Uncover Suffragists' Winning Strategies with Robert Cooney
By Suolan Jiang on 06/16/2011 @ 04:00 PM
For a look into the suffrage movement for American women, particularly between 1910 and 1920, check out the book, "Winning the Vote: The Triumph of the American Woman Suffrage Movement" by Robert P. J. Cooney, Jr. Today at the Sewall-Belmont House & Museum, the award-winning author provided his audience a detailed lecture about his masterpiece and an exciting question and answer session.
Robert P. J. Cooney, Jr.
Mr.Cooney walked his audience through the history of the fight for suffrage, the right to vote, with an impressive collection of pictures from over 960 posts, portraits, and photographs in his book. According to Mr.Cooney, the whole empowering process was composed of two parts: First, vote approval in each state. Second, Constitutional Amendment signed by legislature for all the states. To achieve success, those women leaders were very strategic in designing and carrying out this plan. This book mainly talks about the ten strategies used, including Suffrage Parades, State Electoral Campaigns, The Drive for a Federal Amendment, Residential Suffrage, Lobbying State and Federal Lawmakers, Organizing Campaigns to Unseat Opponents, Pressuring the Political Parties, Using Women’s Growing Power as Voters, Forming New Political Parties, Direct Action, Raising Money, and Crafting a New Public Image, each serving as the name of a chapter. Followed by another four chapters, How These Strategies Worked Together, The Winning Plan, The 1917 Election in New York, and Contradictions, the book offers its readers a very good opportunity to gain a comprehensive understanding of the American woman suffrage movement.
Even though an unparalleled movement, there were some black marks on this great achievement: To win the battle, a certain campaign boycotted all the men politicians without realizing there were a couple of allies among them; African-American women were abandoned by the mainstream suffragists, left to fight for their suffrage on their own; and, women in the West were reluctant to help Eastern women where they were more advanced. Despite those setbacks, this non-violent movement should still be considered great for completing our democracy by emancipating half of the population.
Mr. Cooney is honored with the “Write Women Back Into History” Award for his efforts in unmasking the empowering history. His book is another piece of literature that is important in documenting the history of women’s suffrage and educating people about the greatest expansion of our democracy on one single day in American history.
Check out our past video blog about Women's Equality Day, click here.
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