Welcome Remarks for "For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Politics"
McGowan Theater, National Archives Building, Washington, DC
April 18, 2019
Good evening. I’m David Ferriero, Archivist of the United States, and welcome to the William G. McGowan Theater at the National Archives, whether you are here in the theater or joining us through YouTube or Facebook. I’m pleased you could join us for tonight’s conversation with Donna Brazile, Yolanda Caraway, Leah Daughtry, and Minyon Moore.
Before we get started, though, I’d like to let you know about two other programs coming up soon in this theater.
On Wednesday, April 24, at 7 p.m., bestselling author Evan Thomas will be here to tell us about his new book, First: Sandra Day O’Connor, An American Life. Presidential historian Michael Beschloss will also join the discussion.
And on Thursday, May 16, at 7 p.m., we will host a panel discussion in connection with our upcoming exhibit—Rightfully Hers: American Women and the Vote. Our guests will explore the methods the suffragists use to communicate their message and how the media and public representations of women shaped the battle for the 19th Amendment.
Check our website, Archives.gov, or sign up at the table outside the theater to get email updates. You’ll also find information about other National Archives programs and activities.
Another way to get more involved with the National Archives is to become a member of the National Archives Foundation. The Foundation supports the work of the agency, especially its education and outreach programs. Check out their website—archivesfoundation.org—to learn more about them and join online.
Tonight’s discussion is part of a series of programs related to our soon-to-open exhibit Rightfully Hers: American Women and the Vote.
Rightfully Hers, which opens on May 10, commemorates the centennial of the 19th Amendment and tells the story of women’s struggle for voting rights as a critical step toward equal citizenship. The exhibit will explore how American women across the spectra of race, ethnicity, and class advanced the cause of suffrage and will follow the struggle for voting rights beyond 1920.
The decades-long fight for the vote in the 19th and early 20th centuries engaged large numbers of women in the political process. Tonight we welcome and look forward to hearing from four modern, talented, dedicated, and determined women who have also have made history and shaped politics.
Their determination, political will, and shared experiences are showcased]in their book, For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Politics. All four have spent their careers in public service but have, as Julianne Malveaux writes in her Washington Post review, “distinctly different temperaments and different approaches to life and politics.” Picking up on those different approaches, Malveaux concludes: “In the last chapter, the women offer advice to young people who have considered politics. Their words are, like Brazile, blunt; like Caraway, kind; like Moore, pragmatic; like Daughtry, full of faith. Anyone who has considered politics will be renewed by the strength, vision and sharing of this volume.”
Please join me in welcoming our moderator, Pulitzer Prize–winning journalist Jonathan Capehart, and co-authors Donna Brazile, Yolanda Caraway, Leah Daughtry, and Minyon Moore.