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suffrage in the United
States. It also examines the role of women
in American culture in the early 1900s,
an era when gaining the right to vote for
women in the United States was a large yet
overlooked issue in American politics.
“Gaining the vote for American women,
known as woman suffrage, was the single
largest enfranchisement and extension
of the democratic rights in our nation’s
history,” says the Living Voices website.
“Along with the Civil Rights Movement,
the woman suffrage movement should be
considered one of the two most important
American political movements of the 20th
century.”
Living Voices brings the story of Jessie
Barclay, the daughter of a prominent political
journalist in Washington D.C., who
grows up in the shadow of her younger
brother, Will. She longs to feel as important
to her family as he is but learns from
a young age that girls are not considered
equal to boys.
Jessie’s great aunt comes to Washington
D.C. and introduces Jessie to the suffrage
movement. As Jessie unearths the history
of the movement and the women such
as Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady
Photo by TAE KIM
Photo by TAE KIM
Photo by dANIEL BERMAN
Stanton who brought it to fruition, she begins
to follow the new generation of suffragists such
as Alice Stokes Paul and Lucy Burns, founders
of what would become historically called the
National Women’s Party (NWP).
Much to the chagrin of her family Jessie aligns
herself with the NWP, joining picket lines and
protests and eventually being jailed for her integrity
and her actions.
Upon the onset of World War II, Jessie’s brother
Will enlists in the war effort and is shipped
overseas. In his letters home he articulates his
newfound understanding of the similarities between
the suffragists’ battle for their rights on
American soil and the one which he fights as a
soldier.
Hear My Voice: Win the Vote will be featured
Friday, March 7 at 9:30, 10:30 and 11:30 a.m. in
room 1701.
For more information on this and other Living
Voices productions please visit http://www.livingvoices.
org/main/main.html
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