To the Editor:

August 18th marked the 100th anniversary of the ratification of the 19th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution which states that, “The right of the citizens of the United States shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of sex.” I liked the way a recent New York Times editorial described the amendment: as “an important milestone in an unfinished journey.” How true, and both the adjectives are equally apt.

The journey to truly universal suffrage was unfinished in 1920. Black women and men, as well as Native-Americans, Chinese-Americans, and others would have to fight for decades to gain the right to vote, and that struggle would cost lives. Additional legislation was needed, and is needed to this day. The history of the Women’s Suffrage movement itself is still a work in progress.

Only recently has the important work of many Black suffragists—rarely acknowledged and never fully credited---begun to enter into broader public awareness.

We are also learning uncomfortable truths about the racial prejudices of many icons of the suffrage movement.

It turns out that our heroines, no less than our heroes, were culturally constricted human beings, at best only partially able to rise above the moral horizon of their day.

Finally, the journey to universal suffrage is unfinished because the right to vote is still being “abridged” in many parts of the country by discriminatory laws and obstacles to voting that disproportionately affect certain groups within our society.

Moreover, there is currently an open attack on the longstanding institution of absentee voting via misinformation, including about the extent of “voter fraud,” and the deliberate undermining of the Postal Service. (There is no real distinction, by the way, between “absentee voting” and “voting by mail.”

In the context of the current pandemic, concern that the USPS may not be able to deliver their ballots in time to be counted may force vulnerable citizens to risk their lives to exercise their right to vote. No American should have to choose between risking death and being disenfranchised.

So as we rightly celebrate the important milestone of the 19th Amendment, let us also inform ourselves (and each other) about the complex history and future prospects of our long, still unfinished journey to democracy.

Kathleen Stein, president

League of Women Voters of St. Lawrence County