Fact Friday and Arc Review: Women Win the Vote! 19 for the 19th Amendment by Nancy B. Kennedy

Image: W.W. Norton & Company

Women Win the Vote! 19 for the 19th Amendment by Nancy B. Kennedy. 120 p. Norton Young Readers/ W.W. Norton & Company. 9781324004141. (Review of arc courtesy of publisher.)

Fact Friday features Women Win the Vote! 19 for the 19th Amendment by Nancy B. Kennedy. This is a timely book to read as we approach the 100th anniversary of the passing of the 19th Amendment on August 20th. This collective biography devotes four pages each to nineteen well- and lesser-known figures in women's history plus eleven thumbnail bios of additional suffragists that includes three men. One of those four pages is devoted to illustration (unfinished in my arc) that features a quote from the subject, an archival photo and drawn art. 

Readers learn in the Epilogue that though women achieved the right to vote, many were still denied access to polling places along with African Americans, Native Americans and Asian with illegal fees, literacy tests or other "requirements." The back matter includes a Timeline, where readers learn that eight states took their sweet time to formally ratify the Nineteenth Amendment, with Mississippi being the latest at 1984! The plentiful back matter also includes two pages of black and white photos featuring banners; two pages of places to visit; seven pages of notes; four and a half pages of sources and an index. 

This attractively designed collective biography is a nice introduction to a complicated story. Just like our founding fathers, the white leaders of the movement had biases, a fact that the author discusses. Pair this with Evette Dionne's Lifting as We Climb: Black Women's Battle for the Ballot Box for a well-rounded introduction to the subject. Women Win the Vote! 19 for the 19th Amendment is an important addition to any library in these times when voter suppression is alive and well.