THE WOMEN WHO WON THE VOTE

Branching out into mini-biography, the 5-Minute series introduces voting rights.

Though readers can browse this work, the various entries make more sense read in chronological order, since many efforts built on (or departed from) earlier pioneers’ work. Roberts describes Susan B. Anthony’s arrest for illegally voting in 1872, Lucy Stone’s decision to keep her own name after marriage, and how Alice Paul disrupted a mayoral banquet in London to draw attention to the cause. The author also considers the experiences of women of color, noting that Sojourner Truth and Ida B. Wells endured both misogyny and racism as they fought for the right to vote. Roberts spotlights Ojibwe lawyer Marie Louise Bottineau Baldwin, who wanted to make the public aware of Indigenous peoples’ longtime support for women's suffrage. Each well-crafted story is capped by an additional page of context—for instance, the difference between the terms suffragist and suffragette. Roberts briefly describes the methods used by various groups and notes past disagreement over whether violent protest was acceptable. Lively, watercolorlike vignette illustrations accurately depict the settings. A useful appended timeline begins in 1832 (with Mary Smith becoming the first woman to officially request the right to vote in the U.K.) and ends with the 2013 U.S. Supreme Court Voting Rights Act decision that “opened the door to potential barriers that could make it harder for some groups to vote.”

Ten compelling episodes in the voting rights story—a still-unfinished fight.