S02 E21 - California: Mighty Coalition Fights for the Vote

In this episode, we talk about the votes for women movement in California.

• Maria de Lopez was a Latina suffragist who brought a powerful bilingual voice to California’s suffrage drive, both speaking and writing in Spanish.
• John Hyde Braly was a prominent businessman and public education advocate who became a staunch suffragist and started the Political Equality League to recruit influential men to the cause.
• Charlotta Bass published her newspaper for the Black community, The California Eagle, advocating votes for women as well as waging a “fearless war against segregation and discrimination.”
• Ellen Clark and Aaron A. Sargent were a suffrage power couple with Senator Sargent making history by introducing the 29-word woman suffrage amendment to the U.S. Senate in 1878. It was reintroduced every year for over forty years.
• Selina Solomon, born to a Jewish immigrant family, focused her suffrage campaign on wage-earning women and their needs. 

About our Guest:

Robert Cooney is an editor and graphic designer who wrote the groundbreaking volume,  “Winning the Vote: The Triumph of the American Woman Suffrage Movement.” The illustrated history book was published in 2005 after 12 years of work and details events chronologically using hundreds of news photographs and original source material. Museum curators have called it “the Bible of the suffrage movement.” Mr. Cooney has worked in collaboration with the National Women’s History Alliance for more than 30 years and was active in planning and promoting suffrage centennial events in California in 2011 and nationally in 2020. He is a member of the Advisory Board for the Women’s Suffrage National Monument Foundation.

Links to People, Places, Publications:

California & the 19th Amendment (here)

Maria Guadalupe Evangelina de Lopez Biographical Sketch (here)

Ellen Clark Sargent Biographical Sketch (here)

Charlotta Bass Biographical Sketch (here)

Selina Solomon Biographical Sketch (here)

Elizabeth Thatcher Kent Biographical Sketch (here) 

Clara Shortridge Foltz Biographical Sketch (here)

Visit the 19th Amendment “I Vote” murals (here)

CM Marihugh is a public history consultant and currently conducting independent research for a book on commemoration of the U.S. women’s suffrage movement. She has an M.A. in Public History from State University of New York, and an M.B.A. from Dartmouth College.

Learn more about:

• National Votes for Women Trail (here)
• National Votes for Women Trail - William G. Pomeroy historical markers (here)
• National Collaborative for Women’s History Sites (here)

Do you have a question, comment, or suggestion? Get in touch! Send an e-mail to NVWTpodcast@ncwhs.org

Transcript

CM Marihugh  00:00

Welcome to Her March To Democracy, where we're telling stories along the National Votes for Women Trail. I'm CM Marihugh, and this podcast chronicles the fight for voting rights for women. The suffragists were the revolutionaries of their day, and they battled the powers that be. These foot soldiers cut across the lines of geography, race, ethnicity, class, and gender, and numbered in the many 1000s over 70 plus years. 

Earth Mama  00:55

We are standing on the shoulders 

Of the ones who came before us. 

They are saints and they are humans. 

They are angels. They are friends. 

We can see beyond the struggles 

And the troubles and the challenge, 

when we know that by our efforts, 

Things will be better in the end.

CM Marihugh  01:00

Each episode is a tour along the trail to the places of struggle, the states, the cities, the towns where wins and defeats happened over and over again. Our theme music is "Standing on the Shoulders" by Joyce Johnson Rouse, recorded by Earth Mama. Join us on our travels to hear about these incredible activists in the stories along the National Votes for Women Trail. 

CM Marihugh  01:26

Today we're going to California to talk about the suffrage movement in that state. California has 104 sites in the National Votes for Women Trail database, and it has at least, probably more, at least 10 markers or memorials highlighting women's suffrage. And I'd like to introduce Robert Cooney, whose book, *Winning the Vote: The Triumph of the American Woman Suffrage Movement* is a groundbreaking volume, and it's been reviewed as the Bible of the suffrage movement, and Robert said he took on this project because back in the 1990s, there was very little information out there on the movement. So he's an editor and graphic designer, and he began work on what is a definitive history using news photographs, original sources, and 12 years later, the work was published. It's available for sale online. He has worked in collaboration with the National Women's History Alliance for more than 30 years, and he was active in promoting suffrage centennial events, including the main one in 2020. Welcome, Robert.

Robert Cooney  02:45

Thank you.

CM Marihugh  02:46

Could you start by giving us an overview of the suffrage movement as it played out in California?

