carolina. weeknights this month, we're featuring american history tv program as a preview of what's available every weekend on c-span three. tonight, a look at women in politics. on the night the democratic vice president candidate kamala harris addresses the democratic convention, we shall to pass convention speeches from woman vice presidential nominees. in 1984, democrat gerald farrow who ran with walter model. and in 2000 2008, sarah palin around john mccain. what tonight beginning at eight eastern and enjoy american history tv this weekend every weekend on c-span three. good afternoon everyone and welcome. my name is dr. colleen shokin and i'm the vice chair of the women's suffrage centennial commission. on half behalf of the commission and twitter, i'm

thrilled to be bringing that women's rights to the vote. celebrating 100 years of the 19th amendment. conversation with the award winning historian elaine. weiss and secret former secretary of state, hillary roth and clinton moderated. -- august 26, 2020 marks 100 year anniversary of the 19th amendment and women's right to vote. and in and in honor of this milestone of american democracy, congress has officially designated august as national women's suffrage. about the women's national suffrage commission is coordinating national sovereignty month on behalf of congress in the american people. at this history interest you please visit the commission at women's vote 100 dot or work to learn more and to engage. but for now, let's enjoy this conversation between these three brilliant women as we celebrate this in nail of women's average and pay tribute to the trail blazing

suffragists who pave the way for our right to vote. hello. colleen thank you for that thoughtful introduction. our labor of congress calling hated and i join you from the library college suffrage exhibit shall be not denied. welcome to women's via rights for the vote celebrating 100 years of the 19th amendment. a conversation with historian elaine weiss and for me of secretary of state hillary rotem clinton. what a joy it is to be here with these two women discussing this history innocent and every year. i'd like to start with some brief introductions. elaine weiss who is joining me today for this conversation at the library of congress is an award winning journalist, writer and historian. as well as the author of the women's our, the great fight to win the vote which tells the story of tennessee's role as the 36th and final state to

ratify the 19th amendment. it's also just been put out into a young readers addition. also joining us today is secretary howler hillary rotem clinton. secretary clinton of course has a long career in public service and i have her 1996 book it takes a village. that really make sure that we consider young people. she was also making history in 2016 as the first woman to earn a major parties nomination for president. she's long been a champion of women suffrage history and is working with elaine as an executive producer on the television of adaptation of the women's hour. so secretary clinton and elaine let's get started. so to start us off, this is a question for both of you. women's fight for the vote was

the longest political and social movement in american history. so why isn't the story of women's suffrage more widely taught? >> secretary clinton? >> and thanks so much karla. delighted to be here with you and elaine to talk about this. i think your question really goes to the heart. one of the challenges that we have faced that suffrage history was considered at best an add on to real american history. it was not given the respect and the academy. it was not the subject of curriculum development. i remember very little in my public school years of learning about anything having to do with the suffrage movement other than eventually women

were given as he would say, the right to vote. so i think that this 100th anniversary, what you've done with the exhibit at the library, the commissions work, obviously great scholarship like a lion's book is filling a vacuum because we did not know enough about the history and how it links with a continuing struggle in america to form a more perfect union and try, despite all the setbacks in obstacles, to keep moving towards true equality for everyone. >> and elaine, was it difficult with the research because of the secretary says, i know certainly wasn't part of my experience in great school at all? >> well that's absolutely true. it's not been taught very

deeply in our curriculum but it's always been wonderful scholarship. just hasn't filtered down which was why i decided to write the book. there's wonderful scholarship and of course there's wonderful prime rate documents. there's the collection in the library of congress for me in the tennessee state archives at the library. . there's wonderful rich documentation of the seven decade movement and yet it has not filtered down to public awareness. so that was one of the things that i wanted to do, i wanted to take those primary documents to tell the story so richly and the scholarly work that's been done and synthesize into a story would intrigue a modern reader. it has so many of the things

that were still grappling with today so i'm very hopeful that going forward in this year there have been wonderful new suffrage books. we weren't surrounded by an wonderful new additions to tell the story from different angles. i think that's one of the wonderful things about the centennial, that it is fostering this interest, both in scholarship and in popular culture of looking at this important movement and learning the lessons that it teaches. >> secretary clinton, you serve this first lady, a senator, secretary of state and the women's suffrage movement, did it have anything in terms of informing your journey? wearing what you wore? that was duly noted. >> yes indeed carla. you know, when you come to grips with how hard it was for

