 Hello, my name is Sarah Lyons Davis. I'm an education specialist with museum programs at the National Archives. I'm going to share some documents that highlight actions of individuals and communities in expanding the right to vote to all women as part of an exploration of the 19th amendment. This document is the United States federal census listing for Sarah Tompkins and family from 1860. Sarah Tompkins was also known by the name from her second marriage, Sarah Tompkins Garnett, was an activist for women's suffrage and racial equality. She was the first female African-American principal in New York City public schools listed on line three of this 1860 census record with the occupation public school teacher. Sarah Tompkins was a working woman who was prominent in the fight for suffrage in addition to being an educator who worked outside the home. Tompkins was a co-founder of the Brooklyn based Equal Suffrage League, an organization of African-American women who worked for political and voting rights. She also served as the superintendent of suffrage for the National Association of Colored Women. The struggle for women's suffrage was not always united in its tactics or inclusivity. As a result, organizations developed to support suffrage for minority women and communities. As with other social movements, the fight for women's suffrage involves activists both celebrated and unsung. This document is from June 2, 1873 and it's the Recognizance of Rota de Garmo. It's a document from a court case from the records of district courts of the United States. Susan B. Anthony, a leader in the movement, was arrested for voting illegally in an 1872 election in Rochester, New York. She was, however, not alone in her activism or her arrest. Anthony was joined in her legal voting by a group of 14 other women from her community, including Rota de Garmo. Rota de Garmo was born in 1799 and came from a family of prominent abolitionists in upstate New York. Men and women used the rights protected by the Constitution and the Bill of Rights to work towards voting equality. They spoke out, they petitioned, they protested. This 1929 letter was from Anna Lopez de Velez to President Calvin Coolidge. It's from our Records of the Bureau of Insular Affairs. The 19th Amendment was ratified in 1920. It prohibited states from denying the vote on the basis of sex, but it did not mention U.S. territories such as Puerto Rico. At the time, Puerto Rico's territorial legislature refused to enfranchise the island's women. Puerto Rican suffragists continued to protest their disenfranchisement for another 15 years. In 1929, President of the Puerto Rican Association of Women Suffragists Anna Lopez de Velez sent this letter to President Calvin Coolidge urging his support for legislation that would enfranchise Puerto Rican women. They gained a partial victory when literate women won the vote in 1929. All adult women finally gained the vote in 1935. Puerto Ricans today still lack equal voting rights with most other U.S. citizens. They participate in presidential primaries but are unable to vote for president, and they elect only a non-voting delegate to the House of Representatives. Exclusionary policies kept members of some communities from exercising their right to vote. Poll taxes, literacy tests, and the possibility of racially motivated violence were just some roadblocks that activists sought to resolve. Mabel Pinghua Li, the first Chinese woman to earn a PhD from Columbia University, immigrated to New York as a child. She was involved with missionary work as noted on her application for reentry permit from circa 1937 from the records of the Immigration and Naturalization Service. The Chinese Exclusion Act limited rights of Chinese American laborers and prevented Chinese immigrants from becoming citizens. Under this act Li was not a citizen and therefore was unable to vote, yet she and others still fought for universal suffrage even without the ability to directly benefit from its success. These are just four documents in the holdings of the National Archives that tell the story of the struggle for the right to vote to include all women. If you wish to explore more of these stories we have educational resources online at docsteach.org forward slash topics forward slash women. You may also learn more about the 19th amendment on our website archives.gov forward slash women where you can get a curator's tour of the rightfully hers exhibit at our museum in Washington DC and much more.