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The Keeping Quilt, by Patricia Polacco (EngageNY P-12 Text List

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The Keeping Quilt, by Patricia Polacco (EngageNY P-12 Text List

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Anna, came to America from Russia.  The only things Anna brought with her to America were her dress and her babushka.  Anna's mother made a quilt out of her dress and babushka, along with some items of clothing of other relatives.  This quilt was used on many different occasions, and was passed down to other generations for years.
https://www.scholastic.com/teachers/books/the-keeping-quilt-by-patricia-polacco/

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The Red Umbrella, by Christina Diaz Gonzalez

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The Red Umbrella, by Christina Diaz Gonzalez

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This book follows Lucia and her little brother, all the way from Cuba, to Nebraska.  Their parents decide to send them to the United States by themselves because of communism taking place in Cuba.
https://www.scholastic.com/teachers/books/the-red-umbrella-by-christina-diaz-gonzalez/

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The Orphan of Ellis Island, by Elvira Woodruff

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The Orphan of Ellis Island, by Elvira Woodruff

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Dominic Cantori, an orphan, does not want his classmates who are touring Ellis Island, to know that he is, in fact, an orphan.  He hides in a closet, and falls asleep, only to find that when he wakes up, he is in Ellis Island, and it is closed.  He begins picking up phones, each with different recorded stories of the immigrants.  When he picks up one of these phones, it will take him back in time to Italy in the year, 1908.
https://www.scholastic.com/teachers/books/the-orphan-of-ellis-island-by-elvira-woodruff/

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Hannah receives a diary for her birthday.  When she persuades her mother and father to allow her to go to America, she takes her diary with her and documents her journey.
https://www.scholastic.com/teachers/books/hannah-s-journal-by-marissa-moss/

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Emma's New Beginning, by Jessica Gunderson

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Emma's New Beginning, by Jessica Gunderson

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This is a story of the struggles, and hardships Emma and her family face as they travel from Russia to America.  Emma's encounter with these struggles also helps to explain the stories of other immigrants who endured the same struggles.
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/26460031-emma-s-new-beginning

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Marisia and her brother, Stefan, are left to their own devices in the United States, when their sister and parents are turned away because their sister is diagnosed with Tuberculosis.
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/24233554-streets-of-gold

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Rebekah Levinsky, Kristin Swensen, and Rose Carney, three young, immigrant girls become friends as they journey to America.  However, once they arrive, they are separated, and realize that their thoughts of the future were far from what they had imagined.
https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/122251/land-of-hope-by-joan-lowery-nixon/9780440215974/

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The New Colossus by Emma Lazarus | Poetry Foundation

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Not like the brazen giant of Greek fame,

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Kids learn about the immigration station Ellis Island near New York City including when it opened, how many people came through Ellis Island, passing inspections, and interesting facts. Educational article for students, schools, and teachers.

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From 1892 to 1954 Millions of immigrants were processed through Ellis Island. This is a collection of documents that pertain to a 65 year-old Lithuanian immigrant, Barbara Vitkiene, who arrived at Ellis Island in 1923 including the Immigrant Inspection Card, Immigrant ID Tag and passenger manifest extracts and images.

Holland-America Line Inspection Card (Third Class Passengers)

This was a Certificate or Inspection Card used by the U.S. Immigration Service for Immigrants which indicated that they were vaccinated, disinfected and passed daily health inspections during the voyage across the Atlantic. The immigrant was instructed to "Keep this Card to avoid detention at Quarantine and on Railroads in the United States." The quoted message was written on the back side in 7 languages (English, German, French, Dutch, Spanish, Polish, and ??)

Immigrant Outer-Garment ID Tag

Each immigrant received an Immigration ID Card that was attached by a string to their outer garment and was worn throughout their inspection process at Ellis Island.

Steamship Line: Holland-America Line

Vessel: T.S.S. Rijndam (often referred to as the "Ryndam")

Route: from Rotterdam, Date: 26 September 1923 (Arrived in New York 6 October 1923)

Passenger List: Manifest Sheet No. 5, List No. 6
Name of Passenger and address of destination
Barbara Vitkiene

c/o son: John Vilkins, 264 N. Chicago Street,, Kenosha, Wisconsin

A Quick Lesson on Lithuanian Surnames

In Lithuanian, female surname ending change based on their marital status while male spellings stay the same.

All married female surname spellings end in IENE. In Barbara's case, her surname spelling indicates she is Mrs. Barbara Vitkus.

Unmarried female spellings end in AITE, UTE (circa 1900 IUTE), or YTE depending how the surname ending is spelled.

An unmarried female with the surname of VITKUS would become VITKUTE (or VITKIUTE using an older spelling version).

- Lithuanian Name Change information submitted by Tom Sadauska

When landing at New York, this card to be attached to the coat or dress of the passenger in a prominent position.

Message above repeated in 9 other languages.

