New Time Women's Suffrage in Western States Interest Group SATURDAY 7 12

 Bad Friend Version of Interest Group Description for NPYM Annual Session

In-person only.

Are you peeved, annoyed, terrified...by the 2025 timeline. May I recommend HISTORY?

Come One. Come all. for a romp through many western states' path to full women's suffrage, statehood, full recognition of native rights...

Thank you, Professor Google and the AI that kept trying to poke in. No thank you ChatGPT

Content Warning.

There will be racism. 

There will be sexism. 

There will be peculiar homage to Rep. Lauren Boebert, R CO and to settler colonialism.

There will be slavery / enslavement. There will be pressure to move away from slavery. 

There will be civil war. and testy relationships between the federal government and territories / states

There will be times of great progress, times of backlash or backsliding. There will be relentless campaigns. 

There will be multiple state and federal constitutional amendments. 

There will be polygamy and holy, expedient revelation.. 

Probably there are transgender people but for this period in history, don't try to find them via Google.

Toward the end there may be reflections on modern voting rights and voter suppression, voter registration, how much difference even a few votes can make.

Never Give up!

With that, THE OUTLINE

Women’s Suffrage in Western States

 

Thank you, partly, to Lauren Boebert for the original nudge to look into this topic.

My family’s history as homesteaders

Jeanette Rankin

"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."

After decades of arguments for and against women's suffrage, Congress finally passed the 19th Amendment in June 1919. At least 36 states still needed to vote in favor of it for it to be added to the Constitution and become law. This process is called ratification. In August of 1920, 36 states ratified the 19th Amendment, ensuring that the right to vote could not be denied based on sex.

 

Below is an alphabetical list state by state of when a number of Western States became states, when women attained full suffrage and a lot of bumps along the way.

 

Research credit to Professor Google and two search strings

[name of state] statehood

[name of state] womens suffrage

 

This approach yielded bundles of fascinating information, and this talk is barely going to skim the stories.

 

Alaska

Year of Statehood	Key Women’s Suffrage dates	Narrative
1959	March 13, 1913 First session of AK legislature For non-native women!	Until 1924, Federal law held that natives were not citizens.

 

Arizona

Year of Statehood	Key Women’s Suffrage dates	Narrative
February 14, 1912	1891 Voted down in first drafting of the State Constition     1912   Vote secured by initiative	Part of Arizona and New Mexico claimed by the Confederacy but the Confederacy never controlled Original state constitution has a provision about recalling judges that was removed to speed approval of statehood Arizona's Five C's are: Copper, Cattle, Cotton, Citrus and Climate. In the early years of the state, the five C's served an important role in the economy,

 

California

 

Year of Statehood	Key Women’s Suffrage dates	Narrative
September 9. 1850	Loss 1896 Women’s suffrage act 1911 State legilslaure	Compromise of 1850 Gold Rush

 

 

Colorado

Year of Statehood	Key Women’s Suffrage dates	Narrative
August 1, 1876	1876 failed effort   1893 by popular referendum which did not exclude women of color

 

 

Hawaii

Year of Statehood	Key Women’s Suffrage dates	Narrative
Augst 1, 1959	19th Amendment in 1919

 

 

Idaho

Year of Statehood	Key Women’s Suffrage dates	Narrative
July 3, 1890	1896 by constitutional amendment

 

 

Montana

Year of Statehood	Key Women’s Suffrage dates	Narrative
November 8, 1889	November 3, 1914 By Constituional amendment with 53% of men voting in favor.

