James Holzhauer won Jeopardy! thirty-two straight times and was poised to take over the top spot on the show’s all-time, regular-play winnings list. That was before Emma Boettcher, a librarian from Chicago, defeated him in last night’s episode.
While Holzhauer’s loss is making headlines this morning, another event that happened a century ago today is receiving far less attention than it deserves.
A vote that changed history
A hundred years ago today, Congress passed the Nineteenth Amendment to the US Constitution and sent it to the states for ratification. It states simply: “The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of sex. Congress shall have the power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation.”
The amendment was adopted by the states the following year. While it obviously changed history, the history of the amendment is also worth our reflection this morning.
In the 1872 presidential election, Susan B. Anthony and fourteen other women cast votes. At the time, women were forbidden from voting. Three weeks later, Anthony was arrested. She was put on trial the next June.
Because she was a woman, she was forbidden from testifying in her own defense. She was found guilty of illegal voting but never paid the fine imposed by the judge.
“Women, their rights, and nothing less”
Four years later, Anthony led a protest at the 1876 Centennial celebrating America’s independence. She made famous the declaration, “Men, their rights, and nothing more; women, their rights, and nothing less.” Twelve years later, she helped form the National American Women’s Suffrage Association and led the group until 1900.
Anthony traveled across America giving speeches, gathered thousands of signatures on petitions, and lobbied Congress every year on behalf of women’s rights. She died in 1906, fourteen years before women won…
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