Political Quotes

“I am proud to rise today to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the day my home State of Wisconsin became the first State in the Nation to ratify the 19th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, giving women the right to vote. Although the outcome was a historic victory, women did not gain the right to vote without a struggle. The road to Wisconsin's ratification of the 19th Amendment was paved with more than 70 years of advocacy and speeches, marches and rallies, legislation and lawsuits by strong Wisconsin suffragists. Many of the battles were lost before they were won. When Wisconsin became a State in 1848, only White male landowners over 21 years of age could vote. In 1869, women won the right to run for local school boards in Wisconsin but ironically could not vote for themselves. In 1886, Wisconsin voters approved a statewide referendum allowing women to vote in school elections. When women tried to exercise their new rights for the first time in 1887, however, many women's ballots were discarded because there was no way to verify that women voted only in school elections. Racine suffragist Olympia Brown sued to have her ballot accepted, but the State supreme court said the law was vague and needed to be rewritten. Fourteen years later, the Wisconsin Legislature approved the creation of separate ballots for women that only included school elections.…”