 

 

Nevada

Year of Statehood	Key Women’s Suffrage dates	Narrative
October 31, 1864	State Constituional amendment 1914, Ratified 19th Amendment in 1920.	With Virginia, second state admitted during the civil war

 

 

New Mexico

Year of Statehood	Key Women’s Suffrage dates	Narrative

 

New Mexico

Year of Statehood	Key Women’s Suffrage dates	Narrative
January 6, 1912	Had right to vote when a terrirtry Ratified 19th Amendment in 1919	(Genizero)

 

Oregon

Year of Statehood	Key Women’s Suffrage dates	Narrative
February 1859	Campaigns from 1870 to 1912

 

Utah

Year of Statehood	Key Women’s Suffrage dates	Narrative
US territory 1850 only white men could vote	Equal suffrage law 1870   1871-1887 disenfranchisement 18871896	Lost vote when federal anti polygamy act took away rights of all women to vote.   After 1890 LDS church ended recognition of polygame and UT as invited to join the Union.

 

 

 

Mormon church and polygamy

Gaining, Losing, and Winning Back the Vote: The Story of Utah Women’s Suffrage - Utah Women's History - Better Days

 

Washington

Year of Statehood	Key Women’s Suffrage dates	Narrative
November 11. 1889	1870-1912 campaigns

 

The History of Voting and Elections in Washington State

 

Wyoming

 

Year of Statehood	Key Women’s Suffrage dates	Narrative
July 10, 1890	WY territory legislature granted women the right to vote 1869

 

 

 

Week 4 Pre-Annual Session Worship Sharing

 Queries as received for Week 4

At the beginning of each session read: Rumi poem and Isaac Pennington quote 

Fourth meeting: 

• Do I give over my own willing, running, and desiring in order to sink down to the seed within me? How can I use my time at annual session to practice this?

See comments for weeks 1,2,3 as led.

RantWoman and the RSOF: Clerk's letter from Sierra Cascade YM annual session

I offer these simple queries as you prepare for our gathering. 

● How has Love shown up for you lately? 

● What helps you center Love in your interactions with others? 

RantWoman and the RSOF: My Friend. Poem by Nikai Sherlock

This all of course is probably way too much and RantWoman has not even gotten to all the themes making her head explode, but this has to be enough for today.

Clerk's letter from Sierra Cascade YM annual session

RantWoman was just going to slurp the queries to nourish this year's pre-annual-Session Zoom worship group. But RantWoman decided the whole text is needed to help clear out some fog for RantWoman. 

RantWoman intended to Zoom to some of the SCYM Annual Session. That has not happened, except hopefully for closing worship in a few hours.

 Clerk’s Message 

How many times have you attended a SCYMF gathering? Maybe this will be your very first one. Or maybe. Like me, you’ve attended every annual sessions since our formative gathering in July of 2017 and every gathering since then. We’ve seen, heard, experienced, learned, and grown together over these years. We’ve worshipped, sung songs, grieved, discerned, tried new ways of being a community, made mistakes, grown—and still we gather. I always look forward to our time together, which is never long enough. 

For me this year’s theme, Centered in Love, builds on all our other sessions. It builds on what we strive for in our local meetings. It builds on what our world needs from us. We face what seems like uncharted territory, but Friends have faced similar crises over the centuries with faithfulness and love. Matt Boswell will lead us in worship and reflection as we trust Spirit to open to us our next steps. 

This is my final meeting for business to co-clerk for SCYMF. I have cherished co-clerking with Mike Huber and Erin Craig. My relationships with many people in the yearly meeting have deepened as we have worked together at better becoming the beloved community we are to be. I have such appreciation for the faithfulness of so many who volunteer to serve on committees, host gatherings, represent SCYMF to other organizations, and who take care of each other. I will continue to walk alongside you as we continue to grow into a stronger, more loving, community that values curiosity, recognizes harm and is willing to respect the perspectives and experiences of others with love. 

I offer these simple queries as you prepare for our gathering. 

● How has Love shown up for you lately? 

● What helps you center Love in your interactions with others? 

Norma Silliman, she/her, Presiding Co-clerk

Sierra-Cascades Yearly Meeting of Friends

Week 3

 RantWoman, are you the slightest bit worried that your interactions with the passages and queries offered up for the pre-annual Session worship group will somehow either ruin the experience for others if the materials are used for worship sharing at Annual Session or betray confidences???

