tv Lectures in History CSPAN July 21, 2016 12:09pm-1:16pm EDT
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varied. some of them i can repeat and some of them i can't. basically, though, the message is -- we would have played naked. whatever it took. we got to play baseball. and, we truly believed that we helped keep baseball alive during the war. as i said, the league ended in 1954. it lasted 11 years. the league expanded over that 11 years from 14 to 12 teams. it's possible that the expansion maybe happened too quickly. i think the fact that there was expansion in the league, the fact that the war was over,
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women were being told to go back to some of those more traditional roles. all of those things, including the arrival of television and major league baseball on television helped to bring about an end to the all-american girls professional baseball league. if we look at the impact of african-americans, women, japanese-americans, any other group you could possibly think of, if we start to pick that apart, if we start to look at their actual role in winning the war, in surviving the war in some cases, we start to see a more full picture of what life
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was like for people involved in the war and those who were involved, even on the periphery. when we started this conversation today, this discussion today, we talked about the fact that total war, that war was this completely all-consuming thing, that it was not just about two ar ms. shooting at one another. we started to think about that and what that meant and how can we further understand world war ii if we bring all these pieces and parts together. well, we can try. that's what i'm trying to do here, to get us could understand again my mantra -- it's all about perspective. because there's not one of those pieces that's less important or
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more important. we have to understand them all to have a full view of world war ii. for me, because, of course, i am a women's sports historian, for me, the role of women in professional baseball during world war ii is an extremely important piece of this story, in part, because it is not one that most of us know about. also, because those women, those 600 women, they believed they made a difference in the war effort. and they did. the number of women i talked to that worked in factories, those ladies, they believed they made a difference in the war effort.
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and they did. every single person who went to work in a factory, every single person who grew a victory garden, every single person who participated in blackouts, gas rationing, food rationing, every single one of those people participated in, and helped to win, world war ii. this is another picture that i wanted you to see. standing on the lawn outside the baseball hall of fame in coopertown, new york. it is a statue and it is a statue that is patterned after
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this. by the way, that just happened in 2006. this is an example of what happened before every single baseball game. women lined up in the "v" for victory time. and finally, "a league of their own." 1992. the movie that finally brought these women's story to the forefro forefront. for every single one of these individuals, for every single one of these groups that we've talked about, they play a role in world war ii. they played a role in surviving world war ii. and for us to fully understand
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it, we have to understand all of those perspectives. questions. comments. >> you mentioned that there were four teams -- [ inaudible ] >> no, there were not. there were no african-american women in the league. and is there a bit of a contentious subject. there is probably one of the best scenes in the movie "a league of their own" is gina davis, who is there in a catcher's gear, missed the ball and the ball went past her and two or three african-american women were standing off to the side, and she ran and told the woman to throw it to her.
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instead, she threw the ball past her and into the hand of someone who was standing behind her and realized what an incredible arm that woman had. if you ask any of the players, they will tell you, well, there were no rules about segregation necessarily. black women just didn't try out. segregation from the cradle to the grave. so, no, there were no black women that played in the league. however, there were a number of black women who did play very successfully within the negro leagues. they played with the men. toni stone was one. but the all-americans did not have any african-american players. >> you said with the whole --
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regarding those blocks and all that, did other countries have the frames of written -- how did they treat their women compared to -- >> yes. in fact, great britain did have -- i don't remember the name of their women's pilots corps, but they did have one and they had one before the u.s. did. as far as how they treated them after the war was over, i don't have that information. but they did make use of them. and in fact, the -- jackie cochran spent time there flying with those women. and it was as a result of her time there in that experience that she was able to help come back here and encourage -- strongly encourage united states to do things. >> so was the role similar -- >> it was. it was. supplies, that kind of thing. not combat related. although of course it is all combat related. other questions, comments. >> can you explain what victory
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gardens are? >> yes! does anybody know what a victory garden was? yeah, go ahead. >> something for -- growing your own so you didn't have to buy as much, you were doing your part by providing your own food. they started in britain, didn't it? >> yeah. victory gardens were -- exactly. >> rationed. >> yeah. it was a time where you could only buy certain foods and we didn't -- we were rationing things. gas was one of the things we rationed. victory gardens were exactly that. women were told, grow a garden. go out into your backyard, grow a garden, help to feed not only your family, but maybe another family. there were lots of ways that women participated in the war effort, and certainly that was one. and if you were at home, and say your husband had gone off to
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war, you were at home, you had kids. maybe you didn't have an opportunity to go off and work in a factory or play professional baseball. but there were other things you could do, and that was one. >> were children also like sent to the factories to work? >> no. by the time we get to world war ii, we have child labor laws in place. and that was -- that was as a result of those efforts -- the efforts of the progressives that we talked about. so, no, children were not -- now that didn't mean that they didn't help in other ways, because of course, they did. but, no, they were not expected to work in factories. in fact, that would have been illegal. >> we did have nurses in like the army and stuff during world war ii. >> yes. >> they weren't in combat zones. >> well, yes, but in theory, they were not in combat.
