McCallops-Women and the Vote

SALISBURY, MD-- Dr. James McCallops, assistant professor of history at Salisbury University, discusses "Women and the Vote: An Anniversary of Struggle" on Tuesday, March 12, at 7 p.m. at the Edward H. Nabb Center for Delmarva History and Culture at the Power Professional Building in Salisbury. The lecture is free and the public is invited.

The history of women's rights, like that of African American civil rights, is often misconstrued to be a recent series of events. The Civil Rights movement, popularly believed to have begun with Martin Luther King in the 1950s, actually dates to traditions, practices and laws that originate in the very earliest days of the American colonies. Likewise, events relating to women's rights can be dated to early colonial history.

Almost 100 years after Abigail Adams lobbied her soon-to-be president husband, John Adams, to "remember the ladies," a landmark case would be tried in New York that would place women's voting rights on center stage. In 1872, Susan B. Anthony and a group of 13 other women attempting to vote in the presidential election were charged with illegally voting in New York. In that same election, Sojourner Truth attempted to vote at a polling place in Grand Rapids, MI, but was turned away.

From this point onward, the Women's Suffrage Movement gathered steam. Though the Women's Suffrage Amendment was introduced in 1878, it did not pass both houses of Congress until 1919 and was not ratified until 1920 though the wording remained unchanged from the amendment's introduction in 1878.

McCallops earned his Ph.D. from the University of Southern California in United States women's history. He helped coordinated the gender studies minor at SU. McCallops is working on two books, one on Edith Wilson (Woodrow's second wife) and a second on life in the White House for presidential families.

For more information on his talk please call the Nabb Center at 410-543-6312 or visit its Web site at http://nabbhistory.salisbury.edu.