Club Meeting 65: American Women’s Suffrage: Voices from the Long Struggle for the Vote, 1776-1965
American Women’s Suffrage: Voices from the Long Struggle for the Vote, 1776–1965 is a documentary anthology that traces nearly two centuries of activism for women’s voting rights in the United States. Through speeches, letters, essays, and firsthand accounts from a diverse range of participants, it highlights both the major milestones and the lesser-known voices that shaped the movement. The collection shows how the fight for suffrage evolved over time—intersecting with issues of race, class, and citizenship—and emphasizes that the struggle did not end with the Nineteenth Amendment, but continued as women worked to secure full and equal access to the ballot. We read and discussed three works in the book: The Legal Conditions of Indian Women, a speech by Alice Cunnigham Fletcher; Speech at the National Women’s Rights Convention of 1851 by Ernestine L. Rose; Letters from Abigail Adams to John Adams.
Guest : Dr. Shirley Samuels
Shirley Samuels is the Picket Family Chair of the Literatures in English Department. Her most recent book is “Haunted by the Civil War.” She teaches at Cornell in several departments, including American Studies, English, History of Art and Visual Studies, and Feminist, Gender, and Sexuality Studies. In addition to Cornell, she has taught at Princeton University, Brandeis University, and the University of Delaware. She has held fellowships from The American Council of Learned Societies, the Library Company of Philadelphia, the American Antiquarian Society, and the Huntington Library.
