Women were finally granted the right to vote in 1920 when the 19th Amendment was passed and gave (mostly) white women the right to vote. But the struggle for that right began some 70 year earlier in the central New York town of Seneca Falls. It wasn’t until the passage of the Civil Rights Act in 1965 that ALL women were free to vote.
The Tony Award winning musical “Suffs” tells the story of that fight.
At the July 2 performance of “Suffs” a group of white women calling themselves radical, anti-racist, queer feminists protested the musical with a banner calling “Suffs” a white wash and chanting for the shows cancellation. The sight of the protest is also where the musical unfurls a banner and chants in protest of President Woodrow Wilson’s inactivity over women’s suffrage.
The musical features performances by women of colour; as well as, a character who uses a wheelchair – something that would never have been seen in nineteenth or early twentieth century society.
The producers of the show did little beyond acknowledging the fact that the protest took place and saying that no one was hurt.