The Crusade of Women's Suffrage in North Carolina

Cape Fear Unearthed

The Women's Suffrage Movement was fought city by city, league by league for nearly eight decades.

Changing the country's mind on what role women should play in society was never going to be an easy fight, but for years, the suffragettes at the center of the movement persisted.

On August 18, 1920, their work paid off when the 19th Amendment was ratified and women officially got the right to vote. In an eleventh hour turn of events, North Carolina played a role in those final days of the fight – by voting down the amendment.

To commemorate the 100th anniversary of this victory, this episode of Cape Fear Unearthed features a special conversation with Cape Fear Museum historian Jan Davidson about the movement.

What fueled it, how did divergent ideas of womanhood threaten it and what role did North Carolina come to play in it on the eve of the passage of the 19th Amendment.

While not always perfect in its pursuit, the Women’s Suffrage movement was intimately tied to the racial politics of post-Civil War America, and would become a model for the future fight to secure every American the right to vote.

Cape Fear Unearthed is written, edited and hosted by Hunter Ingram. Additional editing by Adam Fish.

The show is sponsored by Northchase Family Dentistry, Tidewater Heating & Air Conditioning, and Cape Fear Pharmacy.

Sources:

• "The Women's Suffrage Movement in North Carolina: Parts 1 & 2" by Elizabeth A. Taylor, North Carolina Historical Review, January-July 1961
• "Not for Ourselves Alone: The Story of Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony" (dir. Ken Burns, 1999)
• "Suffrage: Women's Long Battle for the Vote," by Ellen Carol DuBois