Beginning in 1776 and concluding in the 1964, the NJ Women Vote video series demonstrates that the struggle for the right to vote is as relevant now as it was nearly 250 years ago. Over the course of five, 90-second installments, the series explores the changes to voting rights in New Jersey over time, noting who determined the limits of suffrage, and how those who were denied the franchise sought to secure it. It also highlights leading voices in New Jersey’s suffrage movements, and interrogates the challenges that racism, sexism, and classism presented in the fight for the ballot. The series was sponsored by NJ Women Vote: The 19th Amendment at 100 with support from the Alice Paul Institute and Middlesex County, NJ.
Episodes are listed chronologically below and the series can also be accessed via a YouTube playlist here.
1776
This first episode of the NJ Women Vote series, “1776,” explores the expansion and contraction of voting rights between the New Jersey Constitution of 1776 and subsequent state legislation passed in 1807.
1865
This second episode in the NJ Women Vote video series, “1865,” follows activism on behalf of women’s suffrage and abolition during the nineteenth century.
1900
The third episode of the NJ Women Vote video series, “1900,” focuses on the Black women who created organizations and networks to fight for social change, often grounded in religious congregations.
1915
This fourth installment of the NJ Women Vote series, “1915,” tracks the fight over passage of the Nineteenth Amendment, with men and women advocating on both sides.
1964
The fifth and final episode of the NJ Women Vote series, “1964,” focuses on civil rights activist Fannie Lou Hamer and the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party at the 1964 Democratic National Convention in Atlantic City, New Jersey.