Working Women's History Project Newsletter October 2020

Volume 7, No. 9 October 2020

In this issue

Information on voting
Expanding the vote to 18-year-olds
Article on Fannie Lou Hamer

WWHP Urges Illinois Voters to Vote this November!

Some Resources:

(Below are links to information on early voting in Chicago and Illinois):

https://www.google.com/search?q=city+of+chicago+early+voting&oq=&aqs=chrome.0.69i59i450l8.1115868382j0j15&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8

https://www.google.com/search?q=early+voting+illinois&oq=Early+&aqs=chrome.6.69i57j0i67i131i433l3j0i67l2j0i67i131i433j0i67.8083j0j15&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8

But first, you must register to vote. See:

https://www.illinoisvotes2020.com/registertovote

Illinois residents can also register in person during the “grace period” registration. See:

https://www.cookcountyclerk.com/service/grace-period-registration-and-voting

To Vote by Mail:

https://www.illinoisvotes2020.com/?gclid=EAIaIQobChMIkvP6rMOH7AIVRdbACh3xpAmjEAAYASAAEgIruPD_BwE

Voters have some important decisions to make. One concern:

The Illinois Fair Tax

Illinois voters will see on the November 3, 2020 ballot a proposed constitutional amendment, referred to as the Fair Tax Amendment, which for a graduated state income tax rather than the Illinois flat tax state which means that everyone pays the same percentage of taxes.

For more info on the Illinois Fair Tax see:

https://www.voteyesforfairness.com/?utm_source=google&utm_medium=cpc&utm_campaign=vyffsearchmay2020&gclid=CjwKCAjwiaX8BRBZEiwAQQxGx7hVYxhANnaJBbYZ8DnjyzFRgF_QfBC7l2DGXpdfjNOWAuaWCFJzRBoC-2EQAvD_BwE

For more info see Working Women’s History Project’s September 2020 issue article by Gwen Vaughn and Joan Morris, click on the link below:

https://myemail.constantcontact.com/WWHP-Newsletter-September-2020.html?soid=1114943010201&aid=WavOGcR0byU

SEIUhcilin:

https://seiuhcilin.org/fairtax1/#fairshare

The League of Women Voters of Wilmette:

https://www.lwvwilmette.org/fair-tax.html

Expanding the Vote

by Susan Straus

I recently attended a virtual event held by the Chicago Chapter of the National Organization for Women with guest speaker Anne Jamieson, President of the League of Women Voters. Jamieson gave us the background of expanding the vote. After the early suffragist fight, men and women regardless of color had won the right to vote, but then you had to be 21 to be eligible to cast a ballot.

Jamieson explained, "Old enough to fight, old enough to vote," was at the root of the of the argument for the 26th Amendment, which lowered the voting age to 18. When President Lincoln called for a draft, it caused protests across the nation including the Draft Riots of 1863 in New York City. After the Civil War, the draft was discontinued. During WWI, President Wilson reintroduced the draft, which ended after that war. Then, the first peace time draft was called by President Roosevelt in 1940. In 1942, Jennings Randolph, "The father of the 26th Amendment," a Democratic politician from West Virginia, first introduced a bill to lower the voting age from 21 to 18. Even though the 26^thAmendment had wide support, it still took the Viet Nam War protests during the 1960’s to again push the argument, "Old enough to fight, old enough to vote," for the 26th Amendment finally to be ratified, and become part of the U.S. Constitution in 1971.

After Jamieson’s presentation, a Q and A followed. The main questions dealt with the percentage of younger people voting and why younger people were not more engaged in the voting process. Some of the reasons were the same voter suppression tactics affecting older voters are now being faced by younger voters, such as voting polls that were difficult to access, and picture ID's that were being required. Political parties have not engaged younger population as a class. The highest percentage of younger voters was 55 percent in 1972, the first year this demographic could exercise the right to vote. Some of the issues that the younger voters care about are: environmental issues, gun control and the high interest on student loans. If the candidates show how they will address these issues, hopefully this year we will see more younger voters casting their ballots.

Fannie Lou Hamer: Powerful Voting Activist

by Helen Ramirez-Odell

A powerful voice for voter rights, Fannie Lou Hamer was portrayed by E. Faye Butler in the 2020 Goodman Theatre production “Fannie Lou Hamer: Speak On It!” Due to the pandemic a free, shortened version of the play was presented in September and October in city parks.

Fannie Lou Hamer was born October 6, 1917 in Mississippi. She picked cotton with her family and had only a 6^th grade education. At age 44 she learned she had the right to vote and spent the rest of her life fighting for voter rights. Black men and women in the south were not allowed to register to vote if they did not pass literacy tests and were not allowed to vote unless they showed poll tax receipts. Hamer became a community organizer, a civil rights leader and a women’s rights activist. She was threatened, harassed, shot at, and beaten. In 1964 she cofounded the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party, which she represented at the 1964 Democratic National Convention. She said that racism in this country is invisible because it’s so normal. She also said that it was the Voting Rights Act of 1965, not the 14^th, 15^th or 19^th Amendments that got rid of the barriers across the country so she could vote.

WWHP Board member Alma Washington portrayed Fannie Lou Hamer in Mary Bonnett’s presentation on voting rights at a virtual event in September when the League of Women Voters celebrated the 100^thanniversary of women getting the right to vote.

Alma said that Fannie Lou Hamer died in 1977, but she would tell us today that the November election is more important than ever – one that cannot be ignored and we must not let anything stop us from voting.

Working Women's History Project

Please contact us through Amy Laiken

312-402-4188

Amy@wwhpchicago.org