Yes, a little bit.

HOWEVER, in terms of showing up with one's full self, RantWoman is also certain that the world is entitled to her opinion. With that in mind, RantWoman will pen but not post some of her reactions until AFTER Annual Session.

Readers will note: RantWoman is NOT SHY about supplementing the offered texts and queries with content that somehow both speaks to her condition and seems like it might speak to undercurrents in the space.

Here is a reprise of setting the tone for week 3

The instructions as offered. No, RantWoman is NOT going to repost the readings. See Week 1 or week 2

At the beginning of each session read: Rumi poem and Isaac Pennington quote 

Third meeting: 

• How do I open myself up for my heart to be changed? Am I ready to give over the messages that come through me and receive messages coming through others with grace? 

RantWoman and the RSOF: Maya Angelou Still I rise with an FCNL prompt

What am I doing to rise in this moment?
How am I embracing the “path rooted in pain” while overcoming it?

RantWoman and the RSOF: My Friend. Poem by Nikai Sherlock

Maya Angelou Still I rise with an FCNL prompt

 Prompt:

Still I Rise

Out of the huts of history’s shame
I rise
Up from a past that’s rooted in pain
I rise
I'm a black ocean, leaping and wide,
Welling and swelling I bear in the tide.
Leaving behind nights of terror and fear
I rise
Into a daybreak that’s wondrously clear
I rise
Bringing the gifts that my ancestors gave,
I am the dream and the hope of the slave.
I rise

I rise

I rise.

--Maya Angelou

Queries:

What am I doing to rise in this moment?
How am I embracing the “path rooted in pain” while overcoming it?

My Friend. Poem by Nikai Sherlock

From Sierra Cascade Yearly Meeting of Friends 

MY FRIEND By Nikai Sherlock My Friend resides within In Love, I begin again No need to look without Surely, I would flout I’d scream and shout Let Love speak Let Love speak In Love, we find peace Joy, Peace, Strength, Truth These are Love’s virtues Love bestows love on all creation Love is in all Love is here As each one of us Learns perfection to their own capacity Love will set us free In each one, Love is there For each one, Love cares Focus on the Friend within Let Them speak Let Them speak Waiting in the stillness of the hour Know Love’s power Let Love speak All those who seek Come lay by Love’s feet And Let Them Speak Let Them speak

Nikai Sherlock, a member of Camas Friends, lives in Battle Ground, WA. She has been writing poetry since age 13 after being bullied. Nikai enjoys crafts, reading mysteries, and square dancing.

What actually happened for week 2

 RantWoman and all gathered had quite fierce reactions to some of week 1. RantWoman's view, which accords well enough with the group was "DO NOT FORCE US TO SING, unless you are prepared for pipe organz, didjeridoos, vuvuzelas....

RantWoman brought her disquiet about revisiting readings from last week to the group and Friends were clear to start with:

Give over Thine Own Willing

 

Give over thine own willing;

give over thine own running;

give over thine own desiring

to know or to be anything;

and sink down to the seed

which God sows in the heart...

 

Isaac Pennington - 1661

From Pope Leo Xiv

In our competitive society, where it seems that only the strong and winners deserve to live, sport also teaches us how to lose. It forces us, in learning the art of losing, to confront our fragility, our limitations and our imperfections. It is through the experience of these limits that we open our hearts to hope. Athletes who never make mistakes, who never lose, do not exist

En una sociedad competitiva, donde parece que sólo los fuertes y los ganadores merecen vivir, el deporte también enseña a perder, poniendo a prueba al hombre, en el arte de la derrota, con la fragilidad, el límite, la imperfección. Es a partir de la experiencia de esta fragilidad

 

• What barriers do I notice in myself to being loud in a conviction? In what moments does my faith require this of me?