Port of Departure: Rotterdam Date of Departure: 26 September 1923
(Arrived in New York on 6 October 1923 - Page 217 Morton Allan Directory)

Name of Ship: Rijndam I (1901) (Capacity of 286 First Class; 196 Second Class and 1,800 Third Class / Steerage Passengers)

Name of Passenger: Barbara Vitkiene

Last Residence: Kowlisky, Lithuania

Inspected and Passed at Rotterdam: United States Public Health Service

Passed at Quarantine, Port of [New York]

Passed by Immigration Bureau, Port of [New York]

Stamped by U.S. Public Health Service, Long Island, NYC 11 October 1923

Berth No. [Left Blank]

Steamship Inspection: 10 Holes Punched by Ship's Surgeon at Daily Inspection.

Manifest Sheet No. 5 List No. 6 (See Below)

Aliens entering buildings for examination by surgeons of the U. S. Public Health Service after having been transferred from arriving ocean liner by steamboat.

Information of Immigration Documents

Document Name: Inspection Card

Dimensions: 16.6 x 12.5 cm

Document Name: Immigration ID Tag - Outer Garment

Dimensions: 11 x 14.7 cm

Length of String: Approximately 32 cm

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Ellis Island Immigrant Document Collection | GG Archives

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From 1892 to 1954 Millions of immigrants were processed through Ellis Island. This is a collection of documents that pertain to a 65 year-old Lithuanian immigrant, Barbara Vitkiene, who arrived at Ellis Island in 1923 including the Immigrant Inspection Card, Immigrant ID Tag and passenger manifest extracts and images.

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ellis island video of immigrants speaking - Yahoo Video Search Results

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The search engine that helps you find exactly what you're looking for. Find the most relevant information, video, images, and answers from all across the Web.

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TeacherTube - A Virtual Voyage to Ellis Island

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Is anyone in your family an immigrant?
What country did they come from?
Why do you think it was so difficult for them?

If you had to leave your home and move to a different country, what do you think it would be like?

Is there anything you would want to take with you?  Why would you want to take it with you?

How do you think you would feel if you had to leave your family and friends behind?

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Create a Voice Thread video clip explaining your favorite character from these books.  Explain why this is your favorite character.  What traits does this character have and why are those traits important?

GoogleDocs collage, using pictures of different items you would want to take with you on your journey to a new country.

Create a Wordle of different terms, sentences from these books, and vocabulary words from one, or all of these books. These words should be meaningful to you and should describe the different traits of these characters and the traits of other immigrants.

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If You Were a Kid During the Civil Rights Movement, by Gwendolyn Hooks

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If You Were a Kid During the Civil Rights Movement, by Gwendolyn Hooks

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This story is about Joyce Jenkins, a girl who will be going to a segregated school.  Joyce and Connie are in the midst of a civil rights march, and bring everyone along for the ride.
https://shop.scholastic.com/parent-ecommerce/books/if-you-were-a-kid-during-the-civil-rights-movement-9780531230985.html

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Sophie is visiting her family's property in Louisiana, which she does not know was a former plantation. Sophie is mistaken for a biracial child because she is tan, and undergoes the mistreatment as such.
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/11013228-the-freedom-maze

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The Youngest Marcher, by Cynthia Levinson

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The Youngest Marcher, by Cynthia Levinson

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This is a story of a very brave, nine-year-old, Audrey Faye Hendricks. She stood up for what was right, and although she was just a young girl, was imprisoned for taking a stand.
http://www.simonandschuster.com/books/The-Youngest-Marcher/Cynthia-Levinson/9781481400701

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Child of the Civil Rights Movement, by Paula Young Shelton

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Child of the Civil Rights Movement, by Paula Young Shelton

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Paula Young, daughter of Andrew Young, a civil rights activist, tells a story of a girl growing up around prominent civil rights leaders, and wound up taking part in the march from Selma to Montgomery.
https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/165601/child-of-the-civil-rights-movement-by-paula-young-shelton-illustrated-by-raul-colon/9780385376068

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Dave the Potter: Artist, Poet, Slave, by Laban Carrick Hill

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Dave the Potter: Artist, Poet, Slave, by Laban Carrick Hill

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Dave, a former slave, is an artist. He carves his poetry into the different pots he carves. His poetry tells of the struggles he endured as a slave
https://www.scholastic.com/teachers/books/dave-the-potter-by-laban-carrick-hill/

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Frederick Douglass, Fights for Freedom, by Margaret Davidson

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Frederick Douglass, Fights for Freedom, by Margaret Davidson

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This biography tells the story of Frederick Douglass. Although he was born into slavery, he escaped, found freedom, and fought to free all men and women from slavery
https://www.scholastic.com/teachers/books/frederick-douglass-fights-for-freedom-by-margaret-davidson/

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Henry is a young slave who has no idea how old he is, but one thing he does know is that he yearns for freedom. When he grows up and has a family, his family is also sold into slavery. He is eventually able to find freedom, and celebrates.
https://shop.scholastic.com/teachers-ecommerce/teacher/books/henrys-freedom-box-9780545057400.html

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On August 28, 1963, Martin Luther King Jr., delivered a speech to a massive group of civil rights marchers gathered around the Lincoln memorial in Washington DC. The March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom brought together the nations most prominent civil rights leaders, along with tens of thousands of marchers, to press the United States government for equality.