women to first get included in the constitution to be able to vote and then how much more difficult it was to enforce that right, especially for black women, native american women who were left out because of the way that the amendment was ignored and how it was part of the continuing efforts in many places to deny black people and other minorities the right to vote. i really see what elaine just said as an important point. what happened 100 years ago is still relevant today. i certainly as first lady, a senator, a secretary of state, and democratic nominee in 2016 fought often about how the women who started the suffrage movement, you know women like

sojourner truth, like elizabeth katie stanton, like susan bee anthony. these women did not love to see the result of all their labor. and sometimes you have to understand here in the race of history. you're handing off the baton the you've taken from someone else. i think there is an enormous amount of energy right now at this moment in our history to write wrongs, to bring about a reckoning with racism, sexism, a lot of the challenges that unfortunately we still live with. that was certainly very present in my mind during the last years and the early suffragists encouraged and inspired me. >> did you feel that as you stood there you knew you were carrying on a legacy? >> i did. very much carla. i felt like it to be in a long

time since we got the vote, it's been a really long time since any are two major political parties and even considered a woman even for the present vice presidential ticket and then obviously being nominated, a felt like i was standing in a great river of history. i felt so privileged and honored to play that role, to be there at that moment, to try to link our past, present and future. that's why i get so much encouragement and i'm truly optimistic about this time because young people seem so energize and committed to trying to do better. really create more opportunity to try to bring everyone into the american experiment. i was incredibly conscious of it and remains so today because the work continues, it is by no

means done. >> that's why elaine your book for young readers, making that available to the ten, and 11 year olds, what's so powerful is that you give them the history, you show them. then you give him a call to action. a ten year old can pick up your book and you tell them why. >> it's because activism isn't just a particular time in your life i think i'm wanting to show through the story of this decades long movement which took on its own momentum through three generations of women. and of course went on for another 40 years for black women and almost as long for asian women and native american women. i wanted to show that sometimes the seeds are planted very

young so i tell the story, several of the leading suffrage is who really become conscious of of injustice when a young girls when their children. they see their mothers not able to vote or they see that their fathers who are judges cannot protect women because the laws are written in such a way that they have very few legal rights in the 19th century. i wanted to show that the passion for social justice or any number of passionate young people can recognize because they have a very keen sense of what is justin what is not, i think it's really important to realize that what they can feel that and then they will have the tools and the knowledge, even as a very young adult to bring that passion into the world and begin creating

change. the suffrage movement involved protests and demonstration and also very sophisticated political strategy. i think that's important the young people realize that it's gonna take all of that. >> you're gonna bring a powerful story lane and secretary to the screen and television series by stephen spielberg's production company. secretary, hear the executive producer so elena have to ask you this. what did you feel as an author when you got that call? >> well, i was a dream of a lifetime. kind of knows dreamed of lifetime kind of a moment. a very special moment. for me, it was the idea that hillary clinton had read my book. i think that was the most powerful part of it.

and then how deeply she understood the power of the story. and wanting to make the story available to the largest audience. we agreed, we need to tell the story because it's meaningful not just in our history but how we go forward and how we learn from this experience of having to fight for half of the nation to get the vote. so the idea of partnering together on this has been one of the most spectacular experiences. we're working hard to adapt this into something that young people will be interested in watching. i think it's been a great, wonderful rollercoaster experience for both of us. we're not familiar with the ways of hollywood and we're learning. would you agree? >> have agree 100%. you know carl, i've never done

that before. i've read a lot of books that inspired me and i've written letters to authors to thank them for bringing the book alive but i finished lanes booked a woman's hour and i was just stunned by number one the beauty of her riding and storytelling and what a compelling dramatic story it was! that final effort in tennessee to get the final state needed to ratify the amendment. i have to confess, i vaguely knew the tennessee was the last eight and i had come across ending of the story where the young legislators changes his vote because of a note he gets from his mother. but i had no idea real suite of this historic moment in american history so i did caller and i said you have to

