.960 --> 0:03:31.200 very briefly before we go into lots of different questions, 0:03:31.880 --> 0:03:37.800 American women, change agents, reformers, these progressive, brave women were 0:03:37.800 --> 0:03:42.520 divided throughout our history by race and segregation. Women who 0:03:42.520 --> 0:03:47.240 ought to have been allies, educated, change agent, brave women 0:03:47.640 --> 0:03:51.120 could not work together because of the times and the 0:03:51.240 --> 0:03:56.240 issues dividing them. Specifically, White and black women had different 0:03:56.320 --> 0:04:02.040 agenda items, different priorities, different realities, and different strategies. And 0:04:02.120 --> 0:04:05.080 so can we talk about some of those divisions or 0:04:05.200 --> 0:04:08.520 differences in the struggles that Black women and white women 0:04:08.640 --> 0:04:12.080 undertook during this hundred year period. Well, one way to 0:04:12.120 --> 0:04:15.200 simplify it is to say that white women wanted the 0:04:15.240 --> 0:04:20.560 same rights as white men. They wanted political access, education, employment. 0:04:21.160 --> 0:04:24.760 Black women had a much deeper and larger and broader agenda. 0:04:24.839 --> 0:04:29.320 It was really community wide, beginning with um ending lynching 0:04:29.440 --> 0:04:32.560 and securing the safety of their communities. That was not 0:04:32.640 --> 0:04:36.040 only safety against violence, but it was safety against shabby 0:04:36.160 --> 0:04:40.479 educational systems. You know, no sewers, no playgrounds, all of 0:04:40.600 --> 0:04:45.640 the ways that Jim Crow post Civil War reconstruction had 0:04:45.720 --> 0:04:50.120 damaged African Americans. So they were fighting for even more 0:04:50.440 --> 0:04:53.279 than just the rights that white women enjoyed. They wanted 0:04:53.320 --> 0:04:58.000 to protect their entire communities and in much more dangerous circumstances. 0:04:58.560 --> 0:05:02.239 And their client was a much harder climb in many 0:05:02.279 --> 0:05:05.480 ways given what they were up against, and in some 0:05:05.520 --> 0:05:08.120 ways they were more successful than white women because white 0:05:08.120 --> 0:05:11.040 women go into the nineteen twenties thinking, you know, they 0:05:11.080 --> 0:05:14.520 won the vote, the world is open, everything will advance 0:05:14.640 --> 0:05:17.560 for them, and it and it does for maybe the 0:05:17.640 --> 0:05:22.640 first congressional term, and then white men um in charge 0:05:22.680 --> 0:05:24.680 of the Congress and the Senate figure out that white 0:05:24.720 --> 0:05:27.279 women are not turning out to vote in large numbers. 0:05:27.320 --> 0:05:30.240 In nineteen twenty two or twenty four, twenty six of 0:05:30.320 --> 0:05:34.279 the advances that were passed relating to maternal and infant health, 0:05:34.320 --> 0:05:39.280 related to education and prison reform were reversed, were defunded, 0:05:39.279 --> 0:05:43.799 were defeated, so that by nineteen thirty one journalist rights 0:05:44.440 --> 0:05:49.120 the nineteenth Amendment promised almost everything and accomplished almost nothing. 0:05:49.720 --> 0:05:54.320 And then the combination of the depression UM interesting issues 0:05:54.360 --> 0:05:59.200 about observations about women and sexuality sort of depressed women's 0:05:59.240 --> 0:06:02.760 organizational efforts in the thirties. There's a revival in the 0:06:02.839 --> 0:06:05.719 forties with the Rosie for that the Rosie the riveter, 0:06:05.920 --> 0:06:09.599 and the Second World War benefited all women, black, white, 0:06:09.640 --> 0:06:14.680 everybody else, UM. But then white women UM again sort 0:06:14.720 --> 0:06:20.880 of surrender to stereotypic expectations. But meanwhile, black women, much 0:06:20.960 --> 0:06:24.320 less publicly, not covered in the news, not in the headlines, 0:06:25.640 --> 0:06:28.800 working out of church basements, or as agricultural agents, or 