The year 2020 was the 100th anniversary of the ratification of the 19th amendment to the United States Constitution.  The amendment says the right to vote cannot be denied based on sex.  The adoption of this amendment gave many women the right to vote in all elections. 

In fighting for the vote, African American suffragists confronted racism in addition to discrimination based on their gender.  Historian Rosalyn Terborg-Penn has written that “African American women were universal suffragists in the sense that their voices called for the vote for all citizens, not just for themselves.”  It was not until the passage of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 that all African American women gained the right to vote. 

Toward a Universal Suffrage is organized by Allyn Benkowich and Kristen Corey of the Office on the Status of Women, Iowa Department of Human Rights; Dr. Karen M. Kedrowski of the Carrie Chapman Catt Center for Women and Politics at Iowa State University; and Eric Morse of the Central Iowa Community Museum.