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right? but of course, i mean we had nurses who were killed during the war. we had nurses who were taken prisoner of war. so yes, that happened everywhere. but they were not officially in combat. we still have that argument, right? i mean that's obviously changed a lot because women can, in theory anyway, do any of the jobs in the military that men can do. at least i believe that's the case now. >>. [ inaudible question ] >> no. other questions, comments. no? yes. >> while you were talking about the antijapanese propaganda, the most highly decorated combat unit we had served in italy, one of the hardest places that we had fights. the japanese-americans.
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>> yes. yes. yeah. there were -- there are any number of stories like that. a number of the male japanese-americans who were rounded up and sent to camps in places like montana and wyoming had served in the united states military during world war i. these were american citizens, in many cases. so, yeah, it was a very dark, i think, difficult time in our history. we understand, if you think back about it. and certainly we can bring this to the present and think about what we felt like after 9/11. we are fearful when -- certainly when we've been attacked, when we're being threatened by a
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"group of people." we get -- we get scared. and so what we did in world war ii was round up japanese americans and put them in what amounted to concentration camps in the middle of the country. sadly, there are folks who want to do similar things today. other questions, comments. so then for your mid-term that is tuesday -- yes -- you could write me a nice essay about total war. whether you talk about the importance of perspectives and understanding all of those important pieces and parts. yes? okay. i'll be counting on that.
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>> would you agree that total wars mean that war was more than just a fight, it means like everybody db everybody -- was affected, involved in the war, everybody did their part to help in their own way. >> yes. i think you hit the nail right on the head and you said it much more succinctly than i did. it is -- it is exactly that. it is, of course, wiabout those battl battles. it is, of course, unfortunately, about the killings and the protection of your country or your geographic location. but it is also about the change that happens to individuals. and if we expand our view beyond that piece of it, then i think we can really get a sense of
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that. in the same way now, most of you were pretty young, but in the same way that, again, i keep using 9/11, because it is the most current, similar experience. those of us who were a little bit older on 9/11, yeah. you know, i didn't go to war. i didn't go to battle. but here's what happened to me. i walked in to my classroom on that day and a classroom much like this one, and we were all devastated and we talk about that. we talked about what that meant. and then as the weeks went on, there were fewer and fewer young men in my classroom. and then, after about -- oh, i don't know, a month? six weeks?
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i look out into my classroom and i have two or three young men, and that's it. i go back to my office on that day, and i have an e-mail from someone here at the university saying, by the way, a lot of reservists have been called up. so i sat in my classroom and i watched -- i watched these young men leave my classroom. and they went to war. they literally went to war. and i -- i don't know what happened to them. i have no idea. did i fight in the war? no. will that memory live with me the rest of my life? yes. other questions, comments. okay. all right. then i will see you on thursday.
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>> c-span's convention coverage begins today live at 7:20 eastern. final night speakers include congresswoman marsha blackburn, oklahoma governor mary fall didn't on, rnc chair reince priebus, donald trump's daughter, ivanka, and finally, donald trump. make america one again is the theme tonight. our pre-convention show starts at 5:30 eastern. live rnc coverage of the convention begins tonight at 0 7:20 eastern. next, santa clara university history professor nancy unger discusses women's rights activist belle la follette, a journalist, suffragist and
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pacifist who campaigned along her husband and son. the human association of the greater sacramento area hosted this event and it is about an hour. >> today's truly delightful speaker, professor nancy unger, asked if i could only give her a brief introduction. let's see if i can. her subject is -- and i would like to pronounce it belle la follette who lived a very full life from 1859 to 1931. in doing the research for her new book, belle la follett progressive era reformer, former historians underestimated this great humanist. she discovered the surprising truths about a radical reformer who was denounced by some as disgraceful to the white race. what?