0:06:28.839 --> 0:06:32.040 as public health nurses, or as teachers or just neighbors 0:06:32.040 --> 0:06:36.680 and communities are trying very hard to advance civil rights UM. 0:06:36.720 --> 0:06:41.679 One registration by another, one literate person after another UM, 0:06:41.720 --> 0:06:44.680 and they are at risk of great reprimand if their 0:06:44.720 --> 0:06:48.560 activities are discovered, but their support. They're joining the n 0:06:48.600 --> 0:06:50.839 Double A c P. They're joining the League of Women 0:06:50.920 --> 0:06:54.359 voters where they weren't in a segregated state, and they're 0:06:54.440 --> 0:06:59.760 pushing uh the advances that will culminate in the fifties. UM, 0:07:00.080 --> 0:07:02.960 lot of it driven by the Double A CP Legal 0:07:03.000 --> 0:07:06.279 Defense Fund, including obviously led by Third Good Marshal, but 0:07:06.600 --> 0:07:10.000 supported by Constance Baker Motley. You've got Pauli Murray working 0:07:10.040 --> 0:07:12.160 behind the scenes, and you have a lot of women 0:07:12.200 --> 0:07:15.120 who've been in church basements now coming forward. There the 0:07:15.160 --> 0:07:18.320 women who will lead the Montgomery bus boycott. They're the 0:07:18.360 --> 0:07:22.800 women who will um support the integration of Central High 0:07:22.800 --> 0:07:26.000 School in Little Rock. There's a lot going on. And 0:07:26.040 --> 0:07:30.000 then finally, sort of around nineteen sixty into the nineteen sixties, 0:07:30.480 --> 0:07:33.240 white women are paying attention to what's happening to black women, 0:07:33.280 --> 0:07:36.200 white reformers, and they begin to think we need to 0:07:36.520 --> 0:07:38.640 we need to be supporting them, and we need to 0:07:38.680 --> 0:07:42.440 be asking questions about our own status as well. So 0:07:42.480 --> 0:07:45.600 the sixties, as you and I will remember, maybe not you, 0:07:45.760 --> 0:07:48.960 I remember, um, uh, you know, you've got the civil 0:07:49.080 --> 0:07:52.480 rights movement boiling. You've got the women's rights movements simmering, 0:07:53.040 --> 0:07:56.760 you have the anti war movement exploding. Um, so you've 0:07:56.760 --> 0:07:59.280 got a lot going on that will have impact on 0:07:59.480 --> 0:08:02.680 the country history in the seventies and eighties. Such a 0:08:02.760 --> 0:08:08.600 wonderful abbreviated perspective on all of this. So we're do 0:08:08.880 --> 0:08:12.119 Hispanic and Latina women come into this tell us about 0:08:12.160 --> 0:08:14.960 their struggle? Well, it's it's There are lots of other 0:08:15.000 --> 0:08:17.480 women who are on whom I did not focus as 0:08:17.520 --> 0:08:19.560 fully as I did on white and black women, because 0:08:19.600 --> 0:08:22.480 that seems to me be the central struggle in American history. 0:08:22.920 --> 0:08:25.400 But in addition to Hispanic and Latino women, there are 0:08:25.440 --> 0:08:28.960 Native American women, and Jewish women and Asian women. But 0:08:29.040 --> 0:08:32.920 to answer your immediate question, Hispanic women obviously have been 0:08:32.920 --> 0:08:37.559 in this country since fifteen twenty three and have pursued 0:08:38.040 --> 0:08:41.080 different routes. A lot of them literate, but a lot 0:08:41.120 --> 0:08:44.240 of them kept in a more um, I almost want 0:08:44.320 --> 0:08:48.040 to say convent like tradition of upbringing. But by the 0:08:48.160 --> 0:08:51.559 by the twentieth century, women are pulling ahead. The first 0:08:51.640 --> 0:08:54.680 woman in elected office, the first Hispanic women in elected office, 0:08:54.720 --> 0:08:58.839 is Soladad Chevez de Chakonne, who became Secretary of State 0:08:58.920 --> 0:09:02.240 of New Mexico in nineteen twenty two, and in that 0:09:02.400 --> 0:09:06.040 role ended up substituting for the governor for almost a month. 