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Read 796 reviews from the world's largest community for readers. "Please, God, try to forgive those people. Because even if they say those bad things, They...

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We Shall Overcome - Sing For Freedom: The Story of Civil Right Movement through Its songs

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What do you think about the way African American men, women and children were treated because they looked different?

How would you feel if you had to use different water fountains, bathrooms, school buildings, and waiting rooms just because you were different?

Do you think you would join a march? Why or why not?

If you had to pick one word to describe the men, women and children we read about, what would that word be? Why?

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Create a "Freedom" poster that you would have used in one of the civil rights marches.

Create a Flipgrid post that tells about three people or events that you feel were most important to you, then explain why?

Make a Glogster that you believe summarizes everything we've learned about civil rights.  Be sure to include different men, women, and children, pictures, video or audio, and different quotes from our books that stood out to you.

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Marching with Aunt Susan: Susan B. Anthony and the Fight for Women's Suffrage, by Claire Rudolf Murphy

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Marching with Aunt Susan: Susan B. Anthony and the Fight for Women's Suffrage, by Claire Rudolf Murphy

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Bessie joins the march for women's suffrage when she attends a tea with Susan B. Anthony, after she is told she cannot go hiking with her brothers and father because she's a girl.
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/11515897-marching-with-aunt-susan

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Elizabeth Started all the Trouble, by Doreen Rappaport

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Elizabeth Started all the Trouble, by Doreen Rappaport

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This is a story of Elizabeth Cady Stanton, a progressive, educated mother of seven children, who along with four other women, ignited the women's right movement.
http://doreenrappaport.com/elizabeth-started-all-the-trouble/

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My Story: Suffragette, by Carol Drinkwater

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My Story: Suffragette, by Carol Drinkwater

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In 1909, Dollie disobeys those who are looking after her, by joining her other suffragettes in a march for Women's Rights to vote. However, things soon turn violent, women are going on hunger strikes and are being put in jail.
http://www.caroldrinkwater.com/books/suffragette

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Lillian's Right to Vote, by Jonah Winter

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Lillian's Right to Vote, by Jonah Winter

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As an elderly woman is on her way to vote, she remembers the hardships of her family members, and everything they did to earn themselves, and her the right to vote
https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/237857/lillians-right-to-vote-by-jonah-winter-illustrated-by-shane-w-evans/9780385390286/

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The Hope Chest, by Karen Schwabach (EngageNY P-12 Text List)

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The Hope Chest, by Karen Schwabach (EngageNY P-12 Text List)

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Violet is determined to reunite with her sister, Chloe. Her parents claim that Chloe turned into a different kind of person. However, she is soon standing with her sister, and other people who have the same goal in mind.
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/2457685.The_Hope_Chest

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This books takes readers on the imaginative journey of what is might've been like for Harriet Tubman, and Susan B. Anthony.
https://www.scholastic.com/teachers/books/chasing-freedom-by-nikki-grimes/

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Beginning in the mid-19th century, several generations of woman suffrage supporters lectured, wrote, marched, lobbied, and practiced civil disobedience to achieve what many Americans considered a radical change in the Constitution - guaranteeing women the right to vote. Some suffragists used more confrontational tactics such as picketing, silent vigils, and hunger strikes. Read more...

Primary Sources
Links go to DocsTeach, the online tool for teaching with documents from the National Archives.
Teaching Activities

Additional Background Information

In July 1848 Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Lucretia Mott organized the first women's rights convention in Seneca Falls, NY. The Seneca Falls Convention produced a list of demands called the Declaration of Sentiments. Modeled on the Declaration of Independence, it called for broader educational and professional opportunities for women and the right of married women to control their wages and property. After this historic gathering, women's voting rights became a central issue in the emerging debate about women's rights in the United States.

Many of the attendees to the convention were also abolitionists whose goals included universal suffrage - the right to vote for all adults. In 1870 this goal was partially realized when the 15th amendment to the Constitution, granting black men the right to vote, was ratified. Woman suffragists' vehement disagreement over supporting the 15th Amendment, however, resulted in a "schism" that split the women's suffrage movement into two new suffrage organizations that focused on different strategies to win women voting rights.

The National Woman Suffrage Association (NWSA) was formed by Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony in May of 1869 - they opposed the 15th amendment because it excluded women. In the year following the ratification of the 15th amendment, the NWSA sent a voting rights petition to the Senate and House of Representatives requesting that suffrage rights be extended to women and that women be granted the privilege of being heard on the floor of Congress.

The second national suffrage organization established in 1869 was the American Woman Suffrage Association (AWSA), founded by Lucy Stone, Julia Ward Howe, and Thomas Wentworth Higginson. The AWSA supported the 15th Amendment and protested the confrontational tactics of the NWSA. The AWSA concentrated on gaining women's access to the polls at state and local levels, in the belief that victories there would gradually build support for national action on the issue. While a federal woman suffrage amendment was not their priority, an 1871 petition, asking that women in DC and the territories be allowed to vote and hold office, from AWSA leadership to Congress reveals its support for one.

