In Place to Make Change: NC2020 and the Commemoration of Women’s Suffrage

Abstract

This article explores how women and nonbinary activists, community organizers, and state employees have navigated the complexities of commemorating the women’s suffrage movement. Drawing from oral history research conducted in anticipation of the Nineteenth Amendment’s centennial by the Southern Oral History Program’s undergraduate fall 2019 internship class, this co-written piece includes interview segments from four different women and places them in the context of contemporary struggles against voter suppression and systemic racism. Interview narrators discuss their experiences as African American, Native American, Mexican American, and white women engaging with the history of women’s suffrage, contemporary voter suppression, and voting today.