Robert Cooney  02:54

Well, California's path to becoming the sixth state to approve women's suffrage included two campaigns and stretched over for five decades. As early as 1868, suffrage orators gave a series of lectures in the state. And in 1871, Ellen Van Valkenburg sued the Santa Cruz County Clerk for being denied the right to vote despite the 14th Amendment. The courts, however, ruled against her. The first attempt for women's suffrage in California failed in 1896 general election, despite considerable support. 

Robert Cooney  03:22

While men cast 137,000 no votes, 110,000 men, 45 percent voted yes. A strong level of support common during many state campaigns. Southern California counties voted in support, but Alameda and San Francisco counties voted no, pressured by liquor distillers and saloons. The eight-month campaign left the women exhausted and in debt, but as a result, suffragists knew where their support and their opposition lay. Learning from that campaign, California suffrage leaders focused on attracting broader support that included middle-class women and working men and women, as well as rural voters. 

Robert Cooney  04:10

They became the first to engage in a truly multicultural campaign that drew on their state's economic and demographic diversity. White suffragists paid more attention to Spanish communities, and Black suffragists organized their own women's clubs in Oakland, Los Angeles, and other cities. At the start of their second drive before the 1911 election, the California Equal Suffrage Association divided the state in two, with Elizabeth Lowe Watson, a former pastor known as the General, leading the northern half. 

Robert Cooney  04:44

In less populated Southern California, the drive was led by businessman John Hyde Braly and attorney Clara Shortridge Foltz. Groups of wage earners, club women, and college women played important roles in the contest. The eight-month whirlwind campaign was an innovative and exciting affair that incorporated new technologies and modern political campaign techniques. Suffragists promoted their cause on electric signs, eight-foot billboards, lantern slides, postcards, playing cards, and shopping bags. 

Robert Cooney  05:16

One poster called on voters to "give your girl an equal chance with your boy." Supporters canvassed neighborhoods in all parts of the state. There were countless auto tours, street speaking, canvassing, organizing, and mass meetings. They advertised on streetcars, handed out leaflets in five different languages, and wrote personal letters to 1000s of prominent men. On election night, october 10, 1911, suffragists were crushed when early returns from San Francisco and Oakland showed the measure had been soundly defeated. 

Robert Cooney  05:51

However, after three agonizing days, late returns from the distant rural counties swung the vote in suffragists' favor. The final count was 125,000 to 121,000, roughly, a slim margin of just 3,587 votes, which was the average of just one vote per precinct. The lesson was clear that the suffrage clause was won in California in the country districts. San Francisco became the most populous city in the world where women could vote, despite having defeated the measure by 13,000 votes. The California model, its cross-class coalition, modern marketing, and rural outreach directly influenced other state campaigns and the national campaign that follows.

CM Marihugh  06:40

That's a great overview. I was thinking about that 1896 defeat. Of course, it was devastating, and yet suffragists were so used to defeats, so they did what they usually did, which was to get back to work, and that margin of about 3,600 votes over the entire state shows how every single action they took mattered. One vote per precinct that it averaged out to. The other thing-it's a reminder. So often we hear suffrage passed, but the margin was often quite small, and these weren't overwhelming victories in many states, but they finally won it. Where are we starting on our tour through the state?

Robert Cooney  07:30

I thought we'd start in Los Angeles, and so here we are outside 408 South Spring Street, a 12-story Brawley block now known as the Continental Building, this was one of the first skyscrapers built in Los Angeles in 1904. The man behind it was John Hyde Braly, a pioneer, educator, banker, and leader of the suffrage tribe in Southern California. Braly and his family came to Northern California from Missouri by wagon train in 1847. He made his fortune selling provisions to miners during the gold rush, then went on to become a rancher and superintendent of schools in Santa Clara Valley. He and his wife Martha Hughes established public schools in California and founded a series of savings banks in Fresno and San Diego. They moved to Los Angeles in 1891, where he attended a suffrage meeting and was immediately drawn to the cause. 

Robert Cooney  08:26

He freely used his own money and social capital to advance it. He believed that it was a man's job to take a hand in the enfranchisement of women, since it was the men who must decide it by their votes. In the early months of 1910, he took the lead recruiting men of prominence in Los Angeles and Pasadena who supported equal rights for women. The ensuing Political Equality League, which soon included women, quickly grew into an effective organization that ensured approval in the legislature and worked in the multi-ethnic region to win voter approval, John Braly was one of the very few men to start a woman suffrage organization, and so is part of what made California unique. He is fondly remembered for exemplifying the enthusiastic and principled support for women's suffrage by far-sighted men nationwide. His autobiography, Memory Pictures tells his story.

