Handle-Krom Lecture Covers Women’s Suffrage in the Hudson Valley

The Marist Office of Alumni Relations held the ninth annual Handle-Krom Lecture in Hudson River Valley History featuring Jennifer Lemak and Ashley Hopkins-Benton from the New York State Museum. Together, they developed the exhibition and companion catalog "Votes for Women: Celebrating New York's Suffrage Centennial" that was on display in the New York State Museum from Nov. 2017 to May 2018. Thomas Wermuth, vice president of Academic Affairs at Marist and the director of the Hudson Valley Institute, introduced the speakers.

“Dr. Jennifer Lemak is the chief curator of history at the New York State Museum,” Wermuth said. “Her current projects include research on the Equal Rights Amendment in New York State and an upcoming exhibit on the 50th anniversary of the Attica prison uprising. Ashley Hopkins-Benton is the senior historian and curator of social history at the New York State Museum where she focuses on women's history, LGBTQ history, immigrant and ethinic history and sculpture and toys. She is the co-author of “Votes for Women” and “Enterprising Waters: The History and Art of New York's Erie Canal.” 

Lemak and Hopkins-Benton began their presentation by showing images and talking about the objects that were on display in their exhibition. Their presentation focused on the centennial of women's suffrage in New York State, with specific attention paid to the Hudson River Valley.

“When we talk about the history of women's suffrage and the fight for women's rights in New York State, a lot of times the story begins in 1848 in Seneca Falls, but of course women were fighting for their rights long before that,” Hopkins-Benton said. “So we decided to start our story right at the time of the American Revolution.”

U.S. law takes after the laws of England. When a woman was married, all of her property went to her husband, which was problematic for women who had an inheritance or any earnings. Women effectively petitioned for 12 years until the New York State legislator finally passed a law protecting married women's property rights. One of the most outspoken advocates at the time was Ernestine Rose. She came to the U.S. from Poland in 1836 and set out on a speaking tour that gained attention from both men and women. 

“The main way that women were able to communicate their ideas early on was through petitions to the government,” Hopkins-Benton said. “Of course, if you don’t have the right to vote, you lack a voice in the government, but petitions were a really powerful way women could get their ideas across.”

At a convention in Seneca Falls, NY in 1848 the Declaration of Sentiments was drafted and signed by 68 women and 32 men who attended the first convention. The Declaration contained lists of grievances from the women's suffrage movement and argued that women should have the right to vote.

“You can see at this time when we are talking about women's rights, we are not just talking about the vote,” Hopkins-Benton said. “It’s a really broad spectrum of issues that they felt all went hand and hand. For the women of the 19th century, writing was a key tool that they used in their movement.” 

During the Civil War, the women’s rights reformers set aside their agenda for suffrage and began putting their energy into the war effort. It was a tactic used by the reformers with the belief that their assistance to the war could help them win the right to suffrage when the war ended. 

“There was optimism across the board that African American suffrage and women's suffrage could happen at the same time,” Hopkins-Benton said. “The American Equal Rights Association was formed to promote both causes, universal suffrage.”

Around the same time, the National Woman's Suffrage Association was formed. The association focused on a state-by-state strategy to get laws passed for women’s rights. In 1872, there was a new idea in the women’s suffrage movement called the New Departure. The movement adopted the belief that under existing amendments, up to the 15th Amendment, women already had the right to vote or at least weren’t forbidden from doing so. 

“In 1872, 16 women in Rochester, New York actually took to the polls,” Hopkins-Benton said. “These women included Susan B. Anthony and Mary Anthony. Susan B. Anthony was the only one arrested and she was made a test case. Before her trial, she spoke in every district in Monroe County and the trial was moved because they found she had reached her audience.” 

The end of the 19th century brought new opportunities for women and their movement because the cultural and political landscape of the United States had changed. Specifically, in New York State, slavery was abolished and the state made advancements in industrialization and urban growth.

“Women began working outside the home in larger numbers, more women were going to school longer and some women were even getting a college education,” Lemak said. “Locally, Vassar College was founded in 1861 and was the second degree-granting institution of higher education for women. By 1896, women could vote in four Western states: Wyoming, Utah, Colorado and Idaho.”

In 1910, the Hudson Valley hosted a number of different suffrage organizations and political equality clubs. In 1912, the Colored Women’s Suffrage League was established in New Rochelle, New York. Prior to this, African American women weren't allowed to join most clubs so they had to form their own organizations to fight for racial and gender equality. 

“Long-standing racism would plague the entire suffrage movement in both the North and the South,” Lemak said. “Oftentimes, Black women had to march at the end of the parade and they were not allowed to mix with the white marchers. However, the Dutchess County Equal Suffrage League appeared to be integrated. In 1914, they held a meeting at the Poughkeepsie AME Zion Church on Smith Street to recruit members.” 

Over the next two decades, women used tactics such as gaining signatures, marching to the state capitol in Albany, New York and mobilizing women from every county across the state to fight for their rights. Women in New York State won the right to vote in 1917 when men across the state took to the polls and decided whether women should have the right to vote. The majority of men voted in women’s favor, which was a key state victory for women’s suffrage before the 19th Amendment to the Constitution was ratified in 1920, finally granting women the right to vote across the nation.

“Women and some men spread out across the state in an effort to educate male voters about women's suffrage and earn their vote, including African Americans,” Lemak said. “World War I provided women in New York State with an opportunity: if women aided the war effort they could in turn demand to vote as a reward for their wartime service. Dedication to the war worked and President Wilson endorsed suffrage as a war measure.”

Lemak and Hopkins-Benton ended their presentation by showing images of the 2017 Women's March. Specifically, their images were of the Women's March on the Walkway Over the Hudson in Poughkeepsie. Although women now have the right to vote in the U.S., the speakers recognized that women are still fighting for equal rights. 

“We connected the present to the past by looking at signs that had the same mottos and ideas that the suffragist used,” Hopkins-Benton said.

Jennifer Lemak and Ashley Hopkins-Benton from the New York State Museum spoke to Marist community members about the centennial of women's suffrage in New York State, with specific attention paid to the Hudson River Valley. Source: Office of Alumni Relations