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disgraceful? she fought for votes for women. she fought for peace. she fought for civil rights. and for so much more. "the new york times" hailed her as perhaps the least known, yet most influential of all the american women who have had to do with public affairs in this country. today, professor nancy unger will help us to know belle la follette, who she really was, and is -- a marvelous model of progressive reform. nancy? >> hello. thank you for that lovely introduction. i have given eight talks to the humanist community of silicon valley, and they are one of my favorite audiences because they stay awake, and they ask great questions.
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so i h've really been looking forward to this talk. and i want to thank you for inviting me to the humanist association of the greater sacramento area. i especially want to thank phil potts for his positively heroic effort to publicize this talk and to make me feel welcome. i have written this brand-new biography of belle la follette and i am dying to uk that to ta about it, about her as a representative of the many women who contributed significantly to american politics, even long before women had the vote. hillary clinton may well be the first female president, and if she is, she'll deserve the credit for it. but, as clinton herself acknowledges, it took a lot of work by previous women, and some men, to compellingly make the case that women are capable of political leadership, even at
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the highest levels. belle la follette was one of those women. as we look forward -- or maybe not looking forward quite so much -- to the 2016 americans we have a lot to learn from this great american, and not only about politics. lesson one -- don't make the mistake of underestimating a woman just because she was first known as a political wife. although "the new york times" eulogized belle in 1931 as perhaps "the most influential of all american women who have had to do with public affairs in this country." she faded quickly from popular memory. and when she is recalled, it is usually in relation to her husband and son. and i am afraid that i contributed to this approach in my biography of her husband
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fighting bob lafollette. i have to say, in my own defense, he started it. this minimization of his wife's accomplishments began with this progressive reform giant famously calling her my wivest and best counselor. bob openly deferred to belle's judgment throughout his storied professional life. as district attorney, three-term congressman, lawyer, three-term governor of wisconsin, and most significantly, during his 19 years in the u.s. senate. according to their son-in-law, playwright george middleton, except john adams with his abigail, no man in public life was to have so equal a mate. books, articles, essays, a short film, and plays, including a full-length musical, all hail belle lafolle tte as the little woman behind the man. and only a few go so far as to
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recognize her as an important reformer in her own right. and no account, until now, reveals the depth and range of her interests, her ambitions and activism and the contributions she made to meaningful progressive reform. so, lesson two -- don't believe everything that you read or hear. upon her death in 1931, newspapers across the nation hailed belle lafollette for herseher selfless ness, her willingness to remain out of the public eye, her contentment in eschewing a career for herself in favor of tearing out a higher calling, that of wife and mother. she had a masculine mind, one back-handed accolade conceded. but then quickly praised her for being essentially feminine, maternal. like that old compliment, you don't sweat much for a fat girl.
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another tribute concluded, hers is an interesting career, for those women who, out of necessity, must remain in the background. same journalist, lincoln stephens, a family friend who should have known better painted belle as a self-sacrificing woman who consciously surrendered her own ambitions. "she could act," he said. "but she was content to beget action and actors. she played herself the woman part. she sat in the gallery, in the congress, or at home with the children and the advisors. she could, but she did not often, make the speeches or do the deeds." all know this help mate behind the scenes assessment came to dominate the historical record, in reality, belle lafollette exhibited considerable political leadership. although she and her husband
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worked together to promote the many progressive goals they shared, she was far from being merely his assistant. she held no elected office, and could not even cast a ballot until she was 61 years old. yet she overcame her natural shyness to wield tremendous influence as a journalist and public speaker. activities she took on not only out of idealism, but because her family needed the money. all those who joined lincoln stephens in identifying her primarily as what he called "the victorious mother," did her a grave disservice. she did, in truth, make the speeches and do the deeds and the nation improved because she did. so, lesson three -- don't buy in to tired ideas about gender or anything else. born belle case in 1859, she grew up in the farming community
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of baribou, wisconsin where her commitment to feminist principles was cemented at a young age. in her experience, men and women were both so indispensable to the success of farm life that few couples quibbled over whose work was more important. as she put it, "while traditions and laws fixing the legal disabilities and the inferior status of women prevailed, women's great practical usefulness and highly developed judgment placed them, for all practical purposes, on an equal footing with men." such a perspective was consistent with her family's religious views. when her mother, mary case, heard anna howard shaw lecture at the family's free congressionalist church promoting women's right to vote, she was captivated by the works and the words of this pioneering minister and physician.
