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August 26th marks 100 years since Congress ratified the 19th amendment to the Constitution, guaranteeing women’s right to vote. The amendment states, “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.” Unfortunately, the amendment was not implemented equally, and many states created laws and other impediments that continued to deny women the vote. African American women were subjected to the same Jim Crow laws that had already been used to deny African American men the vote.
The movement for women’s suffrage began early in the 19th century, and was closely connected to the movement for the abolition of slavery. Senator Kamala Harris’s selection as Joe Biden’s running mate, is a consequence, however late, of these early, intersectional struggles for freedom and equality. Harris is the first vice presidential nominee of a major party to be a woman of color, as well as the daughter of immigrants. Her father, Stanford economist Donald. J. Harris, is from Jamaica and her mother, cancer researcher Shyamala Gopalan, was of Tamil ... Read More →
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