Elections 2024 | Women fight for the right to vote, here is the schedule

RALEIGH, N.C. (WTVD) — With Friday being the voter registration deadline in North Carolina, the League of Women Voters (LWV) is urging North Carolinians to make sure they are registered to vote.

“It was a very long, hard fight,” LWV National President Dianna Wynn told ABC11, referring to the women's suffrage movement. Wynn plays nationally in the league but happens to live in Wake County.

For more than 70 years, women and some men fought in many ways for women to have the right to vote. They participated in everything from sending letters and telegrams to elected officials to marches in Washington, D.C.—and even some more radical tactics.

“Suffragists stood at the gates of the White House and protested. They were arrested and detained for their peaceful protest activities, not just overnight, but for days and days, and many of these women went on hunger strikes. When I tell people.” “I really mean it was a tough battle,” Wynn said.

We also asked Wynn about the suffrage movement here in North Carolina.

“After Congress approved the 19th Amendment and it then had to go to the states for ratification, things got really hectic in the states, including North Carolina. So there were suffragists here across the country who would go and meet with legislators “literally in the lobby of old hotels that used to exist in downtown Raleigh,” Wynn said, adding that this is how the term “lobbying “ was coined.

Back in 1920, all legislative decision-makers were men. Our North Carolina legislature did not vote to ratify the 19th Amendment, but enough other states voted to ratify it and it became law.

Even after the ratification of the 19th Amendment, there was still much work to be done. Women need to be educated about the process before casting their first vote. The LWV had just been founded and offered citizenship courses to help women prepare for the elections.

It is also important to note that the 19th Amendment largely benefited white women. It would be nearly 50 years before the Voting Rights Act of 1965 was signed, which was intended to protect people of color from intimidation, violence or other obstacles to voting.

“Almost everyone in this nation has fought in some way for their right to be represented in this democracy by voting,” Wynn said.

The deadline to register to vote is Friday, October 11th. If you missed it, you can register and vote the same day for early in-person voting, which runs from October 17th to November 2nd.

Click here to learn everything you need to know about voting in North Carolina this year.