| Woman speaking on the legacy of the women's suffrage movement | ||
|---|---|---|
| This clip is not available for streaming at this time. Please contact WPA. | Tape Master: | 261 |
| Catalog #: | 501431 | |
| Clip Number: | 501431-1 | |
| Orginal Film: | ||
| Timecode: | 00:04:43 - 00:07:18 | |
| Location: | United States | |
| Year Shot: | 1940 (Estimated Year) | |
| Audio: | Yes | |
| Color: | No | |
| Headings: | CIVIL RIGHTS: Women, Suffragettes LOCATIONS/NORTH AMERICA: USA POLITICS: Public Address (Speech) | |
| Description: | MCU "Unknown Suffragette," woman speaking, "I've often been asked by young women today who find it hard to realize that there was ever a time when women couldn't vote, why it was that it took so long to get the vote? They seem to think that we were very negligent that we didn't finish off with the job in a few years or a few months. When you stop to think about it, what the suffragists were asking for, asking of men was that those men should give up one half of all their political power. Now, men thought that was no small demand. And in addition to the ordinary objection and difficulty of inertia and prejudice that all great reforms or changes have to face, the effort to secure the vote women had to endure ever increasing hostility of self seeking politicians and of all the entrenched private interests that likes the status quo and feared the possible results of a double directorate. Only the persistent courage of suffrage workers and the incomparable leadership under which their campaigns were planned made possible that final victory. And bear in mind that that victory was the greatest extension of suffrage ever made at one time by any country not in the throes of a revolution. (clapping) And bear in mind still more firmly that that extension of suffrage to one half the people of the United States is the greatest vindication of the democratic principle that we know in history because it was the greatest proof that under a democratic form of government enormous changes can be wrought by peaceful methods." | |
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