A look back at women's suffrage as voting registration deadline looms: 'A very long, hard fight'

RALEIGH, N.C. (WTVD) -- With Friday being the voting registration deadline in North Carolina, the League of Women Voters (LWV) is urging North Carolinians to ensure they're registered to vote.

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

For more than 70 years, women and some men too fought in all kinds of ways to ensure women had the right to vote. They engaged in everything from sending letters and telegrams to elected officials, to marches in Washington D.C. - and even some more radical tactics as well.

"Suffragists were at the White House gates and they were protesting and they were arrested for their peaceful protest activity and jailed and not just overnight but for days and days and days and many of those women went on hunger strikes. So, when I tell people that the fight for voting rights was hard fought, I really do mean that it was a hard fight," Wynn said.

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

"Once Congress approved the 19th amendment, and then, it had to go to the states to ratify, things got really hectic in the states, including in North Carolina. So, there were suffragists here, statewide going to the legislators and meeting with them literally in the lobby of old hotels that used to exist in downtown Raleigh," Wynn said, adding that that's how the term "lobbying" was coined.

At the time back in 1920, all the legislators making the decision were men. Our North Carolina legislature did not vote to ratify the 19th Amendment, but enough other states did vote to ratify and it became law.

Even after the 19th Amendment was ratified, there was still work to be done. Women needed to be educated on the process before casting their first vote. The LWV had just formed, and they offered citizenship classes to help women prepare for the polls.

It's also important to note that the 19th Amendment largely benefited white women. It would take nearly 50 more years before the Voting Rights Act of 1965 was signed, aimed at protecting people of color from intimidation, violence, or any other barriers to casting their ballot.

"Just about everybody in this nation has some sort of history in the fight for their right to be represented in this democracy by being able to cast their vote," Wynn said.

The voting registration deadline is Friday, October 11. If you miss that, you can still register and vote on the same day during early in-person voting, which runs from October 17 through November 2.

For everything you need to know about casting your ballot in North Carolina this year, click here.