CM Marihugh  09:22

I actually downloaded a PDF of his autobiography, and it was published in 1912. And on page 223, he writes that his part in the California woman suffrage movement is something that he said, quote, "which I am prouder than of aught else I have ever done." He said it was his crowning work, and that's pretty amazing for a man that built banks and a public school system. He talks about his decision. To join the fight later in his life, and as you said, he realized that he needed to recruit influential men into this movement because it was men that were voting. He's a fascinating person, and I I'm going to read the rest of his book. Where are we going to next?

Robert Cooney  10:21

Well, we're staying in Los Angeles and visiting the Los Angeles Plaza and the El Pueblo de Los Angeles historical monument, called The Birthplace of Los Angeles. 125 Paseo de la Plaza was the location of a famous suffrage speech given by Maria de Lopez. Maria Guadalupe Evangelina de Lopez was one of the few Latina leaders visible at the state level, and she brought a powerful bilingual voice to California's 1911 suffrage drive. She was an educator and bilingual activist who translated suffrage materials into Spanish and delivered speeches in both English and Spanish across Southern California, urging Mexican American voters to support women's enfranchisement. 

Robert Cooney  11:06

Maria de Lopez was born in Los Angeles in 1881 at her family's home at the San Gabriel Mission. Her father, a blacksmith, was born in Mexico and was descended from the prominent Lopez family. She graduated from Pasadena High School, and then studied at the Los Angeles State Normal School, which would later become UCLA, to be a teacher. She started teaching English as a second language and soon began working as a translator. In 1902, she was the youngest instructor on the staff at the University of California. 

Robert Cooney  11:39

Maria de Lopez was a leader in her local Votes for Women Club, and in August 1911 wrote an article for the Los Angeles Herald titled "Equal Suffrage of Most Vital Moment." She challenged readers, writing, "Can we as Californians and Americans live up to the aspirations of Abraham Lincoln if a group of our people is deprived by reason of discrimination of sex of the right to cast a ballot? Can we have a democracy without women?" On October 3, 1911, Maria rallied the crowd gathered here in Los Angeles Plaza by giving a speech in favor of women's suffrage entirely in Spanish, reportedly the first in the state and an unprecedented event at the time, Maria de Lopez's work shows how suffragists understood the importance of multilingual outreach in a state with deep Spanish and Mexican roots.

CM Marihugh  12:35

She really embodied California's distinctive character and her dedication to getting the word out in Spanish is remarkable. I also love how she invoked Lincoln and asking whether democracy could exist without women's voices. And I was thinking Alice Paul took a page out of her book, and about six years later, they were asking Woodrow Wilson the same thing in front of the White House, basically condemning him for promoting democracy abroad, but then saying we still don't have democracy here. Where are we going to next?

Robert Cooney  13:17

Well, I think we'll stay in Los Angeles for the moment, where there is a modest historical marker on a utility pole outside 4071 South Central Avenue, this is where suffragist Charlotta Bass published the California Eagle, one of the most important black newspapers in the West. Charlotta Spears Bass is believed to have been born in South Carolina in 1974- 1874, one of 11 children. She moved to Providence, Rhode Island, in 1900 and attended Pembroke College, which is now part of Brown University, where she got her start in journalism, selling ads for the black-owned Providence Watchmen. 

Robert Cooney  13:55

In 1910, she relocated to Los Angeles for a two-year health recuperation stay, and began working for the Eagle, the oldest and most widely circulated black newspaper on the West Coast. By 1912, she had assumed the role of editor after the founder passed away, and then she bought the paper for $50 at an auction. She renamed it the California Eagle, and became the first Black American woman to own and operate a newspaper in the United States. She brought on Joseph Bass, a Kansas journalist, as editor in 1913. They married two years later and expanded the paper from a four-page tabloid to a 20-page weekly. It continuously waged a fearless war against segregation and discrimination. Like many Black contemporaries who worked for suffrage and greater reform, Carvata was also advocated for housing rights and labor rights, and was a formidable denouncer of police brutality and the Ku Klux Klan. After women won the vote in California, she used her platform to mobilize black women voters. And to advocate for anti-lynching laws, fair employment, and housing rights, Carlotta Bass represents how the struggle for suffrage was a beginning, not an end, particularly for African American women confronting racial and sexual discrimination and government disinterest in the needs of the Black communities.