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mary case later told her daughter that she felt "quite indignant" that women did not have the same rights as men. and belle's brother agreed. stating, matter of factually, i do not see any reason why i should vote if belle cannot. lesson number four -- be fearless and challenge authority. belle case refused to accept the deferential, meek role assigned to girls. a friend recalled that young belle case "frequently discomforted her teachers and fellow pupils by questioning and challenging things that were taught and accepted, and was fearless in insisting on things being understood and worth while before accepting them." her years as a student at the university of wisconsin fueled her fearlessness. one professor recalled, miss case? with her eagerness for
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knowledge? and her readiness to pay the price in hard work profited to the full by the university's opportunities. lesson five -- remain your own person. belle case's classmate, bob lafollitte pursued her persist tently and he grew increasingly frustrated when belle seemed far more interested in pursuing her career than planning a life with him. only after belle completed two years of teaching did she marry bob on new year's eve in 1881 in a ceremony conducted by a unitarian minister who honored the bride's request that the word "obey" be omitted from the marriage vows. [ laughter ] lesson six -- stop wasting your time. eight months and ten days after
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their wedding, belle gave birth to the first of their four children. although belle lafollette said, the supreme experience in life is motherhood, she also said, there is no inherent conflict in a mother's taking good care of her children, developing her own talents, and continuing to work. even when her children were small, lafollette refused to waste her time on the activities that most people assumed should take up the day of a middle class wife and mother. lafollette believed in "simplicity and ease" in dress, furnishings, even food, asking what custom could be more barberous than a ten-course dinner? [ laughter ] she advocated "less kinds of food, fewer courses, let work." lesson seven -- stop apologizing
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for not wasting your time. belle lafollette rejected expectations that women would cling to outmoded convention at the same time that men flocked to new conveniences that made their lives easier and more efficient. as the telephone came into popular use, for example, she found it absurd that women were criticized as both lazy and extravagant for phoning in their grocery orders while men were praised for their efficiency in transacting business over the phone. why is it, she asked sardonically, that those who are most deeply convinced that woman's place is in the home are most concerned when women stay at home and telephone for supplies instead of going to the market? following the advent of the typewriter, she complained, "women apologize for a type written personal letter as though it were an offense even
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though the thought of their handwriting is a more cumbersome process. she embraced any innovation that might spare them from unnecessary labor. for those who bemoan the loss of a woman's personal touch, she responded in favor of preserving women's time, health and energy. "many precious associations with the home-made and the hand-made have necessarily been sacrificed for the greater gain." lesson eight -- be comfortable. guard your health. belle lafollette further defied convention by abandoning stays is and corsets for more comfortable, looser fitting garments and urged other women to do the same. she noted with some disgust, the man who said women ought not to vote as long as they cannot fasten their own gowns made the best antisuffrage argumentative's ever heard.
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it is certainly humiliating that we submit to the tyrannies of dress as we do. lafollette reserved special scorn for the time women were encouraged to waste bemoaning their inability to live up to idealistic bodily ideals. she strove not to obsess about her weight but focus instead on remaining fit. now in case you've let your subscription to the wisconsin magazine of history lapse, this is the cover of the current issue. and that's lafollette brivg bri walking in the 1920s with the family dog, bud. i found this, interestingly, on ebay for $5. in 1912, she still ran three miles before breakfast every day. and in 1914 at the age of 55, "the washington post" celebrated her scaling of a 12,000-foot
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volcano in costa rica. lesson nine -- involve yourself in the larger world. lafollette's always-passionate belief in "the growing desire of women of leisure to employ themselves worthy and to share in the work of the world" was reinforced in 1911 by the publication of the feminist treati treatise, "woman and labor." belle treated it like an emic poem, majestic, powerful and thrilling. shriner described women who had empty lives and who were wholly dependent on their husband's incomes as "parasitic," a term lafollette would use repeatedly in her demands that women be allowed equal opportunities and useful occupations. early in their marriage, belle
