Founding Sisters and the Nineteenth Amendment

After seventy-two arduous years, the fate of the suffrage movement and its masterwork, the Nineteenth Amendment, rested not only on one state, Tennessee, but on the shoulders of a single man: twenty-four-year-old legislator Harry Burn. Burn had previously voted with the antisuffrage forces. If he did so again, the vote would be tied and the amendment would fall one state short of the thirty-six necessary for ratification. At the last minute, though, Harry Burn’s mother convinced him to vote in favor of the suffragist, and American history was forever changed. In this riveting account, political analyst Eleanor Clift chronicles the many thrilling twists and turns of the suffrage struggle and shows how the issues and arguments that surrounded the movement still reverberate today. Beginning with the Seneca Falls Woman’s Rights Convention of 1848, Clift introduces the movement’s leaders, recounts the marches and demonstrations, and profiles the opposition—antisuffragists, both men and women, who would do anything to stop women from getting the vote. Founding Sisters and the Nineteenth Amendment  mines the many rich stories buried deep within this tumultuous period of our history. Here, Clift reveals how: A stirring reminder for women to never take their rights for granted,  Founding Sisters and the Nineteenth Amendment  profiles the brave figures who spent their lives supporting the women’s movement over the course of seventy-two years.