0:09:06.080 --> 0:09:09.720 So she's she's not even technically the first woman, a 0:09:09.760 --> 0:09:11.839 Hispanic woman to be a governor, because there was a 0:09:11.920 --> 0:09:15.120 Hispanic woman in a similar role in Oregon in nineteen 0:09:15.160 --> 0:09:18.680 oh six who first served in the role of governor, 0:09:19.320 --> 0:09:23.480 and since then there's been two other Hispanic governors, one 0:09:23.520 --> 0:09:28.400 a Republican, one a Democrat. Now, of course Michelle Luhan Grisham, 0:09:28.760 --> 0:09:31.640 but and and all of these women were in New Mexico, 0:09:31.800 --> 0:09:36.760 which is such historically deeply rooted state and experience. But 0:09:36.880 --> 0:09:40.000 you've got Native American women pushing for citizenship and voting 0:09:40.080 --> 0:09:43.400 rights because they were not covered by the nineteenth Amendment UM, 0:09:43.440 --> 0:09:46.560 nor were people with Asian immigrant roots were not UM 0:09:46.640 --> 0:09:50.320 did not become technically citizens until nineteen forty three, and 0:09:50.400 --> 0:09:53.760 other Asian Americans not until the nineteen fifties. But it's 0:09:53.760 --> 0:09:56.520 Patsy Mink who will be the first person of colors 0:09:56.640 --> 0:10:00.559 to serve in the Congress as an Asian American Pacific islander. 0:10:01.040 --> 0:10:04.359 And I do want to note just the longstanding contributions 0:10:04.400 --> 0:10:08.080 of Jewish women, UM from the colonial period. They are 0:10:08.160 --> 0:10:11.920 always reformers, they are always progressives. They are always having 0:10:11.960 --> 0:10:16.360 to confront discrimination. Those women's organizations like the Women's Christian 0:10:16.360 --> 0:10:19.640 Temperance Union or the a u W. We're not only 0:10:19.800 --> 0:10:24.000 excluding blacks, they were excluding Jewish women, and one in particular, 0:10:24.440 --> 0:10:29.479 Hannah Stone will become the medical director for Margaret Sanger's 0:10:29.520 --> 0:10:33.280 birth control clinics, playing a huge role. UM. Jewish women 0:10:33.280 --> 0:10:36.559 were well represented in the medical profession in the first 0:10:36.600 --> 0:10:39.400 half of this century as they are now, but with 0:10:39.440 --> 0:10:42.720 such discrimination that they frequently did not get on hospital 0:10:43.040 --> 0:10:51.880 rights and admission into medical professional organizations. Senecas one hundred 0:10:51.880 --> 0:10:54.400 women to hear, will be back after the short break 0:11:04.840 --> 0:11:08.320 you mentioned the sixties. Tell us about your own involvement 0:11:08.400 --> 0:11:11.800 in the women's movement and how, if at all, that 0:11:11.960 --> 0:11:16.360 shaped your perspective on Formidable Well. I I graduated from 0:11:16.400 --> 0:11:20.240 a women's college, and my classmates and I agree that 0:11:20.280 --> 0:11:23.520 we were very lucky to come into adulthood on the 0:11:23.559 --> 0:11:27.240 cusp of this rebirth of the women's movement when so 0:11:27.320 --> 0:11:30.640 much was going on. So I came to Washington, first 0:11:30.720 --> 0:11:34.440 as a congressional intern and then UM as a graduate student. 0:11:34.679 --> 0:11:37.280 And was recruited by another well as the classmate to 0:11:37.400 --> 0:11:41.800 participate in the National Women's Political Caucus, and I've always enjoyed. 0:11:42.200 --> 0:11:45.040 I've always thought of myself as a more political person 0:11:45.240 --> 0:11:48.679 than a protest personal though I've certainly marched my fair share, 0:11:49.160 --> 0:11:50.760 but I think you have to be the kind of 0:11:50.760 --> 0:11:53.520 person who's actually counting the votes, which is why I 0:11:53.559 --> 0:11:57.240 admire carried Chapman cat more than Alice Paul during the 0:11:57.280 --> 0:12:00.480 suffrage fight. From the caucus, I went of the Women's 0:12:00.520 --> 0:12:04.160 Campaign Fund, which was a forerunner of Emily's List, back 0:12:04.160 --> 0:12:08.840 when you could fund both Democratic and Republican feminists. But 0:12:09.000 --> 0:12:12.199 those