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so enjoyed helping bob with his legal studies that she took up the law course as well becoming in 1885 the first woman to graduate from the university of wisconsin law school. see if you can pick her out. [ laughter ] one of my friends notes that she seems to be the only one who actually earned a diploma. [ laughter ] a passion that was not shared by the young couple was life in the nation's capital. once bob was elected to congress in 1888. to the query, what do washington women talk about? belle complained, all too much about the weather. and an exceeding graciousness and desire to please pervades every function, like having all the meals, not the dessert. "we are not supposed to belong to the butterfly in parasitic
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class." lesson ten -- recognize that the personal is political. belle lafollette urged all women to start recognizing that problems they thought of as personal were in fact political, and therefore required women's political activism. "how much we pay for food, coal, and clothing is very largely determined by control of the natural resources, the tariffs, the distribution of tax, and by the regulation of the great private monopolies and freight rates. lafollette strenuously opposed her husband's plan to begin a magazine in 1909. once the die was cast, she devoted herself to the magazine. that moagazine today is publish as "the progressive." in an article titled
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"foolishness," she raled against the narrow range of superficial topics others deemed suitable for women's readers. she concluded, let's fool these men publishers and put our time on world events in countless columns, in the magazine's home and education pages, belle lafollette introduced, defined, expanded and promoted progressive reform. women readers responded with gratitude and other journalists celebrated her innovative approach. celine harman of the cincinnati enquirer noted, one of the cleverest and most readable pages in the country is edited by belle case lafollette. probably the first editor of a woman's department to go on strike against the conventional formulas for hair dye and accepted recipes for beauty. lafollette, she said, is always independent and fearless in her expression of opinion. in 1911, the north american
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press syndicate engaged lafollette to produce articles six days a week. her series, "thought for the day," which covered topics including suffrage, economics,c health, appeared in 57 newspapers in more than 20 states. lesson 11 -- fight for what's right, even if it violates time-worn traditions. in addition to the standard legislate of progressive goals, including labor protection, natural resource conservation and tariff and tax reform, belafollette advocated a wide range of less conventional invasions. she supported the right of a woman not to take her husband's name upon marriage. she promoted the montessori school of education, opposed corporal punishment for children, and supported sex education for children.
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she saved special ire for capital punishment which she termed "a survival of barbarism whose existence is contrary to the best thought and practice of modern civilization." she also, according to her youngest child, ultimately became an agnostic. although both of the lafollette's peppered their speeches and writings with religious imagery, they did not attend church, which was quite unusual for a u.s. senator and his family. so to protect her husband's reputation, however, in this one area, belle bent, rather than freely, acknowledged the truth. bob delighted in telling family friends that as belle guided a wealthy couple from bob's district through washington, d.c., they asked point-blank -- which church the lafollettets attended. belle "told them we attended the congressionalation church
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oftener than any other in washington." this is technically not a lie, belle rationalized as a minister we had known well in madison had preached in the congregational church one sunday and bob and i had gone to hear it. [ laughter ] >> belle lafollette advocated cleaner railroad cars and depots and schedules designed to shorten layovers. she also proposed postponing presidential inaugural ceremonies until april, writing in 1912, must we go on forever? suffering the inconveniences of dates so badly adjusted to our present day life just because they were written into the constitution over 100 years ago? in this way, she saw women's lack of political experience as working to their favor. as they were left conditioned to accept outmoded traditions. lesson 12 -- meaningful change
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almost always requires persistence. in 1930, the national league of women voters honored 71 women, including lafollette, for their service to the league and to the american woman suffrage association. when her name was inscribed on a bronze tablet housed in the national headquarters in washington, d.c., belle protested that she did not deserve such an honor, yet her contemporary, alice paul, called lafollette "the most consistent supporter of equal rights as all of the women in suffrage time." one "new york times" headline in 1912 declared simply "mrs. lafollette is leader." looking back on the battle she waged for suffrage that years, she admitted, i spoke seven days a week in succession, usually three or four times a day, sometimes six or eight.