In 1890, the NWSA and AWSA merged into the National American Woman Suffrage Association (NAWSA). It became the largest woman suffrage organization in the country and led much of the struggle for the vote through 1920, when the 19th Amendment was ratified. Stanton became its president; Anthony became its vice president; and Stone became chairman of the executive committee. In 1919, one year before women gained the right to vote with the adoption of the 19th amendment, the NAWSA reorganized into the League of Women Voters.

The tactics used by suffragists went beyond petitions and memorials to Congress. Testing another strategy, Susan B. Anthony registered and voted in the 1872 election in Rochester, NY. As planned, she was arrested for "knowingly, wrongfully and unlawfully vot[ing] for a representative to the Congress of the United States." She was convicted by the State of New York and fined $100, which she insisted she would never pay. On January 12, 1874, Anthony petitioned Congress, requesting "that the fine imposed upon your petitioner be remitted, as an expression of the sense of this high tribunal that her conviction was unjust."

Wealthy white women were not the only supporters of women's suffrage. Frederick Douglass, formerly enslaved and leader of the abolition movement, was also an advocate. He attended the Seneca Falls Convention in 1848. In an editorial published that year in The North Star, the anti-slavery newspaper he published, he wrote, "...in respect to political rights,...there can be no reason in the world for denying to woman the elective franchise,..." By 1877, when he was U.S. marshal for the District of Columbia, Douglass's family was also involved in the movement. His son, Frederick Douglass, Jr.; daughter, Mrs. Nathan Sprague; and son-in-law, Nathan Sprague, all signed a petition to Congress for woman suffrage "...to prohibit the several States from Disfranchising United States Citizens on account of Sex."

A growing number of black women actively supported women's suffrage during this period. They organized women's clubs across the country to advocate for suffrage, among other reforms. Prominent African American suffragists included Ida B. Wells-Barnett of Chicago, a leading crusader against lynching; Mary Church Terrell, educator and first president of the National Association of Colored Women (NACW); and Adella Hunt Logan, Tuskegee Institute faculty member, who insisted in articles in The Crisis, a publication of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), that if white women needed the vote to protect their rights, then black women - victims of racism as well as sexism - needed the ballot even more.

In the second decade of the 20th century, suffragists began staging large and dramatic parades to draw attention to their cause. One of the most consequential demonstrations was a march held in Washington, DC, on March 3, 1913. Though controversial because of the march organizers' attempt to exclude, then segregate, women of color, more than 5,000 suffragists from around the country paraded down Pennsylvania Avenue from the U.S. Capitol to the Treasury Building.

Many of the women who had been active in the suffrage movement in the 1860s and 1870s continued their involvement over 50 years later. In 1917, Mary O. Stevens, secretary and press correspondent of the Association of Army Nurses of the Civil War, asked the chairman of the House Judiciary Committee to help the cause of woman suffrage by explaining: "My father trained me in my childhood days to expect this right. I have given my help to the agitation, and work[ed] for its coming a good many years."

During World War I, suffragists tried to embarrass President Woodrow Wilson into reversing his opposition and supporting a federal woman suffrage amendment. But in the heated patriotic climate of wartime, such tactics met with hostility and sometimes violence and arrest. Frustrated with the suffrage movement's leadership, Alice Paul had broken with the National American Woman Suffrage Association (NAWSA) to form the National Woman's Party (NWP). It employed more militant tactics to agitate for the vote.

Most notably, the NWP organized the first White House picket in U.S. history on January 10, 1917. They stood vigil at the White House, demonstrating in silence six days a week for nearly three years. The "Silent Sentinels" let their banners - comparing the President to Kaiser Wilhelm II of Germany - speak for them. Many of the sentinels were arrested and jailed in deplorable conditions. Some incarcerated women went on hunger strikes and endured forced feedings. The Sentinels' treatment gained greater sympathy for women's suffrage, and the courts later dismissed all charges against them.

When New York adopted woman suffrage in 1917 and President Woodrow Wilson changed his position to support an amendment in 1918, the political balance began to shift in favor of the vote for women. There was still strong opposition to enfranchising women, however, as illustrated by petitions from anti-suffrage groups.

Eventually suffragists won the political support necessary for ratification of the 19th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. For 42 years, the measure had been introduced at every session of Congress, but ignored or voted down. It finally passed Congress in 1919 and went to the states for ratification. In May, the House of Representatives passed it by a vote of 304 to 90; two weeks later, the Senate approved it 56 to 25.

Illinois, Wisconsin, and Michigan were the first states to ratify it. On August 18, 1920, it appeared that Tennessee had ratified the amendment - the result of a change of vote by 24 year-old legislator Harry Burn at the insistence of his elderly mother. But those against the amendment managed to delay official ratification. Anti-suffrage legislators fled the state to avoid a quorum, and their associates held massive anti-suffrage rallies and attempted to convince pro-suffrage legislators to oppose ratification. However, Tennessee reaffirmed its vote and delivered the crucial 36th ratification necessary for final adoption. While decades of struggle to include African Americans and other minority women in the promise of voting rights remained, the face of the American electorate had changed forever.
Materials created by the National Archives and Records Administration are in the public domain.

