Symposium to examine 19th Amendment’s long-term impact on U.S. politics

One hundred years after the 19th Amendment gave women the right to vote, UB’s Gender Institute, in conjunction with The Baldy Center for Law & Social Policy in the School of Law and the Erie County Commission on the Status of Women, will sponsor two events that dig deeply into the lasting impact the women’s rights movement has had on American politics.

The main event, a day-long symposium titled “Legacies of Suffrage: Women’s Activism Then and Now,” will take place March 6 on the North Campus. The symposium will address the history of the 19th Amendment, and the effect it had on the political career of longtime New York Congresswoman Shirley Chisolm. In addition, the event will feature local officials, national scholars and activists who will discuss the past, present and future of the women’s movement in the United States.

“Given that 2020 is a pivotal election year, one aim of the symposium is to link the history of the 19th Amendment with contemporary issues related to women’s involvement in political campaigns from the local to the national levels,” says Gender Institute Director Carrie Tirado Bramen, professor of English.

Symposium speakers will include Anastasia Curwood, associate professor of history and director of African American & Africana Studies at the University of Kentucky, who is currently writing a book on Chisholm. She will discuss how Chisholm’s run for Congress in 1968 and for the White House in 1972 were two critical moments in the development of black feminism that forever changed the political landscape in the United States.

Also presenting will be Holly Jackson, associate professor of English at the University of Massachusetts, Boston, and author of “American Radicals: How 19th-Century Protest Shaped the Nation.” Jackson locates the long history of women’s suffrage in an intersectional history that includes labor activism, slavery and race, gender and sex.

In addition, Lisa Tetrault, associate professor of history at Carnegie Mellon, and author of the award-winning book “The Myth of Seneca Falls: Memory and the Women's Suffrage Movement, 1848-1898,” will speak about forgotten histories of the 19th Amendment, histories that have been filled with predominantly white feminist leaders. She will explore how African American women, immigrant women and Native American women also shaped the history of women’s activism.

The symposium will conclude with a panel discussion on how one local organization, First Amendment, First Vote, is preparing young women today to work on political campaigns with an eye toward encouraging more interest and involvement in politics.

Bramen explains that the idea for the symposium first arose two years ago when the Gender Institute won a Humanities New York grant to form a reading group on women’s suffrage history.

A group of students and faculty convened once a month with Shannon Risk, a Niagara University professor and historian who is a local expert on women’s suffrage history.

Following their discussions, Bramen applied for a Baldy Center conference grant to fund a symposium marking the centennial of the 19th Amendment.

Bramen says the centennial provides an important opportunity to reflect on the political gains that women have achieved, as well as to acknowledge the challenges that still remain.

The schedule of events:

All morning presentations will take place in the Screening Room, 112 Center for the Arts.

• 9 a.m.: Registration and continental breakfast.
• 9:15 a.m.: Welcome, presented by Carrie Tirado Bramen, director of the Gender Institute and professor of English, College of Arts and Sciences.
• 9:30-10:30 a.m.: “‘Voting for the Right is Doing Nothing for It’: 19th-Century American Radicalism and the Turn to Suffrage,” presented by Holly Jackson.
• 10:45-11:45 a.m.: “When Women Won the Right to Vote: A History Unfinished,” presented by Lisa Tetrault.
• Noon-1:30 p.m.: Lunch served in the CFA atrium.

All afternoon sessions will take place in Baird Recital Hall, 250 Baird Hall.

• 1:30-2:30 p.m.: “Black Feminist Power: Shirley Chisholm and National Politics, 1968-1982,” presented by Anastasia C. Curwood.
• 2:30-2:45 p.m.: Coffee break.
• 2:45-4 p.m.: “The Future: Reimagining the Political Playbook,” panel discussion moderated by Maria Whyte, deputy Erie County executive. Panel participants will include Karen King, commissioner of public advocacy, executive director of the Erie County Commission on the Status of Women and co-director of First Amendment, First Vote; Melina Carnicelli, founder and co-director of First Amendment, First Vote; and Jennifer Hibit, chief of staff to Erie County Executive Mark C. Poloncarz.

A companion event will take place at 7 p.m. March 5, when the hit 2019 documentary “Knock Down the House” will be screened at the Burchfield Penney Art Center at SUNY Buffalo State, 1300 Elmwood Ave., Buffalo. The screening is a joint venture of the Gender Institute, Erie County Commission on the Status of Women and the Office of Equity and Diversity at SUNY Buffalo State. It is being presented as part of the Burchfield Penney’s “Beyond Boundaries” film series.

Writer and director Rachel Lear’s Netflix film follows four women — Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York, Cori Bush of Missouri, Amy Vilela of Nevada and Paula Jean Swearingin of West Virginia — who, in 2018 and with no political experience or corporate funding, built upstart campaigns to unseat powerful congressional veterans.

After the film, King will moderate a discussion featuring Juanita Perez Williams, the first Latina mayoral candidate in Syracuse.

Both the symposium and the screening are free and open to the public. Bramen says organizers are expecting 50 or more people for the screening and 75 or more for the symposium. Catered lunch is available free of charge for those who register in advance. There is no deadline to register, but advance notice is requested

For more information or to register, visit the symposium website.