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[ laughter ] during one 12-day tour, she gave 31 speeches in 14 different counties. lesson 13 -- be able be able to compellingly articulate your political goals. la follette marched in the great suffrage parade in new york city on may 4th, 1912. less than a year later, she testified before the u.s. women's committee onist suffrage that granting it was quote, a simple matter of common sense. you know how lincoln defined government at gettysburg. by the people, and for the people, and are not women people? mrs. robert m. la follette gave a remarkable address. congress however did not grant women the vote. early in the first term of the
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wilson administration, belle la follette was a member of a contingent of suffrage advocates that met with the president. they were hurried out of the white house after ten minutes having failed to persuade the u.s. senate or the president, la follette took her case back to the american people. she spoke for 63 consecutive days in july and august of 1914 in a tour that included pennsylvania, ohio, indiana and michigan. the senate finally approved the suffrage amendment on june 4th, 1919 with la follette observing from the visitor's gallery. we shed a few tears she recorded. noting with pride that wisconsin was the first state to ratify the 19th amendment. bob la follette said they beat them to it because of your smart
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mother. belle la follette worried that illinois would try to steal the first honors. and as soon as the telegram of confirmation was received, reported bob, i went on the floor and i read it into the congressional record. mama and all of us feel good, you bet. lesson 15 -- black lives matter. belle la follette was widely acknowledged within the african-american community nationwi nationwide, but especially in washington, d.c. as a dedicated and fearless leader in the fight for racial equality. beginning in 1913, she wrote a series of searing articles decrying the efforts of the wilson administration to racially segregate federal services. she urged to action her washington female readers in particular. revisiting her off repeated assertion that privileged wives were, quote, not supposed to belong to the butterfly and
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parasitic class, but should represent the ernest intelligent womanhood of the nation and fight for the equality of all. la follette denoiunced the injustice imposed by the new orders. she skewered the hypocrisy of whites that supported segregation. it seems strange that the very ones that consider it a hardship to sit next to a colored person in a streetcar entrust their children to colored servants and eat food prepared by colored hands. on january 4th, 1914, la follette spoke to the colored ymca on 12th street in washington, d.c. it was an electrifying event. while cheering by the 1,000 people present, almost all of whom were black, interrupted her speech many times. according to the "washington post," in a front page story
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headlined, she defends negros. wife of senator la follette denounces segregation. la follette, quote, advised negros to keep up their fight and no contusion of peace into the question is settled and settled in the right way. an ovation of several minutes followed her remarks. an african-american woman noted, quote, the tremendous affect upon all who heard your stirring speech. she concluded her message of thanks, may god continue to bless you, may he continue to lead you and may he continue to give you courage to do and to dare. la follette delivered essentially the same speech to the annual banquet of the naacp in new york city and offered solutions, not just outrage. quote, the race issue, like the
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suffrage question, the sex question, or any other perplexing unsettled problem disturbing society today should be freely and seriously discussed in private conversation, in the public press, and from the pulpit. the situation does not call for violence, but it demands determination, loyalty, courage, persistence, unaltering faiths in well directed efforts. she said it was quote, in no way a matter of social privilege. it is a matter of civil right. lesson 16 -- opposition can sting, but support is validating and provides much needed encouragement. one anonymous writer warned belle la follette that, quote, for a white lady to address a negro audience is out of place, adding it does not raise you
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very much in the estimation of decent white people. a correspondent from tennessee denounced la follette for her, quote, idiotic demands. other critics exhibited less restraint. one reader termed belle la follette disgraceful to the white race and suggested the only true reason for her actions was that she was herself black but only a little light in color. it was signed, a real white person with no black stripes down the back like you. la follette's efforts also generated support. white employee of the government printing office and a civil war veteran concluded his lengthy tribute to his african-american colleagues by addressing la follette directly. again, i thank you. the black race needs such as you to aid them and the white race needs you to bring it to its senses. navy department auditor ralph
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tyler, an organizer for the national negro business league, wrote, he had read her column "the color line" each time with renewed inspiration and renied courage because it clearly indicated to me my race still has good, strong, and fair white friends in this day of threatened segregation, just as we did in the dark days of subrogation. i voice but the sentiment of my race in doing so. in 1914, la follette spoke to a predominantly black audience at the national trade and professional school for women and girls in washington, d.c. and when she was introduced by african-american activist nanny helen burrows as the successor of harriet feature stow, the lawyer bowed his head and said
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amen. hayes told la follette we thank god for such a white woman as you, we thank god for sending you to us and we thank you for coming. a few more like you would awaken the sleeping conscience of this nation. lesson 17 -- promote peace, always. at the same time that she was writing for the family magazine, fighting racism, and campaigning for women's suffrage, belle la follette took up a new cause, ultimately becoming one of the most recognized leaders in the crusade for world peace. la follette widely promoted recognition of war's futility and the practical possibilities of world peace through binding arbitration. her impassioned advocacy would bring a rain of denupsuation including questions of her patriotism, but she steadfastly refused to modify or soft pedal