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Beginning in the mid-19th century, several generations of woman suffrage supporters lectured, wrote, marched, lobbied, and practiced civil disobedience to achieve what many Americans considered a radical change in the Constitution - guaranteeing women the right to vote. Some suffragists used more confrontational tactics such as picketing, silent vigils, and hunger strikes.

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Facts, information and articles about Women's Suffrage Movement, the struggle for the right of women to vote

Women's Suffrage summary: The women's suffrage movement (aka woman suffrage) was the struggle for the right of women to vote and run for office and is part of the overall women's rights movement. In the mid-19th century, women in several countries-most notably, the U.S. and Britain-formed organizations to fight for suffrage. In 1888, the first international women's rights organization formed, the International Council of Women (ICW). Because the ICW was reluctant to focus on suffrage, in 1904 the International Woman Suffrage Alliance (IWSA) was formed by British women's rights activist Millicent Fawcett, American activist Carrie Chapman Catt, and other leading women's rights activists.

Women's Suffrage In Europe

The first country to grant national-level voting rights to women was the self-governing British colony of New Zealand, which passed the Electoral Bill in September 1893. The British colony of South Australia granted full suffrage in 1894, giving women the right to vote and to stand for parliament. Australia federated in 1901 and country-wide women's suffrage followed quickly in 1902; however, women of Australia's indigenous people were specifically excluded until 1949, when the right to vote in federal elections was granted to all indigenous people. Remaining restrictions were abolished in 1962.

Other countries followed soon after New Zealand, with limited rights granted to women in Sweden, Britain, Finland, and some U.S. states by the early 20th century. When World War I began in 1914, many suffrage organizations shifted their focus to supporting the war effort, although some activists continued to fight for suffrage. Because of manpower shortages in warring countries, women took on many roles traditionally held by men and changed the dominant idea of what women were capable of doing, giving further momentum to the suffrage movement. Britain's Parliament passed the Eligibility of Women Act in November 1918, which allowed women to be elected to Parliament. Ten years later, the Representation of the People Act granted women the right to vote. Following a path similar to Britain's, many countries-Denmark, Iceland, the USSR, the Netherlands, Canada, Austria, Czechoslovakia, Poland, Sweden, Germany, Luxembourg, the United States-had granted the vote to women by 1920.

Other European countries did not grant women the right to vote until much later-Spain in 1931, France in 1944, and Belgium, Italy, Romania, and Yugoslavia in 1946. Later still were Switzerland (1971) and Liechtenstein (1984). In Latin America, national suffrage was granted to women between 1929 (Ecuador) and 1946 (Argentina). In Africa, the right to vote was generally conferred on both men and women as colonial rule ended and nations became independent-the same is true for India, which granted universal suffrage with its constitution in 1949. Middle Eastern countries granted women the right to vote after World War II, although some countries, such as Saudi Arabia, do not have suffrage at all or have limited suffrage and exclude women completely (Kuwait).

Women's Suffrage In the United States

The suffrage movement in the United States gained prominence with the first women's rights convention in the world: the Seneca Falls Convention in 1848. The convention was organized by Lucretia Mott and Elizabeth Cady Stanton, active members of the abolitionist movement who met in England in 1840 at the World Anti-Slavery Convention. In 1851, Stanton was introduced by a mutual friend to Susan B. Anthony, who was most active in the temperance movement at the time. The two would form a life-long friendship and collaboration focused on obtaining suffrage. They formed the Woman's National Loyal League in 1863 to support the Thirteenth Amendment to abolish slavery and to campaign for full citizenship for blacks and women.

The National Woman Suffrage Association

In 1869, with slavery abolished, a rift developed in the suffrage movement over how to gain suffrage. Anthony and Stanton founded the National Woman Suffrage Association (NWSA) and campaigned for a constitutional amendment for universal suffrage in America, and for other women's rights, such as changes in divorce laws and an end to employment and pay discrimination. Lucy Stone, Julia Ward Howe, and Josephine Ruffin formed the less-radical American Woman Suffrage Association (AWSA) to focus on obtaining suffrage for black men with the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments and on winning women's right to vote state-by-state, ignoring the broader rights the NWSA was campaigning for.

By the 1880s, it became clear that the two organizations would be more effective if they merged back into one group, so they formed the National American Women Suffrage Association (NAWSA) in 1890, with Stanton as president and Anthony as vice president. Stanton's position was largely honorary-she departed on a 2-year European speaking tour shortly after being elected, leaving Anthony as acting president. NAWSA was a national, parent organization to hundreds of local groups that campaigned solely for women's right to vote. However, NAWSA alienated the more radical activists like Stanton, Matilda Joslyn Gage, and Olympia Brown who were campaigning for broader rights along with the right to vote.