our country became so partisan, and the Republican Party 0:12:12.240 --> 0:12:16.720 deserted its feminist and civil rights and environmental and all those, 0:12:16.920 --> 0:12:19.680 um you know, all the reproductive rights that it used 0:12:19.679 --> 0:12:23.079 to support, and the parties divided so dramatically that then 0:12:23.120 --> 0:12:25.720 you needed groups that were going to support one side 0:12:25.800 --> 0:12:28.640 or the other. But I've done my share of training 0:12:28.640 --> 0:12:32.960 women candidates and working for female legislation. But then really 0:12:32.960 --> 0:12:35.920 I'm a historian at heart, so I've been teaching and 0:12:35.960 --> 0:12:39.480 writing women's history as another way for people to learn 0:12:39.520 --> 0:12:43.000 about social change. That it's been a great combination having 0:12:43.040 --> 0:12:47.280 had that personal history of deep engagement. Uh, and then 0:12:47.320 --> 0:12:51.120 your great expertise as an historian giving us a lens 0:12:51.200 --> 0:12:53.480 on all of this a lot if I could just interrupt, 0:12:53.520 --> 0:12:56.080 because I know that that that you're so engaged and 0:12:56.120 --> 0:12:59.720 focused on the whole Seneca Falls Convention as an organizing 0:12:59.720 --> 0:13:04.760 prince siple in ninetee when the National Women's Political Caucus 0:13:04.840 --> 0:13:08.920 organized there. There are variations of its creation myth, and 0:13:08.960 --> 0:13:11.680 one of them claims that it was founded on Mount 0:13:11.760 --> 0:13:15.360 Vernon Campus college here in Washington, in a chapel in 0:13:15.400 --> 0:13:18.600 the middle of July, and none of the people who 0:13:18.600 --> 0:13:22.480 were there would have made the connection to Seneca Falls 0:13:22.880 --> 0:13:26.480 in a chapel in the middle of July, because none 0:13:26.520 --> 0:13:28.840 of us knew the women's history which is helping to 0:13:28.880 --> 0:13:33.880 fuel us forward today. So fascinating and how important it 0:13:33.960 --> 0:13:36.720 is that we know that history. Thank you for mentioning 0:13:36.720 --> 0:13:41.600 that your book covers a wide variety of struggles by women, 0:13:41.720 --> 0:13:46.400 some of which you've touched on already, from voting rights, healthcare, 0:13:46.480 --> 0:13:51.280 equal pay, etcetera. Do you think among these various issues 0:13:51.400 --> 0:13:56.000 there is a most pressing issue for women today. Yes, 0:13:56.320 --> 0:13:59.560 I'm with Ruth Bader Ginsburg about if women do not 0:14:00.040 --> 0:14:04.960 of reproductive rights, they don't have agency over their bodies 0:14:05.040 --> 0:14:07.960 and the ability to make decision about whether or when 0:14:07.960 --> 0:14:11.760 to have children and whether or when to end a pregnancy, 0:14:11.800 --> 0:14:14.560 they will never be equal. So I think, for all 0:14:14.600 --> 0:14:18.560 the advances we've made in the last century, since nineteen twenty, 0:14:19.120 --> 0:14:21.200 and some of those advances didn't take us as far 0:14:21.240 --> 0:14:24.000 as we assume were in a way back to ground zero. 0:14:24.600 --> 0:14:28.240 If we cannot regroup and secure these rights for every 0:14:28.240 --> 0:14:32.440 American woman in every state, then we are facing a 0:14:32.480 --> 0:14:38.600 dire future. Indeed, so you mentioned a number of these 0:14:38.640 --> 0:14:44.400 extraordinary women in our history as Americans, or some of 0:14:44.440 --> 0:14:48.280 the forgotten or overlooked figures that we might not know 0:14:48.560 --> 0:14:53.600 much about, but that you will have featured Informidable Uh, 0:14:53.680 --> 0:14:56.280 And obviously you think should be better known because you've 0:14:56.280 --> 0:14:59.040 included them in your new book. I already had a 0:14:59.080 --> 0:15:01.520 PhD when I started writing this book, and I feel 0:15:01.560 --> 0:15:04.600 the research I did should earn me another one, because 0:15:04.640 --> 0:15:07.800 like a lot of white Americans, I do not know 0:15:08.000 --> 0:15:11.560 enough African American history, and I'm a little bit reassured 0:15:11.600 --> 0:15:14.880 when I speak to groups of black women that they 0:15:14.920 --> 0:15:19.520 don't they don't necessarily recognize all these names immediately either um, 0:15:19.560 --> 0:15:21.240 So I think there are a lot of lessons for 0:15:21.320 --> 0:15:23.800 us to learn too. I might name there's a woman 0:15:23.880 --> 0:15:28.600 named Julia Cooper who was as active a feminist writer 0:15:28.680 --> 0:15:31.600 and philosopher at the end of the nineteenth century as 0:15:31.680 --> 0:15:34.920 was Elizabeth Katie stand Um. She wrote a book called 0:15:35.000 --> 0:15:39.000 Voice of the South in eighteen ninety two, and she's 0:15:39.040 --> 0:15:42.640 really laying out a case for black feminism. I'd never 0:15:42.680 --> 0:15:45.120 heard of that book before, and now I note more 0:15:45.200 --> 0:15:47.520 and more when I'm traveling that there are schools named 0:15:47.520 --> 0:15:49.640 for her, and I never would have thought to ask 0:15:49.720 --> 0:15:53.880 who she was. A story I particularly like is about 0:15:53.880 --> 0:15:57.280 a woman named Septum mcclark. She would have been an 0:15:57.280 --> 0:16:00.800 adult in the thirties, forties, fifties, and sixties. She was 0:16:00.840 --> 0:16:03.560 trained as a teacher and was working for the Charleston, 0:16:03.600 --> 0:16:07.320 South Carolina School System, which was a segregated system, so 0:16:07.400 --> 0:16:10.880 even with her advanced degrees, she was teaching in the shabbiest, 0:16:11.000 --> 0:16:15.320 least resourced schools um and being paid less. So she 0:16:15.440 --> 0:16:18.080 brings a suit in cooperation with the n double a 0:16:18.120 --> 0:16:20.400 CP to make sure that black and white teachers are 0:16:20.440 --> 0:16:23.160 paid the same, no matter where they are teaching, and 0:16:23.240 --> 0:16:26.440 she's fired um and then the state of South Carolina 0:16:26.480 --> 0:16:29.240 passes a law saying no teacher, no state employee can 0:16:29.240 --> 0:16:31.680 be a member of the Double A CP. So she 0:16:31.800 --> 0:16:35.480 leaves South Carolina and loses her pension, loses all of 0:16:35.480 --> 0:16:39.520 her sort of accrued reputation and assets. She moved to 0:16:39.560 --> 0:16:42.440 Tennessee and participates in the Highlanders School, which will play 0:16:42.480 --> 0:16:45.080 a huge role in the civil rights movement that had 0:16:45.120 --> 0:16:48.640 begun as a labor organizing center. But in the summer 0:16:48.680 --> 0:16:52.080 before the Montgomery bus boycott. Rosa Parks is a student 0:16:52.120 --> 0:16:57.280 of Septem mcclark at Vota Citizenship Freedom School. Eventually, the 0:16:57.320 --> 0:16:59.920 state of Tennessee will shut it down as a communist front, 0:17:00.320 --> 0:17:04.720 and she will join the Southern Christian Leadership Conference with 0:17:04.840 --> 0:17:09.800 Dr King and lead citizenship education programs Throughout the sixties. 0:17:09.840 --> 0:17:13.200 She is the woman who organizes Freedom Summer in Mississippi. 0:17:13.520 --> 0:17:17.879 She's credited with registering seven hundred thousand black voters between 0:17:17.960 --> 0:17:21.960 nineteen sixty and nineteen seventy. And here's the best part. 0:17:22.520 --> 0:17:26.000 She retires. She returns to Charleston. She runs for the 0:17:26.040 --> 0:17:29.680 school board and wins a seat and a Republican governor 0:17:30.359 --> 0:17:34.359 make sure that her pension is reinstituted. So some of 0:17:34.400 --> 0:17:37.720 these stories do not end in violence and disaster. Some 0:17:37.960 --> 0:17:42.760 end in good behavior. Well that's heartening, and how wonderful 0:17:42.800 --> 0:17:46.480 to hear about black women's leadership over this period, which 0:17:46.480 --> 0:17:49.920 continues to today. So it's great to hear