Charleston Women Summer 2020

www.CharlestonBrides.com | www.ChsWomenInBusiness.com | www.ReadCWomen.com CW - 17 T his year marks a century since the passage of the 19th amendment, guaranteeing women the right to vote. Its passage was no easy feat. For decades, women fought an uphill battle to gain the right to be heard. Charlestonians played a sizable part in that battle. Two early leaders were the Grimke sisters, Sarah and Angelina. In the 1820s, they left their slave-owning family in Charleston to join the abolitionist movement in Philadelphia and were among the first women to speak out against slavery. Not surprisingly, some abolitionists were opposed to women speaking in the public arena. In 1837, Congregational churches in the North warned of “the dangers, which, at present, seem to threaten the female character with widespread and permanent injury,” and urged that women remember their “appropriate duties.” To this, the sisters mused, “What then can a woman do for the slave, when she is herself under the feet of man and shamed into silence?” In 1838, an undeterred Angelina Grimke became the first woman to address a state legislature, and the sisters eventually inspired other women to speak in public. At the first Women’s Rights Convention in Seneca Falls, New York in 1848, the group adopted a Declaration of Sentiments, influenced by the writings of the Grimke sisters. The Grimkes later served as vice presidents of the Massachusetts Woman Suffrage Association and, in 1870, even cast ballots in an election, albeit only as a symbolic gesture. By the turn of the century, the women’s suffrage movement was in high gear with a number of groups nationwide. The National Woman’s Party, founded in 1913, was the first to picket for women’s rights. At a 1917 demonstration in Washington, D.C., founder Alice Paul and others were arrested. The “Iron-Jawed Angels” — yes, there was a movie by that name starring Hilary Swank — endured months of harsh physical treatment while imprisoned, prompting a public outcry. Once released, the Angels travelled the country by train, wearing prison uniforms and holding rallies. The first stop of the “Prison Special” was in Charleston, where they spoke to an audience of 1,200 at the Academy of Music, with BY MARY COY The Road to Equal Rights Paved by Charleston Women South Carolina did not allow women to serve on juries in state courts until 1969. Credit: Library of Congress: loc.pnp/cph.3b49101 feature