CM Marihugh  15:21

Yes, I have seen a photo of the marker that you referred to, and it does appear modest, like you said. However, given that we have so few commemorative markers or memorials for women's suffrage, we really take what we can get. She was an amazing person, and not only pressing for the vote, but pressing to use the vote for issues like anti-lynching, fair employment, housing rights. Definitely suffragists after they won the vote. It seemed like they went right back to work and were advocating for all the causes they had hoped they could influence. She's one of them. So where are we going to next?

Robert Cooney  16:06

Well, it's rather ironic going from a utility pole notice to the Clara Foltz Criminal Justice Center, but we got to go. The suffragists ran the whole gamut here. We're here before the Clara Shortridge Foltz Criminal Justice Center at the County Criminal Courthouse in the Los Angeles Civic Center. This 1972 landmark at 210 West Temple Street was renamed in 2002 after Clara Shortridge Foltz. She was the first woman attorney in California, the author of the California Suffrage Amendment, and the originator of the public defender's office.  

Robert Cooney  16:43

Born in Milton, Indiana, Clara Shortridge eloped at 15 in 1864 to San Jose. After several years there, her husband deserted her along with their five children. Unable to make a living doing woman's work, she decided to become a lawyer like her father. But Clara was denied admission to Hastings School of Law because she was a woman. The law school argued that women should never be lawyers; that studying law was not proper for women, would make them less womanly, and thus destroy the home. Clara overcame other obstacles, only to learn that only men could take the state bar exam. In response, she wrote the barrier-breaking woman's lawyers bill that recognized women's right to practice law in the state. 

Robert Cooney  17:30

In 1878, Clara became the first woman admitted to the California bar. After she moved to Los Angeles with her family, she had a long and successful career as an attorney, she authored several significant bills that became laws, notably the Public Defender Bill. In it, she recognized that defendants needed and deserved equal representation. Her bill led to public defenders' offices being established in every state. Clara also wrote the Women's vote amendment for California, and was a leader of the Votes for Women Club during the 1911 campaign. 

Robert Cooney  18:06

At one point, she reportedly ascended in a large hot air balloon and dropped yellow suffrage literature as 1000s of people below cheered. During the 50 years she practiced law, Clara Shortridge Foltz was often the only woman in a courtroom, and now this courthouse is named after her. Before we leave Los Angeles, I wanted to mention also Blanchard Hall at 233 South Broadway. This is where prominent 30-year-old New York suffragist Inez Milholland collapsed while demanding the federal amendment before an audience of over 1000 on october 23, 1916, she died at Good Samaritan Hospital four weeks later.

CM Marihugh  18:48

It is fascinating for me to always hear about the different ways that suffragists promoted their cause. Numerous different ways because they recognized they needed to get press, and the best way to get press was to do unusual things in that day when not a lot was reported on regarding women's issues. It's also amazing the impact that she had on the legal system in the U.S. and as far as the public defender system. That's amazing. Where are we heading to next?

Robert Cooney  19:24

I think we're going to go to San Francisco now to 1355 Franklin Street, which is the headquarters of the Century Club of California. This first women's club in San Francisco was founded by suffragist Ellen Clark Sargent, who, along with her husband, was a strong advocate of women's suffrage, Ellen and Aaron Augustus Sargent were both from Newburyport, Massachusetts, and they met early in life. After traveling to California during the Gold Rush, Aaron returned to marry Ellen in 1852. The couple settled in Nevada City, California, where they raised three children. Their historic 1856 Italianate style home in Nevada City still stands at 449 Broad Street and is recognized on the National Register of Historic Places. 

Robert Cooney  20:11

Ellen Sargent became active in the suffrage movement in California and founded the Nevada County Women's Suffrage Association in 1869. Aaron Sargent entered politics and was elected to the California Senate in 1856. He later was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives, and then he became a U.S. Senator in 1873. Five years later, at the urging of Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony, Senator Sargent made history by writing and introducing the 29 word woman suffrage amendment to the Constitution, that later became known as the Susan B. Anthony Amendment. 

Robert Cooney  20:49

Defeated in 1878, the amendment was reintroduced in Congress every year for over 40 years until it passed in 1919. Ellen Sargent became even more involved during their time in Washington D.C. she joined the National Woman Suffrage Association and worked as a secretary and later treasurer under Susan B. Anthony for six years. In 1887, the Sargents were back in California and living in San Francisco when Senator Sargent passed away. Ellen remained living in the city, where the Century Club still exists here on Franklin Street. Ellen was widely known and widely mourned when she died just before the 1911 victory, and in her honor, state flags were flown at half mast. 

