Nineteen
August 20, 2020 |
A century ago this week, the Nineteenth Amendment wrote women's suffrage into the U.S. Constitution.As several of our CAS colleagues recently wrote, this achievement--incomplete as it was--reminds us in this election year of the hard-won responsibilities that persistent courage secured for so many.
I take hope in knowing that the final stages of this decades-long struggle advanced despite the chaos of world war and the flu pandemic of 1918: the House passed the amendment in January 1918 and again the next May, before the Senate followed suit in June 1919. Ohio quickly approved it, fourteen months before the 36th state, Tennessee, completed its ratification.
Fittingly, we will hold no class meetings on campus this November 3. We have other duties that day.
And plenty to do in preparation: to seek difference and explore common ground amidst a culture of divisiveness and polarization, and to foster within our community a Xavier Way for Dialogue.
Good and meaningful work. We'll do it together.