“I waited 96 years to vote for a woman president”

Photo: A statue of the Frederick Douglass, Susan B. Anthony and others at the 1848 Seneca Falls Convention can be seen at the Women's Rights National Historical Park in Seneca Falls, N.Y. Keith Ewing | Flickr/Creative Commons

“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.” Thus reads the 19th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, which passed on August 18, 1920, when Tennessee became the 36th state to ratify the amendment, giving it the two-thirds majority of state ratification necessary to make it the law of the land. The record of the action was sent by train to the nation’s capital, arriving in the early hours of August 26. At 8 a.m. Secretary of State Bainbridge Colby signed it without ceremony.

That was 96 years ago. Now there are thousands of women born before that date (!) who are proudly casting their ballots for the candidate they hope will become the first woman president of the United States. One is Chicagoan Beatrice “Bea” Lumpkin, long-time People’s World writer.

A new website features photos and mini-profiles of these women, who are all now in their upper 90s and past the century mark. They live in more than half of the states.

Witnesses to a century of history, these voters are an essential reminder of our nation’s possibilities as we strive to form a more perfect union.

Here is the site to click on for these wonderfully inspiring stories.

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CONTRIBUTOR

Eric A. Gordon

Eric A. Gordon, People’s World Cultural Editor, wrote a biography of radical American composer Marc Blitzstein and co-authored composer Earl Robinson’s autobiography. He has received numerous awards for his People's World writing from the International Labor Communications Association. He has translated all nine books of fiction by Manuel Tiago (pseudonym for Álvaro Cunhal) from Portuguese, available from International Publishers NY.