bring this to a larger audience. you've got to make sure that especially young people, particularly young women understand, this was hanging by a thread and then all these powerful interests, the rail world countries, the alcohol industry. a lot of these attitudes about women's place being in the home, the women who were against it. there's so much of this that is still swirling around in our politics. so i was thrilled when spielberg and his team said they were interested and as a lane said, it's a challenge. more so because of the pandemic. taking a historical work like the woman's our which has so much drama already but, making it accessible to this generation. i am really in awe of al ain's patients. she has done a great guide for

the hollywood interests and understanding the significance of the story. part of that drama and i as a woman of color, i just want to get this quote. when the national museum of american history and culture opened in the dedication president george w. bush said, a great nation does not hide its near history, it faces its flaws and correct them. that story of race and prejudice in the suffrage movement is very compelling. secretary clinton can you share your thoughts on the? he said before the good in the bad in this movement. >> i think we are coming to understand that every human being has strengths and weaknesses. have a human being has strengths real moments of

greatness, sadly moments of departure from that, flaws that go with a process of being a human being especially one in the public stage. so we take very seriously the challenges that were within the suffrage movement. starting after the civil war, because originally carla as you know so well, suffrage and abolition were kind of married together. the grim key sisters were preaching for abolition of slavery but also speaking on behalf of women's rights. a great example of that. both susan be anthony kitty stand, so many of the pioneers coming out of the senate to false declaration of sentiments

and 1848, they were joined by frederick douglass. so there was a real marriage, effort and belief, conviction, commitments between the abolitionists and the suffrage movement. after the civil war, when the constitution was amended to give black men the right to vote, that began a rupture between the two movements. i have tried to understand it from the perspective of everyone involved. i do understand some of the challenges that i think both black and white women tried to deal with. they were sometimes successful are coming together and re-committing themselves to the struggle, but even up to the very end when the pressure was on congress and woodrow rupe wilson who actually passed the amendment, you see the

calculations of an alice paul or an ida b. wells, mary charge kara two white suffragists and black suffragists trying to figure out, how do we deal with both sex and race? how do we deal with the prejudices that affect both women and black people and particularly black women? it's a very important part of the story of suffrage. it's a very important lesson to i think people in the president, especially young people going forward. you can't sacrifice any part of your value system. you have to stay firm, you are against racism and you are against sexism. you want to move everybody forward and i'd love to hear a lame talk about that because she captures the tension in the women's our and how block

suffragists and nashville and tennessee joined forces. i think in a very realistic and pragmatic way with the white suffragists but they also knew that their full rights were not being recognized at that time. >> elaine, you captured it. >> well, absolutely. we see this happen all the time. we suing it today. where the powers that be looked at disenfranchised groups they pit to disenfranchise groups against one another. only one of you can be a franchise, only one of you are going to get the legislation that you need to protect yourself. and we see this happen over and over again in the suffrage movement. again, learning the lessons of what went wrong, of the

attitudes that hindered universal's suffrage. all citizens having the right to vote. i think it's important as telling the story of the way the suffragists succeeded. i try to do that and i do also bring up this alliance that happened in nashville of black suffragists and white suffragists working together for ratification because black women were working in every city, in every town in america understanding how important the vote. was understanding and south of jim crow laws were going to impede-y ate their ability to exercise the 19th amendment. the great disappointment is that the suffragists to not insist that the 19th amendment be enforced and congress

refuses to enforce it going forward after 1920. it's left to the jim crow laws propagated by racist legislators in the southern states. so this idea the you can have constitutional law, but if it's not enforced, if the public will is not strong enough to force politicians to fall through on it, then legislation, even constitutional amendments are not as meaningful or as powerful as they should be. so that's a really important lesson for today, and it's also a lesson that leaving aside your colleagues, your sisters who you know are going to have trouble exercising this right you have just acquired, that you just fought for and one in the 19th amendment is going to

weaken american democracy. if you're not taking that next vital step. that's an important thing for us to remember today. and in the congress and our state legislators, in our city municipal government bodies trying to right some wrongs, trying to make a more equal and a more perfect union. we have to remember that as secretary clinton put so well, you can't leave your ideals behind for political expediency. that said, there are forces that are going to try to make you those moral compromises and standing up to that is very important but difficult. >> and secretary, the way a lane just put it. there is hope and looking at history. what's that something the problem made you look made you

look it's something akin to a broader audience cars looking at the history, it takes everyone so is that part of what you felt? >> absolutely. you know carla the library of congress as a repository of history. you preside over in effect the real core of people's memories, their struggles, their efforts and it's such an important job that you have at the library and you're taking it out of the library. well similarly, i think we have to take history not only into our schools but into the media, into social media, and with the streets where people have to see as clearly as possible what came before so that they can learn those lessons.