In the early 20th century, NAWSA restructured itself and shifted it's tactics, recruiting celebrities to draw attention to the cause, allying with local women's clubs and some labor unions, and raising money to train and pay organizers to canvass for votes and enlist new members. NAWSA held many parades and rallies to draw attention to their cause, with its members wearing white uniforms and carrying banners to draw crowds and reporters.

In 1914, Alice Paul and Lucy Burns became dissatisfied with the leadership and direction of the NWSA and formed the Congressional Union. Both women had assisted and learned from the British suffrage movement, which was much more radicalized and militant than the NWSA. England's more militant suffragists faced violent confrontations with authorities and jail sentences; some went on hunger strikes while imprisoned and were made to endure force-feedings to prevent them from dying behind bars, which might increase public sympathy for their cause.

The Congressional Union initially focused on putting pressure on the Democratic Party, which controlled both houses of Congress and the White House. In 1916, the organization was renamed the National Woman's Party (NWP) and began a more militant campaign for suffrage, picketing and holding demonstrations in front of the White House.

Carrie Chapman Catt, NAWSA president from 1900 to 1904 and 1915 to 1920, was Anthony's hand-picked successor as the driving force of the organization. She led the final push toward a constitutional amendment, setting up a publicity bureau in Washington, D.C., in 1916 to exert immediate, face-to-face pressure on Congressmen. At the beginning of World War I, the NWP criticized the government for supporting democracy abroad while denying women the right to vote at home-blatant hypocrisy, in their view. Chapman Catt publicly distanced herself and NAWSA from the NWP, calling their behavior unladylike and disapproving of the bad publicity they generated for the movement. In June 1917, NWP members were arrested on the technical charge of obstructing traffic. Arrests and jail time, hunger strikes and force-feedings would continue for activists until the Nineteenth Amendment was ratified.

Ratification Of The Nineteenth Amendment

Tennessee became the last battleground state for ratification. There, as in other Southern states, the woman's suffrage movement was inextricably linked in the minds of many with the abolition movement, and old animosities still simmered. In Dixie, even more than in other parts of the country, feminism ran counter to a culture in which conservative religion, tradition, and respect for the law was deeply engrained. Too, powerful lobbying groups including liquor distilleries-the temperance movement and women's rights movement had long been comrades in arms-textile manufacturers and railroads opposed expanding women's rights. Additional opposition came from state's rights advocates, some of whom wanted to see women get the right to vote but felt that should be dealt with at the state level, not the national. On August 18, 1920, the Tennessee legislature narrowly approved the 19th Amendment. On August 31, the Tennessee House of Representatives voted to rescind their previous vote, but the U.S. Secretary of State had already proclaimed the amendment ratified on August 26.

Women's right to vote was achieved through the national and local efforts of both the NAWSA and the NWP. The labor shortage caused by World War I that allowed women to move into roles traditionally held by men also made it increasingly difficult for opponents to argue that women were unworthy of the vote on the grounds of physical and mental inferiority. With the ratification of the Nineteenth Amendment in sight, Chapman Catt formed the League of Women Voters during NAWSA's last meeting on February 14, 1920, to help newly enfranchised women exercise their right to vote.

Articles Featuring Women's Suffrage Movement From History Net Magazines

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Facts, information and articles about Women's Suffrage Movement, the struggle for the right of women to vote Women's Suffrage summary: The women's suffrage movement (aka woman suffrage) was the struggle for the right of women to vote and run for office and is part of the overall women's rights movement.

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What Happened at the Seneca Falls Convention? | History

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Women's Rights Movement Begins

The campaign for women's suffrage began in earnest in the decades before the Civil War. During the 1820s and '30s, most states had extended the franchise to all white men, regardless of how much money or property they had.

At the same time, all sorts of reform groups were proliferating across the United States- temperance leagues, religious movements, moral-reform societies, anti- slavery organizations-and in many of these, women played a prominent role.

Meanwhile, many American women were beginning to chafe against what historians have called the "Cult of True Womanhood": that is, the idea that the only "true" woman was a pious, submissive wife and mother concerned exclusively with home and family.

Put together, all of these contributed to a new way of thinking about what it meant to be a woman and a citizen of the United States.

Seneca Falls Convention

In 1848, a group of abolitionist activists-mostly women, but some men-gathered in Seneca Falls, New York to discuss the problem of women's rights. They were invited there by the reformers Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Lucretia Mott.

Most of the delegates to the Seneca Falls Convention agreed: American women were autonomous individuals who deserved their own political identities.

"We hold these truths to be self-evident," proclaimed the Declaration of Sentiments that the delegates produced, "that all men and women are created equal, that they are endowed by their creator with certain inalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness."

What this meant, among other things, was that they believed women should have the right to vote.

Civil Rights and Women's Rights During the Civil War

During the 1850s, the women's rights movement gathered steam, but lost momentum when the Civil War began. Almost immediately after the war ended, the 14th Amendment and the 15th Amendment to the Constitution raised familiar questions of suffrage and citizenship.

