Page 18 - Work Force July-August 2023

Join our union for Labor Day events!
This Labor Day, CSEA members will once again show our union solidarity by marching in Labor Day parades and participating in other events. Visit cseany.org and your region’s social media pages for more information about events in your area!
Join CSEA at New York State, Dutchess Fairs
CSEA members will again staff booths at the New York State Fair in Syracuse and the Dutchess Fair in Rhinebeck to promote our union’s vital service to our communities and meet with members.
The New York State Fair will be held August 23 to September 4, and the Dutchess Fair will be held August 22-27.
To learn more about our union’s booth at the New York State Fair, contact the Central Region office at (315) 433-0050. To get more
From left to right, SUNY Oswego Local activist Colleen Dewine and Central New York DDSO Local Secretary Aida Sands volunteer at CSEA’s New York State Fair booth in 2022.
information about our union at Dutchess Fair, contact the Southern Region office at (845) 831-1000.
Westchester County Local and Unit President Hattie Adams shows her CSEA pride while standing on our union’s float at the New York City 140th Annual Labor Day Parade in 2022. (Photo by Wendi Bowie).
Labor unions, Black women key allies in suffrage fight
The right to vote that American women hold today was only granted in recent history.
Labor union women and Black women were key to women gaining the right to vote after a fight that took 72 years.
New Yorkers also played a leading role in this fight, with early suffrage leaders Elizabeth Cady Stanton
and Susan B. Anthony coming
from respectively, Johnstown and Rochester. Later suffrage leaders such as Lucy Burns and Stanton’s daughter, Harriot Stanton Blatch, also had roots in New York.
The beginnings of the suffrage movement date back to 1848 with roots in Seneca Falls, N.Y. where the first Women’s Rights Convention was held and Stanton helped launch the decades-long fight.
The suffrage movement picked up steam in the later 19th century as support for women’s voting rights increased.
Labor unions had an important
role in fighting for women’s suffrage. At the beginning of the women’s rights movement, many activists devoted to reform were middle and upper class women. Working women often had less time and funds to support social movements.
However, in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, that changed. Working women formed and joined labor unions to fight for fair pay and demand better working conditions. These women began to see that gaining the right to vote meant they would have more political power to further these causes.
Suffragists often recruited working women to support their movement. Blatch was among the first to reach out for their support. She began collaborating with the Women’s Trade Union League, which was founded in 1905 to help women form unions and advocate for fairer working conditions. In 1907, she founded the Women’s Political Union to bring more working women
into the suffrage movement. Suffragist leaders also adopted some of the same activism tactics
commonly used by unions, including demonstrations and political action. Many suffragists faced violence, torture and imprisonment for their cause.
Many Black women were also key to women gaining the right to vote, with reformers that included Josephine St. Pierre Ruffin and Charlotte Forten Grimke founding the National Association of Colored Women (NAWC) in 1898.
On Aug. 18, 1920, American women won the right to vote when the 19th amendment to the U.S. Constitution was ratified.
While the ratification of the
19th Amendment was a massive accomplishment for women’s rights, Black women would continue
to fight for full voting rights for decades due to discrimination. Many states passed laws that discriminated against Black
Americans and limited their freedoms.
These setbacks did not stop Black women from fighting for their rights. Government official and educator Mary McLeod Bethune became the founder and president of the National Council of Negro Women in 1935. Her goal to pursue civil rights for Black Americans, particularly women, was finally achieved when the Voting Rights Act was passed in 1965.
When remembering these brave women who were able to unite and fight for their rights to make political changes, it is easy to see the importance of getting out to vote.
It is essential that we use our right to vote, one that was so valiantly fought for, to make the changes we want to see
in our government and in our communities.
— Grace Cross
18 The Work Force
July-August 2023