Before Betty Friedan, Gloria Steinem, Susan Faludi and other modern feminists, there was suffragist Christia Adair. She fought for women's right to vote, even though she knew that as a black woman in Texas she would not benefit from the passage of the 19th Amendment.
Adair, and scores of other feminist foremothers, paved the way for contemporary feminists (as well as millions of other women) to live and think on equal terms with men.
With "Women in Action: Rebels and Reformers from 1920 to 1980," the League of Women Voters reminds us of those largely anonymous activists. The exhibition, mounted at the National Museum of American History, commemorates the 75th anniversary of both the passage of the 19th Amendment and the creation of the league.
Founded on Feb. 14, 1920, the nonpartisan league encourages all citizens to participate in the legislative process. By consensus, the league formulates and lobbies for its own positions on health care and other public policies. The league has more than 100,000 members in 50 states, the District of Columbia and the Virgin Islands.
For Becky Cain, current league president, "Women in Action" is a plea for renewed faith in the American way. "Ordinary people can see a problem and make a difference," she says. The show "brings home that fact so we don't give up on our government and the democratic process."
The paneled, photographic exhibition examines the hard work of reform, not just on women's behalf, but on behalf of all who are disenfranchised in the land of opportunity.
Among those profiled in the exhibit are the famous, such as suffragette and league founder Carrie Chapman Catt. Catt's diplomacy stood in stark contrast to the rebellious acts of her nemesis, Alice Paul, also showcased in the exhibit. In her quest for the vote, Paul burned President Wilson's speeches in view of the White House.
The exhibit, curated by Priscilla Rashun Linn, also highlights the heroism of more obscure activists in cities, small towns and rural settlements. These women, some of whom are still living, were nominated for inclusion by league chapters across the nation.
And so we meet Mine Okubo, who protested the internment of Japanese-Americans during World War II. And Tsuyako "Sox" Kitashima, leader of the campaign to win war reparations for those Japanese-Americans. Her words speak for all of the women featured in the exhibit: "My philosophy is, we're only here one time and I'm going to do all I can do, even if I die with my boots on trying."
Others profiled in "Women in Action" include Sarah Winnemucca, a 19th-century Native American rights activist, lecturer and teacher, and Luisa Moreno, who unionized cannery workers in southern California.
"Women in Action" is also a painful reminder of the toll exacted by their struggles. Voting rights advocates were "brutally treated," Ms. Linn says. Alice Paul, for example, was force fed through a nose tube during the last two weeks of a hunger strike in prison.
Such excruciating truths rarely surface in history texts. "It's extraordinary how little play the suffrage movement is given" in history texts, Ms. Linn says.
"It was a major step forward for one half the population of the United States."
The exhibit is chock-full of startling facts. For example, there was a time when American women who married men of a different nationality automatically lost their own citizenship. And as recently as 1967, South Carolina prohibited women from serving on juries.
According to Dr. Linn's narrative, when Congress was debating the Civil Rights Act in 1963, "One conservative representative made a change to read no discrimination by race and 'sex' figuring the added word would cause the bill to fail. Thus the act paved the way not only for civil rights but for the women's movement that soon followed."
LEAGUE EXHIBIT
"Women in Action: Rebels and Reformers" continues until April 2 at the National Museum of American History, Smithsonian Institution.
An identical exhibition will travel around the country through 1996.
"From Parlor to Politics: Women and Reform in America, 1890-1925," also at the National Museum of American History, continues indefinitely.
The museum is open daily from 10 a.m. until 5:30 p.m. It is at 14th Street and Constitution Avenue, N.W. Admission is free.
For more information, call (202) 357-1481.