CM Marihugh  21:34

It's always a tragedy the suffragists that didn't make it to see the end, and that was a lot of them actually over 70 years. But the fact that she died just before the victory is quite poignant, and the fact that the state lowered the flags to half mast that really shows how deeply the community, particularly the suffrage community, felt about her. I also find Aaron Sargent so brave to even raise that issue and to put forward that amendment in 1878. He didn't realize how long it would take. Most of the others didn't either, but I always, as much as I admire the women in the movement, I also admire all the men that stepped up because they were ridiculed, just like the women were. So it almost took an extra amount of courage to step forward. Where are we going to next?

Robert Cooney  22:36

Well, we're still downtown near Union Square in San Francisco at 315 Sutter Street, where suffrage organizer Selina Solomon was active, a writer and activist, Selina Solomon was born in San Francisco to a Jewish immigrant family, and she spent most of her life working for women's political rights and labor reform. Unlike some club-based women, Solomon's activism emerged from close involvement with working-class women in the early 1900s, Selena became active in the California Equal Suffrage Association. She was especially committed to expanding the movement to involve working women, including shop girls and clerks. 

Robert Cooney  23:15

She founded the Votes for Women Club in San Francisco in 1908, one of the few suffrage groups in California explicitly aimed at wage-earning women. Selena rented a downtown loft in this building on Sutter Street, there is no marker, and organized evening meetings after work and emphasized plain language political education. It quickly became the de facto headquarters for the statewide suffrage movement, and was described as the suffrage epicenter. She cooked and served lunches for retail clerks, telephone operators, and others who worked nearby. The space also had rest and reading rooms where late afternoon teas were served. 

Robert Cooney  23:56

During the 1911 suffrage campaign, Selena organized street meetings, distributed literature, and spoke publicly in support of enfranchisement. California's narrow victory in October 1911 depended heavily on urban organizing like hers. She called October 10th the greatest day of my life. Selena later wrote a book, "How We Won the Vote in California", in which she emphasized that the vote was won "by the genius of eternal patience, the wise leadership, the political sagacity and statecraft, the self-sacrifice of many years." 

Robert Cooney  24:34

Union Square nearby is itself a suffrage site, as it hosted famous opera diva Madame Lillian Nordica just before the election, the world-renowned singer was in the city for the groundbreaking of the Panama Pacific Exposition. On october 9, she dramatically endorsed the amendment. Her words and glorious voice reaching an enormous audience gathered in the heart of the city. The Panama Pacific Exposition also became part of suffrage history in 1915, when suffragists created a welcoming freedom booth to collect signatures on a massive petition for the federal amendment. They also held the first convention of women voters there, and later gave a grand send-off to Sarah Bard Field and companions, who set off on a rigorous cross-country automobile trip to deliver the petition to President Wilson.

CM Marihugh  25:26

I guess it's a reminder of the real grassroots work that this movement took, and you highlighted that in your book, of course. But this was not just speaking to legislatures, it was going out and pounding the pavement, asking for signatures, handing out leaflets. It was so labor intensive, and Selena, that is really wonderful how she decided to focus her attentions on working women and the fact that she gave them that place and could talk to them about suffrage, she was another amazing person. Where are we going to next?

Robert Cooney  26:12

Well, we're going to leave the city and go just north of San Francisco, where Elizabeth Kent, an early environmentalist, and her husband William donated land to the federal government to protect the ancient redwood grove, now called Muir Woods National Monument. Born in 1868, Elizabeth Thatcher Kent devoted herself to securing the right to vote for women in California and throughout the country. In the early 1900s, with her influence, Marin County garden clubs became hubs of suffrage activism, but the society women recognized that they needed men in the community to join their cause. 

Robert Cooney  26:12

Elizabeth Kent, a mother of seven, led the Marin County Club Women's Equal Suffrage League and worked to convince Bay Area businessmen to vote yes in 1911. Regardless of her social position, Elizabeth was a dedicated activist who spoke on suffrage at every opportunity, put up posters, and distributed literature at meetings and on trains and streetcars. For years, she demonstrated, marched, lobbied, donated, and raised money for the cause. After male voters passed the measure in California, she moved to Washington D.C. with her husband, who had been elected to Congress. 

