AMEX_TheVote_VirtualEvent

PBS American Experience: The Vote – a virtual event

AMEX_TheVote_VirtualEventJoin the PBS history series American Experience for a virtual screening and lively discussion about the unsung leaders and deep controversies of the women’s suffrage movement explored in The Vote.

Please share with any academic department or student group interested. Students will be encouraged to ask questions and join the conversation. This is an unprecedented time for learning, and we’re happy to be able to connect with the students and faculty who were looking forward to this film and robust discussion. Feel free to choose one event for your students to attend so you’re all together, or share both, it’s up to you.

The film producers, along with experts from The Vote, will be hosting two free virtual events:

Tuesday, April 28 / 3 – 4:30 p.m. PT

We will be screening:

Extended: The Washington Parade of 1913

In this clip, we will travel to 1913, as provocative suffrage leader Alice Paul organizes a massive suffrage parade on Pennsylvania Avenue. Suffragists from around the country, including Ida B. Wells, travel to Washington D.C. as word of the event spreads in the press. But unexpected internal and external challenges threaten the success of the parade. In the wake of the parade, Alice Paul and Lucy Burns set their sights on President Woodrow Wilson. Disagreement within the National Suffrage organization grows over Paul’s antagonistic tactics. The movement’s efforts reach a climax in 1915 with referendum votes in New York, Massachusetts, and other major eastern states. This looks like the suffrage movement’s best chance for a breakthrough.

Discussion Guests:

  • Susan Bellows, Acting Executive Producer, American Experience
  • Michelle Ferrari, Producer, Director and Writer, The Vote
  • Martha Jones, Society of Black Alumni Presidential Professor and Professor of History, The Johns Hopkins University
  • Susan Ware, Scholar, Historian

Free registration for the Tuesday, April 28 virtual event is available. Access to the screening will be automatically provided to confirmed registrants.

 

Wednesday, April 29 / 5 – 6:30 p.m. PT

We will be screening

Extended: Upping the Ante and Jailed for Freedom

In this clip, we look at the suffrage movement in 1917, six decades since the movement began in earnest. Frustrated by the ongoing lack of success, fiery suffrage leader Alice Paul begins a daily picket in front of the White House gates. Although controversial within the National Woman Suffrage Association, this action draws considerable media attention to Paul’s criticisms of Woodrow Wilson and his unwillingness to take action. However, the beginning of America’s involvement in WWI changes the landscape of protest within the country. While Paul continues her picket, public outrage over her actions grows to an uproar. Carrie Chapman Catt, leader of the National Woman Suffrage Association, chooses to denounce Paul’s actions. Many of the women are arrested and jailed. At the same time, Catt leverages her good will with President Wilson to push for state suffrage laws, rather than a national referendum. Paul and Catt continue to employ vastly different methods working towards the same goal: voting rights for all American women.

Discussion Guests:

  • Susan Bellows, Acting Executive Producer, American Experience
  • Michelle Ferrari, Writer, Producer and Director, The Vote
  • Marcia Chatelain, Provost’s Distinguished Associate Professor of History and African American Studies, Georgetown University
  • Ellen Carol DuBois, Distinguished Research Professor, Historian

Free registration for the Wednesday, April 29 virtual event is available at the link below. Access to the screening will be automatically provided to confirmed registrants.

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