there's so 0:17:50.000 --> 0:17:54.400 much about these women in your book. You know, I've 0:17:54.440 --> 0:17:58.800 known you as the headmistress of Madeira School, among other things, obviously, 0:17:59.680 --> 0:18:02.240 which is a wonderful school for girls in the Washington, 0:18:02.320 --> 0:18:05.960 D c. Area, And I wonder what you would want 0:18:06.440 --> 0:18:11.040 your former students and actually girls everywhere to take from 0:18:11.040 --> 0:18:14.600 your book. Well, I'm confident that Madure girls are getting 0:18:14.600 --> 0:18:19.240 a very deep education in American history and world history 0:18:19.240 --> 0:18:22.160 as well. But I but I believe all students need 0:18:22.560 --> 0:18:26.320 to be grounded in American history and civics lessons, and 0:18:26.359 --> 0:18:30.240 I don't think that that's happening equitably across the country. 0:18:30.440 --> 0:18:33.720 We cannot shy away from the reality of our history. 0:18:33.760 --> 0:18:37.600 We cannot worry about being made uncomfortable. That's how people learn, 0:18:37.800 --> 0:18:40.040 and we need to learn the lessons of our past. 0:18:40.119 --> 0:18:43.080 So I hope all young people have an opportunity to 0:18:43.160 --> 0:18:47.320 learn women's history, black history, immigrant history. All of this 0:18:47.400 --> 0:18:50.040 is part of our history. Is not just about old 0:18:50.119 --> 0:18:53.720 white men who may have been heroic but not always. 0:18:54.480 --> 0:18:57.520 And I particularly think it's important for young people to 0:18:57.640 --> 0:19:02.280 find in history role models. These could be again of whatever, 0:19:02.880 --> 0:19:06.119 finding their own identity. And these characters in the past, 0:19:06.240 --> 0:19:08.560 and there are many, we just need to bring them 0:19:08.560 --> 0:19:13.000 to light because I think in those historic actors young 0:19:13.040 --> 0:19:18.520 people find examples of courage and fortitude of integrity. I 0:19:18.600 --> 0:19:23.240 am just awed by these women. You may have read 0:19:23.240 --> 0:19:25.600 in the book that I took myself on a road 0:19:25.640 --> 0:19:30.320 trip across the South to visit various civil rights sites 0:19:30.359 --> 0:19:35.240 and memorials, and in every place people had died, people 0:19:35.240 --> 0:19:39.080 had been tortured, people had been murdered to get civil 0:19:39.200 --> 0:19:43.840 rights for themselves and to expand civil rights for all Americans. 0:19:44.440 --> 0:19:49.760 Those un named, many of them um forgotten. People need 0:19:49.840 --> 0:19:53.040 to be remembered every time. Every time anybody thinks they 0:19:53.119 --> 0:19:55.560 might not go out and vote because it's raining, they 0:19:55.600 --> 0:19:58.280 need to remember that women were forced fed for this right, 0:19:58.359 --> 0:20:00.919 that black people died for this right, that we have 0:20:01.040 --> 0:20:05.560 an obligation as citizens to really participate in this democracy. 0:20:05.680 --> 0:20:08.320 So that's what I want people to think about well, 0:20:08.359 --> 0:20:12.320 and that's such a good reminder of how important it 0:20:12.520 --> 0:20:16.639 isn't on whose shoulders we all stand in many many ways, 0:20:17.760 --> 0:20:20.000 you know, I think this is a perfect segue to 0:20:20.280 --> 0:20:25.360 our a last last question. Because you've seen so much, 0:20:25.400 --> 0:20:30.439 You've experienced much, you've studied history. You've just opened our 0:20:30.560 --> 0:20:34.280 eyes to so many other chapters in this new book 0:20:34.480 --> 0:20:37.679 that we may not have been familiar with. I wonder 0:20:37.760 --> 0:20:41.720 in all of that, what gives you optimism? What makes 0:20:41.760 --> 0:20:44.399 you hopeful? Because there's so much in our country, in 0:20:44.400 --> 0:20:49.159 our world today that makes people feel less hopeful. I 0:20:49.200 --> 0:20:51.800 have to say, Allen, after I just saw you recently 0:20:51.920 --> 0:20:56.240 in Little Rock, where Secretary Clinton convened a women's summit. 