elaine just said something that i think is so important and i alluded to it earlier. the relay race of history where you go as far as you can and then you hand off the baton and keep going. here in this river, let's say we're having a relay race in a river. but every so often, the river backs up on you or the people running the box of dams say i'm sorry only a few of you can get through this. timing have to wait your turn. it's a tough compromise. on the one hand, you want to push as far as you can, we want to claim the progress he made, pass off the baton for others to keep going. and on the other hand, sometimes those compromises, they just aren't fair. they are just and so i find this after the lane did with the women's hour, a lot of the

work that are coming out around suffrage are really important because it tries to fill up the historical record so that we learn more about the black suffrage us, we learn more about the corporate and political and cultural and economic interests standing in the way of suffrage. we learned that these battles were fighting today have precedent going back hundreds of years but certainly the last hundred and 70 years at the beginning of the suffrage movement. so i'm disappointed that the pandemic stop this from doing a lot of the events that were planned but i'm thrilled that true a virtual events like this one with you karla, you elaine i can talk to a much broader audience about not only what happen but what needs to keep happening, to keep faith with all those early suffragists. >> that's why the saying

there's hope in history resonates so much that you see that there were conflicts, there were doubts, there were so many things that happens. because we are in this environment, we are also of available to take questions and have a few from you, for both of you that were submitted to us. they were submitted on twitter. the first as a two part question and it's for secretary clinton from mali who was a girl scout in east tennessee. so there you go right there. she asks, what advice do you think the suffragists would give a girl like me who wants to be president when the? >> this is can i learn about the suffragettes in school this year did? you >> will molly, first of all of your question. i did not learn very much about

the suffragists and school when i was your age so i am thrilled that you were learning. of course, being from east tennessee, you are right in the place where the 19th amendment was finally passed and i hope that you will read the young person's version of the woman's hour because it's about nashville, it's about east tennessee. it's about the young man, the legislator from tennessee who cast the decisive vote. i think that if the suffragists were here and let's say from the very beginning of the 19th century through the final ratification of the amendment, they would be both amazed that a young woman like yourself wants to be president, but they would be thrilled. they would be encouraging and i think they would tell you a couple of things and i love to have a lane chime in here.

number one. the suffragists, black and white, believe strongly in education. some are able to have a lot of education, some had a rude rudimentary education. but they never stopped learning, they were constantly educating themselves and that's what i think underscored their preparedness for that long 70 year struggle. secondly, they were great at building coalitions even when sometimes they split apart. they were in coalitions in different forms for those 70 years and they never lost hope molly. they never gave up on their goal of winning the vote for women. and so yes, it gets discouraging sentence, you'll have setbacks, no human being can go through life without them. what will really matter and what i think the suffragists would want you to do that when he suffered a setback or

disappointment in your public, professional or personal life, you get back up and keep going or do you stop? and of course they would tell you, get up and keep going and keep going towards the goal. you might have to adjust your approach, your tactics but don't give up on what you want and understand how you can make a difference in others lives in pursuing their own personal interests. >> don't give up. and this question is for elaine and it comes from amanda at the museum in pennsylvania. amanda asks. if you could magically discover the previously unknown writings of one suffragette that reveals her own personal thoughts, convictions of motivations, which suffragette would you choose? >> magic!