The 14th Amendment, ratified in 1868, extends the Constitution's protection to all citizens-and defines "citizens" as "male"; the 15th, ratified in 1870, guarantees Black men the right to vote.

Some women's suffrage advocates believed that this was their chance to push lawmakers for truly universal suffrage. As a result, they refused to support the 15th Amendment and even allied with racist Southerners who argued that white women's votes could be used to neutralize those cast by African Americans.

In 1869, a new group called the National Woman Suffrage Association was founded by Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony. They began to fight for a universal-suffrage amendment to the U.S. Constitution.

Others argued that it was unfair to endanger Black enfranchisement by tying it to the markedly less popular campaign for female suffrage. This pro-15th-Amendment faction formed a group called the American Woman Suffrage Association and fought for the franchise on a state-by-state basis.

Gallery: The Progressive Campaign for Suffrage

This animosity eventually faded, and in 1890 the two groups merged to form the National American Woman Suffrage Association. Elizabeth Cady Stanton was the organization's first president.

By then, the suffragists' approach had changed. Instead of arguing that women deserved the same rights and responsibilities as men because women and men were "created equal," the new generation of activists argued that women deserved the vote because they were different from men.

They could make their domesticity into a political virtue, using the franchise to create a purer, more moral "maternal commonwealth."

This argument served many political agendas: Temperance advocates, for instance, wanted women to have the vote because they thought it would mobilize an enormous voting bloc on behalf of their cause, and many middle-class white people were swayed once again by the argument that the enfranchisement of white women would "ensure immediate and durable white supremacy, honestly attained."

Did you know? In 1923, the National Woman's Party proposed an amendment to the Constitution that prohibited all discrimination on the basis of sex. The so-called Equal Rights Amendment has never been ratified.

Winning the Vote at Last

Starting in 1910, some states in the West began to extend the vote to women for the first time in almost 20 years. Idaho and Utah had given women the right to vote at the end of the 19th century.

Still, southern and eastern states resisted. In 1916, NAWSA president Carrie Chapman Catt unveiled what she called a "Winning Plan" to get the vote at last: a blitz campaign that mobilized state and local suffrage organizations all over the country, with a special focus on those recalcitrant regions.

Meanwhile, a splinter group called the National Woman's Party founded by Alice Paul focused on more radical, militant tactics-hunger strikes and White House pickets, for instance-aimed at winning dramatic publicity for their cause.

World War I slowed the suffragists' campaign but helped them advance their argument nonetheless: Women's work on behalf of the war effort, activists pointed out, proved that they were just as patriotic and deserving of citizenship as men.

Finally, on August 18, 1920, the 19th Amendment to the Constitution was ratified. And on November 2 of that year, more than 8 million women across the United States voted in elections for the first time.

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Women's Suffrage - The U.S. Movement, Leaders & 19th Amendment

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The women's suffrage movement was a decades-long fight to win the right to vote for women in the United States. On August 26, 1920, the 19th Amendment to the Constitution was finally ratified, enfranchising all American women and declaring for the first time that they, like men, deserve all the rights and responsibilities of citizenship.

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As a girl, what are your thoughts about women's suffrage?

As a boy, What are your thoughts about women's suffrage?

Why do you think it was so important for women to be able to vote?

What if you were told that you couldn't do something because you were a boy or girl.  How would that make you feel?  Why do you think you would feel that way?
Would you do anything to change that? Why or why not?

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Imagine you were a boy or girl during the time of women's suffrage.  Create a post on Flipgrid persuading congress to pass or not pass the 19th amendment, which would give women the right to vote.  In your post, be sure to explain your reasons why or why not.

Using GoogleDocs, create a slide show of different information you've learned about women's suffrage.  Be sure to include the different women, their names, and what they did to fight for women's right to vote.

On Voice Thread, make a video post that explains how things are for women now because of women like Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton and the passing of the 19th Amendment vs what they would've been like if the 19th Amendment would not have been passed.

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Know Your Rights!: A Modern Kid's Guide to the American Constitution, by Laura Barcella

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Know Your Rights!: A Modern Kid's Guide to the American Constitution, by Laura Barcella

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This book explains The Constitution in words that make it easy for children to understand. It explains one of our history's most important documents, and why it is so important to our country.
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/35012211-know-your-rights

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This book takes readers through the writing of the United States Constitution by fifty-five men who gathered in top secret
https://www.scholastic.com/teachers/books/shh-we-re-writing-the-constitution-by-jean-fritz/

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What is the Constitution? by Patricia Brennan Demuth

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What is the Constitution? by Patricia Brennan Demuth

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This book tells about the different issues that fifty-five men fought relentlessly to change.
https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/559591/what-is-the-constitution-by-patricia-brennan-demuth-illustrated-by-tim-foley/9781524786090/

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This book explains the Constitution, and how it affects people today. from the three branches of government to the freedom of speech, readers can experience the Constitution in a new light.
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/256987.The_U_S_Constitution_and_You

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Just Right Words: Revising the Constitution, by Margaret King