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her beliefs. la follette's argument, in the struggle for balance of power, this idea of war is the only way of settling differences among nations is a survivor of the dark ages. belle la follette was one of 3,000 women that gathered in washington, d.c. at a meeting that culminated in the formation of the women's peace party. so this is belle right there. that's jane adams there. lesson 18 -- don't be intimidated by the rich, the powerful, or the popular, if you believe they are wrong. theodore roosevelt was outraged by such pa siessivism. the chicago herald published a scathing assessment of the
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women's peace party in which the still enormously popular former president called the party's platform stilly and base, influenced by physical cowardess, vague and hysterical, an abandonment of national duty containing not one particle of good which exposes our people to measureless contempt. belle la follette fired back in la follette's magazine that roosevelt assumed, quote, that war is the only means of settling international differences and moreover that war is bound to settle them right. history demonstrates that even imperfect and temporary plans of mediation, conciliation and arbitration have been more effective than war in securing justice. that therefore, the enlightened and progressive thought of the age should be organized to
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eradicate the madness of war and be concentrated upon the future settlement of international disputes by an international tribunal. roosevelt's charge that the party was cowardly and foolish. was christ cowardly, she countered? how long before the agitation did i'm slavery last? before it was abolished? to roosevelt's assertion that by war alone can we win in the stern strife of actual life, la follette observed, the problem with mr. roosevelt is that she is intoxicated with a false idea of war. history, la follette urged, showed that people were capable of coping how they change -- how they -- i'm sorry -- changing how they copied with disagreements. more enlightened forms of resident lie resolutions ultimately replaced
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dualing for example, which had been considered an honorable way. in a speech on peace day 1915, la follette reminded her listeners that about 70% of the national income each year went to either paying for past wars or building up arms for future wins. she put this in terms that she felt would most resonate with her aid yens. what would you think of a housekeeper who was afraid of burglars and instead of working to get a communal peace organization let her obsession destroy all her equity and then spent 80% of all the household budget on iron fences and iron doors and high walls which shut out all the light and then had only 30% of her income left to clothe and feed her children. when the children of the woman in this scenario died because of her misallocation of resources, la follette asked, wouldn't you consider such housekeeping, such
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mothering sheer instanty. yet, that is exactly the kind of housekeeping our great nation is engaged in. women's call for peace, la follette concluded, is not sentimental rebelrebellion. it is calm recognition of the utter futility. that gives us today a deep and burning determination to contribute all our powers toward the end of international warfare, to cease the inevitable retardation for the development of humanity and civilization. lesson 19 -- and we're coming to a close here. i won't go on forever. put your heart for the long run into what you believe. the vilification endured by her entire family for the peace activism of herself and her husband during the war years did
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not curb belle la follette's post-war efforts to reject military preparedness which she denounced as the awful folly of wasting billions in dollars that should go for education and human betterment. la follette toured 14 cities in 1921 urging voters to reject any candidate not committed to the reduction of preparedness and arms. and when criticized for efforts publicly denounced as futile, if not un-american, la follette took the longview to counsel others against discouragement. every effort of this kind is slow. democracy, slavery, suffrage. lesson 20 -- you can make a difference. when la follette learned that secretary of state charles evan hughes opened the washington naval conference in 1921 by proposing a 50% reduction in the
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three great navies of the world, it took her breath away. she was also thrilled when idaho senator william bora credited the public opinion that she had been so central in generating as the motivating factor behind hughes' proposal. the conference resulted in three major treaties and a number of smaller agreements. most important to la follette was the five power treaty which involved the major naval powers including britain, united states, and japan. la follette also worked to gain the release of americans imprisoned for their criticism of their country's role in the war. after la follette helped obtain the release of socialist and labor leader eugene debs, he hailed her as, quote, a gifted woman of extraordinary vision and understanding and a profound sense of obligation to her
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fellow beings and to the cause of the common people. lesson 21 -- after a victory, don't rest on your laurels for long. la follette turned next to military recruitment. in 1923, she spoke in washington, d.c., before the annual meeting of the american section of the women's international league for peace and freedom. she criticized the militaryists' determined nation to conflate patriotism with military training. to look at the alluring pictures that confront us on the streets, she complained, we would think that the army and navy offer one long life of gaiety. that same year, she wrote admiringly of some of the changes she witnessed firsthand in the newly created soviet union. and in 1924, she broke precedent as a political wife by formally
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campaigning for her husband's presidential bid. i want to take a notice at that handbill from it. i did an initial search for belle la follette in the "new york times" and i got 110 hits. i thought that cannot be right. of course she wasn't belle la follette. she was mrs. robert la follette. i put that in, i got 708 hits. lesson 22 -- strategic long-term thinking usually beats knee-jerk reactions. following the death of robert la follette in 1925, a petition circulated asking belle la follette to become a candidate to fill her husband's unexpired term. she could easily become the first woman senator, but she chose not to run. a petition signed by hundreds of women asked, dear mrs. la
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follette, will you, can you turboturn away from your heritage, your people, your shepherdless flock. belle la follette will stand as one whose ambitions for her husband and their sons was ambitious first of all that their shared ideas of social justice, which were also her ideals, should prevail. his mother recognized that her term would be granted more as a tribute to her late husband than as a serious political investment. by virtue of his sex as well as his age, robert junior would be far more likely than his mother to be repeatedly reelected and could therefore lead the la follette progressive movement for years to come.
