The Fight for Suffrage

While the 19th Amendment was a major victory and cause for celebration, it did not mean an end to the suffrage story. Many women still had to struggle to exercise their right to vote, especially women of color. Access to polling places, lack of information, and other barriers restricted the actual practice of voting for many women. The founding of the Evanston League of Women Voters in 1921 was meant to address ongoing issues of access and information.

Voting rights remains an important issue and is the focus of concern for many Evanston citizens today. Issues such as requirements for voter identification, universal voter registration, non-citizen legal residents voting in local elections, and the reinstatement of voting rights for those released from incarceration, are much-debated and unresolved. The battle over who is a citizen and what that citizenship entails goes on to this day.

Credits

Alexia Oluwadeyi