Shall Not Be Denied

Women Fight for the Vote

By Library of Library of Congress; Foreword by Carla D. Hayden

Rutgers University Press

Official Companion to the Library of Congress Exhibition.

The campaign for women’s suffrage—considered the largest reform movement in American history—lasted more than seven decades. The struggle was not for the fainthearted. For years, determined women organized, lobbied, paraded, petitioned, lectured, picketed, and faced imprisonment in pursuit of the right to vote. Drawing from the Library’s extensive collections of photographs, personal papers, and the organizational records of such figures as Susan B. Anthony, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Mary Church Terrell, Carrie Chapman Catt, the National Woman’s Party, and the National American Woman Suffrage Association, Shall Not Be Denied traces the movement leading to the women’s rights convention at Seneca Falls, the contributions of suffragists who worked to persuade women that they deserved the same rights as men, the divergent political strategies and internal divisions they overcame, the push for a federal women’s suffrage amendment, and the legacy of the movement.

A companion to the exhibition staged by the Library of Congress, which opened on June 4, 2019—the 100th anniversary of the US Senate’s passage of the suffrage amendment that would become the 19th amendment—Shall Not Be Denied: Women Fight for the Vote is part of the national commemoration of the 100th anniversary of women’s suffrage.

Published by Rutgers University Press in association with the Library of Congress.

This artfully presented collection of photographs, broadsheets, cartoons, pamphlets and varied other illustrations of women’s struggle for equality in America, along with illuminating prose, makes it clear that the battle for rights has been bitter, sometimes brutal. And it’s not over yet. Though it might make you mad—read it and learn!’ Cokie Roberts, journalist and author of Founding Mothers, Ladies of Liberty, Capital Dames

The history of this struggle is one of celebration and setbacks, commanded by dynamic and formidable personalities—change-makers—who believed in relentless action and civil disobedience in the name of equality and justice. In fighting for the right to vote, women formed national political organizations, developed new strategies for protest, and brought women into the public sphere in new and more visible ways. These advances laid the groundwork for civic action that has been emulated by those working for other civil rights causes. Carla D. Hayden, Librarian of Congress, from the foreword

THE LIBRARY OF CONGRESS is the largest library in the world. The Library is the main research arm of the U.S. Congress and the home of the U.S. Copyright Office.

CARLA D. HAYDEN is 14th Librarian of Congress. She is the first woman and the first African American to lead the national library. Previously she served as CEO of the the Enoch Pratt Free Library in Baltimore, Maryland and as the deputy commissioner and chief librarian of the Chicago Public Library. She served as president of the American Library Association from 2003 to 2004.

Contents
Foreword by Carla D. Hayden
1    Building a Movement
2    New Tactics for a New Generation
3    Fortitude, Sacrifice, Victory
4    The Fight Continues
Acknowledgments
Bibliography / Further Reading
Index
Illustration Credits

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