Robert Cooney  26:18

In the capital, Elizabeth continued actively advocating for women's rights as a representative of the voting women in the West. She helped Alice Paul form the Congressional Union, which later became the National Woman's Party, and lent her support to their controversial strategies. After 1923, she worked for the Equal Rights Amendment, helping to pass the 19th Amendment to the Constitution. Along with creating Muir Woods, are admirable parts of Elizabeth Kent's lasting legacy. And I'll also mention here that there's a great redwood in Sequoia National Park named for Susan B. Anthony, and another honoring Clara Barton, unique and very appropriate suffrage tributes for California.

CM Marihugh  28:07

That's wonderful that those trees are named as such. What's interesting about Elizabeth is how these two causes-being an environmentalist and working for women's suffrage, this is the first time I've heard of garden clubs that became hubs of suffrage activism, and it's fascinating that she became part of the militant wing of the party, working with Alice Paul. So, can you tell us about what happened in California after the vote was won?

Robert Cooney  28:44

Well, suffragist work in California doubled the number of women who could vote nationally, and many of the activists kept working to win more states and pass the national amendment. State leaders decided to maintain their organization after the victory to assist the work in neighboring states, and suffragists moved quickly to export their victory. The ripple effect was immediate. In 1912, women in Oregon, Kansas, and Arizona won the vote, and in 1914, women in Montana and Nevada joined them, forming a powerful political bloc in the West, representing 62 electoral votes. 

Robert Cooney  29:20

In California, registration moved with impressive speed after the 1911 victory. California women could vote for the first time on March 28, 1912, and in San Francisco, the voter registrar appointed women to fill half the precinct positions. Among those casting ballots that day was Tai Lung, who became the first Chinese woman to cast a ballot in a United States election. In terms of legislation, women used their new power to pursue the progressive agenda that had helped win them the vote. Labor protections, child welfare laws, and public health measures all advanced the suffrage movement's alliance with organized labor was repaid. 

Robert Cooney  30:01

Women voters backed the eight-hour workday, and they opposed the same liquor interests that had tried to defeat them. Suffragists nationally felt that winning the influential state of California symbolized a critical breakthrough that opened the way to victory in the near future. In 1918, the first four women were elected to the California State Assembly, and when California ratified the 19th Amendment on november 1, 1919, being the 18th state to do so, state women had already been voting for eight years. The Golden State itself had become a compelling equal suffrage site, and yet, unlike some states, there are relatively few statues or memorials to California suffragists so far. 

Robert Cooney  30:47

Some of the sites I've mentioned aren't formally acknowledged in any way, and of course, there are many more. The most notable state tribute from the 2020 suffrage centennial is the 19th Amendment Outdoor Museum in Sacramento, a vibrant public art installation created by muralist Maren Conrad. The outdoor museum at the intersection of 19th and K Streets celebrates the 100th anniversary of the 19th Amendment. It includes portraits of 19 women active in the state suffrage campaign, including Naomi Anderson, Clara Shortridge Foltz, Hovita Idar, and other historically significant suffragists. 

Robert Cooney  31:27

It's free and accessible to the public at any time. Online, there are also choreographed dance interpretations on each woman, performed on the YouTube channel by the Sacramento Contemporary Dance theater. Finally, I'll recommend one very unique and entertaining 1911 California reference that can be also found online. It's entitled "Winning Equal Suffrage in California: Reports of the Committees of the College Equal Suffrage League of Northern California." I founded the Hathi Trust, H-A-T-H-I Trust, and it contains wonderful personal accounts from college women that show just how innovative and exciting the suffrage drive was in California. It's certainly an important and memorable part of our history.

CM Marihugh  32:14

That's a wonderful overview. Thank you so much for being with us today, Robert. We really appreciate your time and insights.

Robert Cooney  32:23

Thank you, CM. It's a pleasure to be here, and thank you for all your work on the podcast.

CM Marihugh  32:28

Thank you for joining us this week. We hope you contact us with comments or questions. The National Votes for Women Trail Project is a work in progress. Please click on the support the project link to contribute to our ongoing work. The trail is a project of the National Collaborative for Women's History sites, a nonprofit organization dedicated to putting women's history on the map. Our theme is standing on the shoulders by Joyce Johnson Rouse and recorded by Earth Mama. Be sure to join us next time.

Earth Mama  33:04

I am standing on the shoulders 

Of the ones who came before me. 

I am honored by the passion 

For our liberty. 

I will stand a little taller. I

 will work a little longer. 

And my shoulders will be there to hold 

The ones who follow me. 

My shoulders will be there to hold 

The ones who follow me.