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with his mother serving as his campaign manager, robert la follette jr. was indeed elected to the senate seat which he would occupy for the next 21 years. lesson 23, progressive activism is a life long commitment. following her husband's death, belle la follette not only kept the family magazine alive, she served as the chief advisor to both robert junior and her son phil, elected in 1930 as wisconsin's governor. she also continued to advise wisconsin congressman james frere urging him to remind the folks over and over again of the costs of the war and give them concrete suggestions and ways and means of preventing another war. as the nation sank deeper into the great depression, she could not resist continuing to campaign for progressive solutions to problems old and
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new. she denounced president herbert hoover for doing too lgt to alleviate the government unemployment, publicly criticizing him for being a friend of the power trust. she campaigned to save the children's bureau and wrote admiringly of the efforts of gandhi to implement his five-point program in india, particularly his dedication to women's equality with man. only her death in 1931 brought an end to her activism. so the final lesson, give credit where it's due. belle la follette deserves recognition for contributing significantly to the political achievements of her husband and sons. but the determination to provide that recognition has obscured the contributions that she made in her own right to causes of her own choosing, blocking recognition of her full legacy. a closer look reveals an
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unexpected belle la follette, a passionate feminist dedicated to peace, civil rights, and making her nation a better place through a variety of innovative reforms. her life, i believe, offers valuable lessons for today. thank you. [ applause ] >> well, thank you very much. i'm delighted you all stayed away and you're here. this is terrific. i certainly would welcome any questions or comments. >> can you say anything about -- orientation towards socialism and her relationship with eugene -- [ inaudible ] >> she did not say that she was
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a socialist. but she was a pacifist and she was certainly far more radical than her husband, who was pretty radical for a u.s. senator. so i would say that in many ways, she was a socialist, but she did not claim that title. she and her husband, though, did argue about this issue and they were pretty open about it. so i would say that she -- she did not go as far to claim herself a socialist however, so i can't go that far. hope that answers your question. it's a little iffy. yeah. >> are girls in today's schools, people like belle la follette, is that included in the curricula? >> our girls today learning
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about belle la follette in today's school system, obviously depends on who's teaching and i think you have a much better chance if you're in wisconsin. but if you go online and you put in belle la follette and you do video, there's a little four-minute video of her that is just terrific. my son is a vice principal in east palo alto. in my guest lecture to his sixth graders, they know about her. but that isn't really answering your question. i think that political history is not really in fashion right now. it's much more social history. because she does womens issues and so forth, she can kind of bridge that divide. i would say even in wisconsin, most people don't know who the la follettes are. i think that she's a hidden gem that i'm trying to get a little more attention for her. >> i'm wondering how you were
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introduced to her and also was that an excerpt from your book? >> no. some -- so how did i first come to find belle la follette and then was this an excerpt from my book. i took some of the quotes from my book, but i put together this just for you. i wrote a buyiiography of robera follette first. i read a paragraph about this man who did all these things politically that i really approved of. he was very liberal and able to achieve a lot of meaningful reform. protection of workers, lot of stuff that really changed people's lives on a daily basis for the good. i was interested in why someone who had been such a successful senator and who really wanted to be president wasn't able to parlay that into the presidency. so i got very interested in him. once you get interested in him,
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the la follettes write to each other every day and they save every scrap of paper. so you have so much information and you can't really do him without her because he is so -- he just -- he loves her so much and all of these things that she's saying is getting a lot of criticism and he doesn't care. he never says to her once, could you tone it down. you know, the stuff about peace, and because she pushed him hard to vote against u.s. entry into world war one. and he was really struggling. la follette junior said mom, you have to come, he can't take the strain. he was very dependent upon her. once you get into him, you get into her, then you get into the chirp. because they all write to each other every five minutes too. it's a package deal. you can't just do one la follette.
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