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Just Right Words: Revising the Constitution, by Margaret King

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This Time for Kids book tells about how the Constitution came about, and how it has completely changed our country
https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/just-right-words-margaret-king/1126583942

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What is the Declaration of Independence?, by Michael C. Harris

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What is the Declaration of Independence?, by Michael C. Harris

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This book explains how the Declaration of Independence was created, and how our separation from Great Britain's rule allowed us to be a free country.
https://www.amazon.com/What-Declaration-Independence-Was-ebook/dp/B01839Q43Q/ref=sr_1_62?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1543691020&sr=1-62&keywords=4th+grade+nonfiction+books

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We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.
--Preamble to the United States Constitution

The Constitution of the United States

All four pages of the document are on permanent display at the National Archives.

The Constitution acted like a colossal merger, uniting a group of states with different interests, laws, and cultures. Under America's first national government, the Articles of Confederation, the states acted together only for specific purposes. The Constitution united its citizens as members of a whole, vesting the power of the union in the people. Without it, the American Experiment might have ended as quickly as it had begun.

Back to Main Page What Does it Say?

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Español We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.

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National Center for Constitutional Studies

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*Congress of the United States

begun and held at the City of New-York, on Wednesday the fourth of March, one thousand seven hundred and eighty nine.

THE Conventions of a number of the States, having at the time of their adopting the Constitution, expressed a desire, in order to prevent misconstruction or abuse of its powers, that further declaratory and restrictive clauses should be added: And as extending the ground of public confidence in the Government, will best ensure the beneficent ends of its institution. RESOLVED by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America, in Congress assembled, two thirds of both Houses concurring, that the following Articles be proposed to the Legislatures of the several States, as amendments to the Constitution of the United States, all, or any of which Articles, when ratified by three fourths of the said Legislatures, to be valid to all intents and purposes, as part of the said Constitution; viz. ARTICLES in addition to, and Amendment of the Constitution of the United States of America, proposed by Congress, and ratified by the Legislatures of the several States, pursuant to the fifth Article of the original Constitution.

Frederick Augustus Muhlenberg Speaker of the House of Representatives John Adams, Vice-President of the United States and President of the Senate.

Attest, John Beckley, Clerk of the House of Representatives. Sam. A. Otis Secretary of the Senate. *On September 25, 1789, Congress transmitted to the state legislatures twelve proposed amendments, two of which, having to do with Congressional representation and Congressional pay, were not adopted. The remaining ten amendments became the Bill of Rights.

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion or prohibiting the free exercise thereof, or abridging the freedom of speech or of the press, or the right of the people peaceably to assemble and to petition the government for a redress of grievances.

A well-regulated M ilitia being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear A rms shall not be infringed.

The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects against unreasonable searches and seizures shall not be violated, and no warrants shall issue but upon probable cause, supported by oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched and the persons or things to be seized.

No person shall be held to answer for a capital or otherwise infamous crime unless on a presentment or indictment of a grand jury, except in cases arising in the land or naval forces, or in the militia, when in actual service in time of war or public danger; nor shall any person be subject for the same offense to be twice put in jeopardy of life or limb; nor shall be compelled in any criminal case to be a witness against himself, nor be deprived of life, liberty, or property without due process of law; nor shall private property be taken for public use without just compensation.

Amendment 6
- Rights of Accused Persons in Criminal Cases

In all criminal prosecutions, the accused shall enjoy the right to a speedy and public trial by an impartial jury of the state and district wherein the crime shall have been committed, which district shall have been previously ascertained by law, and to be informed of the nature and cause of the accusation; to be confronted with the witnesses against him; to have compulsory process for obtaining witnesses in his favor; and to have the assistance of counsel for his defense.

In suits at common law, where the value in controversy shall exceed twenty dollars, the right of trial by jury shall be preserved, and no fact tried by a jury shall be otherwise reexamined in any court of the United States than according to the rules of the common law.

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Preamble to the Bill of Rights *Congress of the United States begun and held at the City of New-York, on Wednesday the fourth of March, one thousand seven hundred and eighty nine.

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the preamble to the constitution song - Yahoo Video Search Results

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The search engine that helps you find exactly what you're looking for. Find the most relevant information, video, images, and answers from all across the Web.

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If you were one of the fifty-five men creating the Constitution, what do you think it would've been like?

What are some of the conversations you think might've taken place?

Why do you think creating the Constitution was so important to these men?

How do you think we have been able to benefit from the Constitution?

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Reader's Theater.  Imagine you were one of the men in the room helping to write the Constitution. Create a script with a partner. What changes would you want to discuss?  What reasons or explanations would you give in order to make the changes?  What would you say to persuade the others to agree with you?

On Padlet, create post that tells which amendment you think is most important and why?  Be sure to include a picture or link to the amendment.

Create a collage using pictures of all of the activities and freedoms everyone has in our country because of the brave men and women who fought for freedom and for change.  When it is complete, make a post to Flipgrid, presenting and explaining your collage and why you chose each picture.