To mark the 100th anniversary of the ratification of the 19th Amendment, PBS will launch a multiplatform programming focused on “Trailblazers” in order to commemorate the fight for women’s suffrage in the US and the stories of modern women, who continue to shatter the glass ceiling and transform modern history. The Trailblazers PBS theme will be anchored by a documentary entitled “The Vote.“

To complement this project, PBS Books has developed and launched their Trailblazing Women Virtual Series, which will highlight amazing stories of American women through summer-long programming.  In June, July, and August, PBS Books will offer programming on Facebook Live in collaboration with libraries across American and local PBS stations.

On Wednesday, June 24, PBS Books interviewed Elaine Weiss to discuss The Woman’s Hour and featured a Panel Discussion on the suffrage movement.

View educational resources about the suffrage movement >

About the panelists

Elaine Weiss is a Baltimore-based journalist and author, whose feature writing has been recognized with prizes from the Society of Professional Journalists, and  her byline has appeared in many national publications, as well as in reports for National Public Radio. Her long-form writing garnered a Pushcart Prize “Editor’s Choice” award, and she is a proud MacDowell Colony Fellow. Weiss’ most recent book, The Woman’s Hour: The Great Fight to Win the Vote (Viking/Penguin) has won critical acclaim from the New York Times, Wall St. Journal, Christian Science Monitor, and The New Yorker, hailed as a “riveting, nail-biting political thriller” with powerful parallels to today’s political environment. The Woman’s Hour was a GoodReads Readers’ Choice Award winner, short-listed for the 2019 Chautauqua Prize, and received the American Bar Association’s highest honor, the 2019 Silver Gavel Award.

 

Dr. Treva Lindsey is an Associate Professor and the Chair of Graduate Studies of Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies at The Ohio State University. Her research and teaching interests include African American women’s history, black popular and expressive culture, black feminism(s), hip hop studies, critical race and gender theory, and sexual politics.  Her first book is Colored No More: Reinventing Black Womanhood in Washington D.C is a Choice 2017 “Outstanding Academic Title.” She has published in The Journal of Pan-African Studies, Souls, African and Black Diaspora, the Journal of African American Studies, African American Review, The Journal of African American History, Meridians: Feminism, Race, Transnationalism, Urban Education, The Black Scholar, Feminist Studies, and Signs.

 

Jen Miller is the Executive Director of the League of Women Voters in Ohio.  For nearly twenty years, Miller has worked with diverse communities to promote social and environmental justice through positions with the Sierra Club, Columbus Rec and Parks, the King Arts Complex, Global Gallery, and OSU. Miller earned her Master’s in Arts Policy, Education and Administration, a program of the John Glenn School of Public Affairs at Ohio State. She holds Bachelor’s degrees in Vocal Music and History and Ethnic Studies from Capital University. Miller is a graduate of the US Department of Energy NREL Leadership Academy. Inspiring others to participate in civic engagement is her deepest passion. She is a jazz singer and proud mother of one daughter.

 

Jennifer Schwed and Doug Bradshaw are Through the 4th Wall (TT4W) and the co-libretto writers, lyricists, directors and producers of 19: The Musical. Officially launched in 2014, TT4W is an award-winning theater, film and media company that creates, writes, directs and produces its own original works. Past projects have spanned media and genres such as, Jules & James, a serialized audio drama podcast and multimedia story, A Dream Within A Dream, an immersive play about the mad genius of Edgar Allan Poe, and The Upside of Iris, an enchanting and whimsical story about a girl who sees the world upside down, produced as an animated e-book. These past artistic ventures have garnered both critical and audience acclaim.