The Suffragists
女性选举权先锋
By Erin Blakemore
文/艾琳·布莱克莫尔
Blakemore is a journalist and the author of The Heroine's Bookshelf
布莱克莫尔是一名记者,也是《女英雄的书架》的作者。
It was the culmination of generations of activism, and Carrie Chapman Catt, who had devoted three decades to the suffrage struggle,
1920年,(美国宪法)第十九条修正案正式通过,一代又一代女性选举权斗争就此达到高潮,
was among the crowds that celebrated the ratification of the 19th Amendment in 1920.
庆祝修正案通过的人群中,就有在那之前已经为女性选举权斗争努力了30个年头的凯莉·查普曼·卡特的身影。
"Women have suffered agony of soul which you never can comprehend,
“(你们之前的)女性在心灵上承受了你们永远也无法领会的痛苦,
that you and your daughters might inherit political freedom," Catt told a victorious throng.
(才换来了)你和你的女儿承袭政治自由的可能,”卡特对欢呼的人群说道。
"Prize it!"
“请好好珍惜!”
Among those agonies was an ongoing debate about how women should go about securing those rights—
有关女性应该如何捍卫这些权利的辩论没完没了,争论不休,
and the ongoing disenfranchisement of women of color.
剥夺有色人种女性选举权的做法仍未停止,这些都是她们承受的痛楚。
Catt opted for pragmatism and politics, lobbying on a state level and in the halls of Congress.
卡特选择了实用主义和政治,到州里,到国会大厅四处游说。
Along the way, she tussled with Alice Paul and Lucy Burns, militant suffragists who preferred a more dramatic approach.
这样一来,她便与同为女性选举权先锋的爱丽丝·保罗,露西·伯恩斯二人起了冲突。伯恩斯二人风格偏激进,偏向用更为戏剧化的办法解决问题。
Paul and Burns organized public parades
比如组织公共游行,
and staged a groundbreaking, yearslong White House picket with banners that implored President Woodrow Wilson to act.
拉着恳求伍德罗·威尔逊总统采取行动的横幅,在白宫外举行颠覆性的抗议活动,而且一抗议就是数年。
The "Silent Sentinels" endured arrests and imprisonment in a squalid workhouse where they were brutalized and force-fed.
结果,“沉默的哨兵”们被逮捕并监禁到了一个肮脏的劳改所里,在那里受到了残忍的对待,甚至被强行喂食。
Which approach was more effective?
两种方法,哪一种更有效?
"Every movement for social change needs both," says suffrage historian Johanna Neuman.
“每一场社会变革运动都需要两种办法双管齐下,”研究女性选举权斗争历史的约翰娜·诺伊曼说。
For women of color, though, the 1920 victory did not guarantee voting rights.
然而,对有色人种女性而言,1920年的胜利并没能保证她们的投票权。
Despite their fervent participation in the suffrage struggle,
尽管她们积极参与了那场斗争,
their voting rights were secured only with the 1965 Voting Rights Act.
她们的投票权依然要等到1965年选举权法案通过才能得到保障。
Native Americans like Zitkala-Sa, a member of the Yankton Dakota Sioux, were not considered U.S. citizens and were not qualified to vote.
扬克顿达科他苏族成员齐特卡拉一莎那样的原住民不被认可为美国公民,也没有投票的资格。
"Americanize the first American!" she urged in 1921.
“承认最早的美国人的美国人身份!”她曾在1921年敦促道。
Even after the Indian Citizenship Act she had lobbied for became law in 1924, it did not guarantee the vote.
即便她为之努力游说的《印第安公民法案》在1924年终于写入了法律,这一法案也没能保卫她们的选举权。
Zitkala-Sa agitated for full voting rights for the rest of her life.
之后,齐特卡拉一莎一直在为争取100%的选举权奔走呼告。
Only in 1962, decades after her death, did Native Americans gain the right to vote from every state legislature.
直到1962年,也就是她去世几十年后,原住民才从所有州的立法机构手中获得了投票权。
The 19th Amendment was also bittersweet to black suffragist Ida B. Wells- Barnett.
对黑人女性选举权先锋艾达·B.威尔斯-巴内特而言,第十九条修正案也是喜忧参半的成果。
"With no sacredness of the ballot there can be no sacredness of human life itself," she wrote in 1910,
“选票不再神圣,人的生命本身也就不可能神圣了,”
tying women's right to vote to Jim Crow disenfranchisement of black men.
1910年她将女性投票权与黑人男性被剥夺选举权这样的种族歧视做法联系在一起写道。
Despite her contributions to the movement, Wells-Barnett was snubbed by white activists.
尽管威尔斯-巴内特为这场运动做出了杰出的贡献,她本人却受到了白人活动家的冷落。
At a 1913 suffrage parade, she was told to march in the rear.
在1913年的一次选举权游行中,她被告知她应该在队伍后方游行。
She rebelled, claiming a spot alongside white participants instead.
她并没有顺从,执意要与白人参与者并排前进。
"This part of the suffrage story is a tragic one," says Wells-Barnett biographer Paula Giddings.
“选举权斗争的这部分故事也是悲剧的,”为威尔斯-巴尼特作传的保拉·吉丁斯说。
"It's time to re-examine the movement and its flaws so we won't repeat them again."
“此时此刻,我们若不重新审视这场运动以及这场运动的缺陷,日后,我们就还会重蹈覆辙。”
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