0:20:56.800 --> 0:21:00.640 I've been quite inspired because the program included so many 0:21:00.680 --> 0:21:03.320 young people, a bunch of impressive people our age and 0:21:03.480 --> 0:21:06.600 younger grown ups I would call them. But these young 0:21:06.760 --> 0:21:10.880 change agents, these young people who are so comfortable with 0:21:11.040 --> 0:21:15.359 inclusion and diversity, who don't see the differences that we 0:21:15.480 --> 0:21:18.119 might have grown up having had pointed out to us, 0:21:18.359 --> 0:21:22.280 who make very easy coalitions, and who already already proving 0:21:22.560 --> 0:21:25.720 how effective they can be about gun control legislation or 0:21:25.720 --> 0:21:28.720 about climate change. I of course, hope they turned their 0:21:28.760 --> 0:21:31.760 sites under reproductive rights. But I think it's caught everybody 0:21:31.800 --> 0:21:34.800 by surprise thinking that the Court would ever overthrow a 0:21:34.800 --> 0:21:39.080 fifty year precedent. But um, I'm really much more optimistic 0:21:39.119 --> 0:21:41.320 about the future than I might have been had I 0:21:41.400 --> 0:21:44.160 not taught young people and worked with them, and then 0:21:44.520 --> 0:21:50.520 been exposed to them so effectively at the Clinton Center summit. Well, 0:21:50.560 --> 0:21:54.840 that's a wonderful way to conclude that optimistic note. I 0:21:54.880 --> 0:21:58.800 can't thank you enough for being with us today for 0:21:59.040 --> 0:22:04.600 your inspiration for your new book, Formidable American Women and 0:22:04.640 --> 0:22:11.080 the Fight Free Quality nine. The journey continues, and I 0:22:11.119 --> 0:22:14.280 know it continues with you as well. Thank you so much, 0:22:14.520 --> 0:22:21.919 Elizabeth Griffith for being with us today. Thank you what 0:22:22.080 --> 0:22:26.560 a different and important focus on women's history. There are 0:22:26.600 --> 0:22:31.399 three things I took from that eye opening conversation. First, 0:22:31.720 --> 0:22:35.199 the passage of the nineteenth Amendment, which gave women the 0:22:35.280 --> 0:22:38.920 right to vote, was only the beginning, not the end, 0:22:38.960 --> 0:22:43.320 of women's fight free equality. In fact, its passage was 0:22:43.400 --> 0:22:50.720 followed by setbacks for women's issues like maternal health and education. Second, 0:22:51.240 --> 0:22:55.280 black women's struggle for equality was certainly much harder than 0:22:55.359 --> 0:23:00.600 that for white women. Yet they remained undeterred. As Elizabeth 0:23:00.640 --> 0:23:06.160 Griffith says, black women were organizing, working out of church basements, 0:23:06.200 --> 0:23:11.600 and we're a driving force in the civil rights movement. Finally, 0:23:12.280 --> 0:23:16.399 it's inspiring to learn about the forgotten women of American history. 0:23:17.320 --> 0:23:22.000 Think about women like Julia Cooper, a nineteenth century philosopher 0:23:22.440 --> 0:23:27.440 who wrote Voice of the South, a Call for Black Feminism, 0:23:27.520 --> 0:23:32.560 or Septi mcclark, a black teacher and education reformer who 0:23:32.640 --> 0:23:38.520 also registered seven hundred thousand black voters between nineteen sixty 0:23:38.640 --> 0:23:43.800 and nineteen seventy. To learn more, pick up a copy 0:23:43.840 --> 0:23:49.960 of Formidable American Women and the Fight Free Equality nine twenty, 0:23:52.960 --> 0:23:55.200 and tune in next time to hear about our next 0:23:55.240 --> 0:23:59.640 featured woman and discover why she's one of Seneca's one 0:24:00.119 --> 0:24:04.080 ed Women to Hear. Seneca's one hundred Women to Hear 0:24:04.160 --> 0:24:07.159 is a collaboration between the Seneca Women Podcast Network and 0:24:07.200 --> 0:24:10.720 I Heart Radio, with support from founding partner PNG. Have 0:24:10.840 --> 0:24:12.280 a Great Day,