well, of the suffrage us. there are ministries. there are documents or personal communications that we don't have. certainly while i was writing the book, i was visiting the archives of the library of congress, there were times when i thought that wouldn't be great if i knew why they were doing? this i think to tell the truth, it is the leaders at least to really well documented. we do have a fair number of their letters describing why they're making those choices that they're making. i think perhaps i would like to see other wells barnett's, her diary of entering the 1913

suffrage march here in washington d.c. where she refused to march at the end of the parade. she breaks in to the prayed and marches with her illinois suffragists. they embrace her hand they march with her and that illinois delegation. i do have a believe the national archives actually has some letters between the suffragists and alice poe who is having this march. they're saying that the march should not be segregated. the march was segregated because of the idea that the really some people would take offense. some southern women suffragists and also the community of washington east d.c. which was highly segregated and 1913

would take offense they saw black women marching with white women at the head of the line. so, i would've loved to have seen her immediate reaction. we have that wonderful picture of her marching proudly having bursts into this forbidden spot. but i would've loved to have seen her notes to her family at that moment. it could be that it does exist and i don't know of it but that would i think be a searing description of not accepting the limitations that were being placed upon black women, even with within the suffrage movement. >> that shows us more research to do. that's what you get. in fact our last question is for from barbara in washington d.c.. so as both of you to answer

secretary. clinton maybe could start us off. barbara asks, what does it mean to you to see how much americans have embraced this history this year? >> oh it means the world to me barbara. i want to put in a plug for the library and the smithsonian leave up there exhibits because sadly because of the pandemic, many people who i know we're interested in both have not been able to visit. i want to make a few quick points about this because you know we're having a big debate over statuary monumental statutes statues right now. a lot of these women deserve statues. ida b. wells, sojourner true, carrie chapman can, mary church

terrell, a lot of them. alice paul. when we think about, okay, if we're gonna have visible, physical memorials, why don't we celebrate those women who through history moved us tours up more perfect union. and to that end, it was founded after a survey that new york city had very few statues of women. so at the end of this month, there will be an unveiling of a statue of sojourner true and elizabeth katie stent and susan b anthony and central park where the only pry her woman was allison wonderland. so it means the world to me that people are focusing in history, learning lessons from, it adjusting their own understanding of the difficulties that so many people had to overcome to widen

that circle of opportunity to make our constitution real. not just to a very small group as it was in the beginning but to every american. i think it could not have come at a more opportune time for us to resolve that we are going to make our future different, truly different from our past. and finally resolve a lot of these long-standing, thorny issues about a quality and constitutional inclusion that have really kept us unequal and unjust for too long. >> and elaine? >> i totally agree. commemorating the centennial has allowed us to do to look back, to learn those lessons, to realize that our democracy

is not. even every generation, sometimes many generations have to fight to expand it, to make it work. but it's also given rise to new research and new interests and locality. so that suffrage leaders in rural communities, in native american communities, and hispanic communities are being lifted up out of the archives because it's a little harder to find those sometimes. other being lifted, after being celebrated, written about, spoken about and local terms. so every state is doing more deep research, of a communities doing deep research in preparation for the centennial moment and i think that's really important. who are getting voices of america african american suffrage is, native american suffrage is, and asian american suffrage is, and all americans averages and suffragists for supporting man.

we are getting those voices back into the narrative so we're gonna really come out of the centennial with a much more complicated nuanced deep understanding of what this movement meant and why it's important today. >> well, i can assure you both and all of our viewers that the library of congress is extending the shall not be denied exhibit and also the companion exhibit rosa parks in her own words. the fact that those two exhibits are now also virtually i align. we continue and make sure that we can reach out to everybody. thank you elaine and secretary clinton for joining me in this conversation. this is inspirational and a means so much to have both of you. have both you really let that there's hope in history.

thank you so much thank you to the commission. >> thank you. >> thank you. thank you over much. >> on behalf of the centennial centennial commission and twitter we would like to thank twitter elaine weiss and set of senator clinton for helping us of. today it there will be held throughout august in celebration of national suffrage month. as the suffrage say onward. >> coming up american history tv features women in politics. we begin in a more in moment with congresswoman -- accepting the vice president nomination at the 1984 congressional event. -- that's followed by sarah palin's acceptance speech to run with john mccain on the republican to get 2008. and then the u.s. house

historian shows us artifacts and stories of women who have held offices of congress in 2019. coming up on c-span three. >> you're watching american history tv every weekend on c-span three explore our nations past. c-span 3 created by american to cable companies and brought to you today by your television provider. >> york congresswoman gerald team for our was the first woman nominated for a major party for a presidential. ticket upticks she accepts the vice president nomination at the 1984 democratic national convention in san francisco. she and -- would lose the general election to gop's nomination ronald reagan and george h. w. bush.