American Experience: The Vote Review

As Americans head into an election year where, sadly, there are already efforts to disenfranchise some voters, we should stop and remember the heroes of the women’s suffrage movement. If you ask most Americans who those might be, they might recall figures like Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton. After all, they helped “launch” the movement in Seneca Falls in 1848.

But there were so many other heroes who worked tirelessly for decades to make sure the 19th Amendment became a reality and many of us don’t know their names and stories. And we should. American Experience: The Vote seeks to bring some of those forgotten or less-well-known names to the forefront.

“Textbooks say women were given the vote. We weren’t given anything. We took it,” a historian suggests early in the documentary. Another adds later, “it drives me crazy” that history tells us “women were given the vote.” 

American Experience: The Vote is a fantastic four-hour miniseries (airing July 6 and 7) that highlights the decades-long struggle for women to achieve suffrage. From marches to militant action, from enduring torture in prison to being harassed on the streets, we begin to see a fraction of the difficulties women faced in order to finally bring about the critical step towards equality they had been attempting for years–the right to vote.

The documentary is narrated by Kate Burton and written, directed, and produced by Michelle Ferrari. It is executive produced by Susan Bellows and Mark Samels. To make it a multi-platform event, American Experience is launching a website called She Resisted that will feature in-depth stories of the people featured on the documentary and chronicle the movement through photos that have been brought to life through a special colorization technique for the first time.

But in the television documentary, the countless work of three generations of women is truly the star. Unlike Grant, there are no actor-based recreations or even full speeches used here–just a typical documentary style program with solid narration and a wealth of writers and historians to tell the untold stories that most of us don’t know or have long forgotten but should know. 

American Experience is told in two parts. The first part focuses on the beginning of the modern movement. Yes, they do talk about Seneca Falls, but it’s almost as an afterthought: this is primarily a story of what happens afterwards. It aims to show how competing social and political forces compelled some to support and some to oppose women’s suffrage–and the debates within the movement about how militant women should be in the process to secure their right to vote.

Episode one is mostly about these early crusaders with a particular emphasis on Alice Paul. From her early days when she was jailed in England for supporting the suffrage movement there to her continuous efforts to obtain the right to vote at the state level for women, it shows Paul as a once-reluctant leader turned militant crusader. 

Paul’s advocacy and insight helped greatly expand the movement–but at a cost. The documentary traces how opposition groups formed–including some by women who believed voting would create social chaos–and how often-times the suffrage movement would face difficult decisions that reflected the racism of the day. To win over voters, the ethical question of supporting all women or supporting white women often had to be debated within the movement itself. 

What is fascinating about episode one is it shows the grassroots ability of the movement to organize in the early 1900’s, from writing newsletters to “standing on soap boxes” (previously only a male activity) to gaining millions of signatures in states from New York to California and bringing them to Congress and the White House.

Also particularly important was the struggle suffragettes had with race. Throughout the history of the movement, many African American women joined the cause. Yet at times the leaders had to make compromises that would alienate their African American followers (like Ida B. Wells) in order to try to push the movement forward–because southern voters were trying to suppress all African American voters. The tangled relationship of the Black women’s suffrage movement and organizers like Alice Parker are explored quite well by the historians and writers who comment throughout the first episode.

Episode one discusses some early victories in the western states while also highlighting some crushing defeats in the eastern states–and explains the social factors that led to gains for women in some parts of the map while other parts of the country remained elusive.

Episode two of the documentary focuses on just four years–the years where the suffrage movement finally gained enough momentum for the 19th Amendment to pass Congress and to go to the states for support. But it took two unlikely forces working opposed to each other to pull it off. The documentary continues to feature Alice Paul, who now leads a more aggressive, militant group of women in the National Woman’s Party who chose to picket outside the White House daily and used tactics that drew ire with supporters and dissenters alike (and especially Woodrow Wilson). Meanwhile, for decades, the National American Woman Suffrage Association, under Carrie Catt, tried the diplomatic route–meeting with legislators and Wilson regularly. They eventually secured enough votes to let the Amendment go to the states. The relationship between Woodrow Wilson and the Women’s Suffrage Movement was never good–but the historians seem to argue that it was just symbiotic enough to make everything come together for the 19th Amendment to occur.

Still, it’s the more interesting moments (like women driving a car all across the country with petitions) or how Alice Paul manipulated events so the press would cover the movement daily–that are the true “gems” of the documentary. 

The last part of the documentary focuses on that: the drive for state support. Because of total opposition in the southeast, finding 36 states of the 48 states at the time to support women’s suffrage was always an uphill battle. When it all came down to the last state– Tennessee–it looked like the momentum would be lost. The documentary tells a fascinating story of the chaotic battle to convince the Tennessee legislature. Despite prohibition, tales of a “lounge” of influence (where bribes and bourbon were swaying votes away from women’s suffrage) is a fascinating reminder that votes by men can always be swayed. And yet enough tension is built into the documentary that even though we know the results about to happen, you won’t help sighing with relief when the final vote is taken because the documentary has made you feel for the life’s work of Paul and Catt.  

The pacing works well here, most likely because the documentary doesn’t suffer from the repetitive soundbite issue (where competing historians say the same thing over and over again). A variety of historians are used for the documentary. The two that seem to stand out the most are Susan Ware of the Schlesinger Library at Radcliff Institute and Martha Jones of Johns Hopkins. Their insight helps us understand why the final push for suffrage succeeded and to better grasp the complex issue of race and the suffrage movement. 

 There are a few odd shortcomings. While the focus is on the vote itself, there still seemed to be enough time to talk about social and cultural ramifications along the way. Yes, some men were unprepared for social change. How actively did they oppose the women? Was it mere individual opposition or was there organizational opposition? Until the “Tennessee” debate at the very end, it wasn’t made clear. And what about class? Were most of the state-wide leaders of the upper class because they could afford to march, organize, and protest? The issue of class (so important in 1900, for example), was rarely addressed. 

But in a week where we celebrate American independence, American Experience: The Vote should be required patriotic viewing for everyone. It admirably showcases one of the longest and most important political movements in history. You’ll agree women weren’t given the right to vote without a fight–and you’ll be reminded of how equality begins in the ballot box. When making your viewing decisions this week, be sure to give it your vote.

American Experience: The Vote airs on PBS stations nationwide Monday July 6 (9-11 Eastern, 8-10 Central) and Tuesday July 7 (9-11 Eastern, 8-10 Central).