The theme for Law Day this year is Your Vote, Your Voice, Our Democracy: The 19th Amendment at 100. It celebrates the centennial of the constitutional amendment that guaranteed women’s right to vote, and recognizes the challenges to voting rights that are still present today.
The Historical Society of the New York Courts developed a similar topic for its David A. Garfinkel Essay Scholarship, with Bronx Community College students writing about You, the Voter: How Far Have We Come? Is the Journey Over? In 2020, Harold Rosario won first prize with his essay, which examines how women and African Americans earned their right to vote, and is published below.
The Path to Equality: Women and African Americans Winning the Right to Vote
by Harold Rosario
Prof. Alana Barran, Mentoring Professor
From the time of America’s inception, the right to vote was one that was given only to a privileged few landowners. Many different groups of people have been denied the right to vote throughout American history. Of these groups, women and African Americans had the longest, and maybe the most important, fight for the vote. These are groups that were essential in the establishment of the United States, from the time of colonization through the declaration of independence from Great Britain.
The first laws related to voting came during the colonial and revolutionary times when the right to vote was restricted to male property owners. In a time when African Americans were still slaves and they themselves were considered property, landowners were mostly rich white males. These laws also restricted women because at the time not only was it was rare for a woman to own property, they generally relied on their father or husband for financial support. The legal and practical restrictions on voting seemed to be specifically targeting these groups, as it would take many years and a hard fight for either group to finally win their right to vote.
