Librarian of Congress Carla Hayden (BA ’73) led a virtual conversation with Hillary Clinton and author Elaine Weiss about the history of women’s right to vote. The Roosevelt University alumna hosted the webcast as part of a weeklong celebration of the 100th anniversary of the 19th Amendment.
The conversation explored what Hayden called “hope in history” and how the perseverance of activists then could inspire leaders today.
Weiss is the author of The Woman’s Hour: The Great Fight to Win the Right to Vote. She and the former Secretary of State reflected on how the suffrage movement is often left out of the history classroom. As executive producer, Clinton is adapting the book for TV with Steven Spielberg’s production company. In 2017, Clinton received the Eleanor Roosevelt Social Justice Award from Roosevelt.
Hayden is the first woman and the first African American to serve as the head of the Library of Congress, the largest library in the world. In 2018, the Roosevelt alumna gave the spring Commencement address.
The webcast did not gloss over racism within the suffrage movement. Hayden, Weiss and Clinton discussed how Black women and other people of color had to fight for voting rights for years after the amendment was ratified.
The event was hosted by the Women’s Suffrage Centennial Commission.
During the 2020 American Dream Reconsidered Conference, historians will delve deeper into Black women’s fight to cast a ballot. Learn more at roosevelt.edu/americandream.