Chinese Girl Wants Vote. So read the New York Tribune headline, April 13, 1912. 

 

Mabel Ping-Hua Lee was an immigrant, raised by her traditional Chinese mother who encased her two-inch-long feet in red slippers and rarely left the family's apartment in New York City's Chinatown.

But by age 16, Mabel had become a suffragist and rode horseback at the front of the city's 1912 Votes-for-Women march.

 

The Tribune reported, Regarding her as the symbol of a new era, when all their women will be free and unhampered, all Chinatown is proud of little Miss Mable Lee and her brilliant accomplishments.

 

Mabel's father had immigrated to the U.S. when the girl was four years old. At nine, she earned an academic scholarship, the Boxer Indemnity Scholarship, which allowed her and her mother to join him in New York.

 

She excelled at school and after leading the 1912 march, enrolled in Barnard College,  the women’s college connected to the all-male Columbia University.

 

Mabel studied history and philosophy, joined the Chinese Students’ Association, and wrote feminist articles for The Chinese Students’ Monthly. 

A 1911 photo of The Young China Association headquarters on the second floor of 12 Mott Street in New York City flying the flag of the Chinese revolutionary movement. The headquarters are above the Boston Cigar store, to the right of the Flowery Kingdom Restaurant and to the left of Morning Star Mission facilities.   https://www.loc.gov/resource/cph.3a38805/
 

For more on next weeks' centennial anniversary of women's suffrage, I invited my good friend and fellow author Claire Rudolf Murphy to share some thoughts.

 

Claire researched the long, hard-fought battle in preparation for writing her picture book Marching with Aunt Susan, which is based on the experiences of a real girl, Bessie Keith Pond whose Aunt Mary is a suffragist friend of Susan B. Anthony.

 

All Bessie wants is to go hiking with her father and brothers. But it's 1896, and girls don't get to hike. They can't vote either. As Bessie discovers when Susan B. Anthony comes to visit.

 

Thank you, Claire!

 

After publishing Marching with Aunt Susan, I continued learning about these remarkable women, often wondering if I would have been on the front lines, suffering and persevering like they did.

 

The women demonstrated many forms of courage. They worked tirelessly, campaigning state by state to win the vote, often ridiculed and estranged from loved ones. By 1917 the radical wing of the movement had lost faith in the state campaign approach. After 54 ballot measures in 30 states, only fifteen out of 48 states had approved women’s right to vote. A new approach was needed.

 

Led by Alice Paul, members of the National Woman’s Party adopted the methods of the British suffragists and began daily protests in front of the White House.

For eighteen months they endured police beatings, arrests, and forced feedings when they refused to eat while in prison.

 

When photos of the violence toward these protestors reached the front pages of newspapers across the country, a ground swell of support finally erupted and forced President Wilson to support passage of the 19th amendment in Congress.  

 

These women weren’t only brave; they were inventive.

 

When America entered World War I in April 1917 suffragists also volunteered their services. Taking precautions and adjusting their methods, they continued to campaign in spite of the challenges of the 1918 flu epidemic when 50 million people were killed worldwide.

 

On June 4, 1919, the 19th Amendment finally passed both houses of Congress and was sent to the states for ratification. On August 18, 1920 Tennessee became the 36th state to ratify the amendment and at long last women in all fifty states could vote.

 

We celebrate this important anniversary during another historic time in our nation. The corona virus shutdown, a reignited movement for racial justice, the passing of civil rights activist and Congressional leader John Lewis, the Democratic nomination of a woman of color for vice-president, and serious concerns about voter suppression in this November’s election. These traits of the suffragists are represented in activists and leaders today.

 

An unheralded, long hidden work of art represents these qualities.

In 1921 the National Woman’s Party gifted a sculpture to Congress, to honor the early leaders - Lucretia Mott, Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony. The sculptor Adelaide Johnson left the statue incomplete to symbolize that women still had a very long way to go before achieving equal rights, the unfinished block representing all women’s rights leaders, past, present and future. Urban legend claims the un-carved lump of marble is reserved for the first woman president. When will that be?

Soon after the ceremony installing the sculpture, a government bureaucrat moved it into the Capitol Crypt in the basement. It took a bill (repeatedly introduced by female representatives) in Congress until it was finally returned to the Capitol Rotunda on Mother’s Day 1997. An act of Congress to move a statue? No wonder we’re having trouble getting another covid bill passed. 

 

But I believe the suffragists would urge us to keep up the fight against voter suppression and to work for racial justice, to honor the women of color they kept out of their movement over fears of losing ratification battles in southern states. 

Because of the covid virus most in person suffrage celebrations have been cancelled. But upon recommendation from the state health department representative, I have organized a silent, socially distant suffrage march in Spokane, Washington.

 

Tuesday, August 18th at 7:30 pm, at Polly Judd Park.

 

No singing, no shouting, just marching with signs. We will gear up our spirits to work for all citizens to cast their ballots this November, in honor of the suffragists one hundred years later. If you cannot join us locally or feel it is best not to attend (understandable), please join us in spirit.  

 

Thank you, Claire!

 

Claire's newest book is also a good read as take a closer look at racial justice in America.

Martin and Bobby: A Journey Toward Justice received a starred review from Kirkus with the praise, “Powerful, engaging, and enlightening.” 

Happy Birthday to my Dad, Harold Cronk! He turned 88 today!  He's a retired ironworker and worked with a Mohawk ironworker in the 1970s. I was thrilled to run across this book and I sent him a copy.

 

Skywalkers: Mohawk Ironworkers Build the City  by David Weitzman. 

 

From the publisher: Through a narrative text and gorgeous historical photographs David Weitzman explores Native American history and the evolution of structural engineering and architecture, illuminating the Mohawk ironworkers who risked their lives to build our cities and their lasting impact on our urban landscape.