This year marks the 100th anniversary of the passage of the Nineteenth Amendment, which gave women the right to vote. The fight was a protracted one, lasting over 70 years, and it did not result in equity for diverse women. Voting and citizenship came to women of color differently depending on region, class, race, and ethnicity. For example,…

The nationwide commemoration in 2020 of the 100th anniversary of the 19th Amendment is an opportunity to explore not only women's long struggle to achieve this landmark moment, but also to engage in an exploration of women's civic engagement during the woman suffrage movement. The terms "woman suffrage" and "suffragist" often…

In the 1930s, suffragist and women's rights activist Maud Wood Park "had the happy idea of dramatizing a series of episodes from Lucy Stone's life." This idea resulted in the publication, in 1938, of a 162-page nine-act play, "Lucy Stone: A Chronicle Play," based on a biography of the abolitionist and suffragist by her…

The United States and Brazil were the two largest slave societies in the history of New World slavery, and the legacies of that history remain salient in both nations. Slavery and the slave trade are important topics to be taught in history courses, and future generations need to be given accurate information about the history and legacies of…

Can you name several well-known military personnel throughout U.S. history? When hearing this question, most people may begin reciting names like George Washington, Ulysses Grant, George Patten, or Norman Schwarzkopf Jr., who all happen to be men. When thinking about the U.S. military historically, we tend to imagine that it is a man's world.…

On August 18, 2020, The United States will celebrate the 100th anniversary of the ratification of the 19th Amendment which gave women the vote. Belle La Follette played an important role in helping women gain the right to vote guaranteed in this amendment. She advocated for women in her home state of Wisconsin and across the country. This article…

At the turn of the 20th century, Pink Teas (alternately known as "suffrage teas") were held by women who championed women's right to vote. In this article, the author provides historical background on Pink Teas and ideas of how to teach about them in the elementary classroom.

The 19th Amendment was ratified on August 18, 1920, a year after being passed by Congress. It extended the right to vote to many women, but not all. Excluded from this landmark constitutional victory were women like Mabel Ping-Hua Lee, who was born in Guangzhou (then Canton), China, in 1896, but who immigrated to New York as a child. From 1882 to…

Cutting-edge data science techniques can shed new light on fundamental questions in educational research. We apply techniques from natural language processing (lexicons, word embeddings, topic models) to 15 U.S. history textbooks widely used in Texas between 2015 and 2017, studying their depiction of historically marginalized groups. We find that…

In this paper, the author outlines the results of a research study conducted on one class cohort, focusing on the impacts of teaching Black women's history through Anne Moody's 1968 memoir, "Coming of Age in Mississippi," on their understandings of race and the experiences of Black women. Specifically, Moody's memoir provides a rich…

This article examines coverage in social studies curriculum and U.S. history textbooks, specifically, of women in the American Civil Rights Movement (CRM) and considers how social studies teachers can broaden the narrative they teach to include more gender-related issues and the work of women activists. The author found that despite a rich body of…

The idea of a shared place in the universe--a shared history--was embodied in 2019. The heft of the Smithsonian--its unparalleled collections, its diverse and deep-rooted expertise, and its outsized ability to connect with millions of people--is being brought to bear on the most critical issues of all time: conversations about democracy, identity,…

In this article we outline the importance of reinserting the voices, experiences, and contributions of Black women as critical citizens into the narrative of the modern-day Civil Rights Movement. In order to examine the history of Black women as critical civic agents, teachers must interrogate how Black women's raced and gendered identities…

December 1, 2015, marked the 60th anniversary of Rosa Parks' arrest for refusing to give up her seat to a white passenger on a Montgomery bus in 1955. This incident sparked the Montgomery Bus Boycott and the mid-20th century civil rights movement. A century before Parks' act of resistance, African American schoolteacher Elizabeth Jennings was…

Currency is a powerful cultural artifact; the imagery portrayed on bills and coins depict a nation's values and ideals. The process of selecting an American woman to appear on a U.S. Treasury bill began when a nine-year-old girl wrote to President Obama about her concern that no women were depicted on U.S. paper bills. The Treasury announcement to…