8.6. Women’s Suffrage http://www.ck12.org
It has been insisted that the real purpose of this amendment is to deprive the Southern States of representation in
part in Congress....
In those Southern States where the colored population outnumbers the white, to double the number of ignorant voters
by giving the colored woman the right to vote would produce a condition that would be absolutely intolerable. We
owe something to the wishes and the sentiments of the people of our sister States struggling to maintain law and
order and white supremacy....
We are engaged now in a great foreign war. It is not the proper time to change the whole electoral system...
Patriotism, in my judgment, forbids the injection of this issue into national politics at this time.
Questions:
1.Sourcing:When was this document written? By whom? What do you predict the document will say?
2.Close Reading:According to this document, why did anti-suffragists oppose suffrage? Cite specific passages.Kaiser Wilson Poster
Source: Photograph of Suffragist Virginia Arnold posing with banner at a 1917 protest organized by the National
Woman’s Party.(Figure 8.5).
Kaiser Wilson
Have you forgotten Your Sympathy With The Poor Germans Because They Were Not Self-Governed?
American Woman Are Not Self-Governed.
Take the Beam
Out Of Your Own Eye.
20 , 000 , 000
Questions:
1.Sourcing:Who created this sign? When? Who took the photograph?
2.Contextualization:What else was going on in the world at this time?
3.Close Reading:Who is the sign maker calling “Kaiser Wilson?” What is the sign maker’s argument? How
would the words on the sign make an American in 1917 feel?
4.Close Reading:Do you recognize the allusion made in the last sentence on the sign? Would a person living
in 1917 be likely to recognize it? Would this be effective in persuading people to support suffrage?Section Questions:
1.Corroboration:Considering all of the documents in this section, why did some people oppose suffrage?