On June 24, 2020, Jenifer Ishee presented “Women’s Suffrage in Mississippi” as part of the History Is Lunch series.
Women in the United States were not guaranteed the right to vote until the 19th Amendment to the Constitution was ratified in August of 1920. As that centennial approaches, historians are looking back at the long fight to allow women to participate in the political process as true citizens. At the heart of the suffrage dilemma were arguments rife with political, social, and religious undertones.
“Women from every walk of life and every state in the nation were involved in the struggle,” said Ishee. “I’ll examine the national movement and focus on the events and conversations in Mississippi as the country debated over a woman’s place in American politics.”
Jenifer Ishee is digital archivist and coordinator of the Digital Preservation and Access Unit at Mississippi State University. She earned her undergraduate degree at the University of Southern Mississippi, a master’s degree at the University of Nebraska, and her Master’s in Library and Information Science from Kent State University. Ishee is currently a doctoral student in the Mississippi State University history department.
Ishee curated the exhibit “Votes for Women,” which was in the Brock Gallery at MSU’s Old Main Academic Center, and has presented on topics in women’s history at state and national conferences, including the 2020 Mississippi Historical Society annual meeting; the 2019 Women and the Law Symposium in Jamestown, Virginia; the 2020 American Society of Church History Annual Conference in New York, NY; and the 2020 Southeastern American Society of Eighteenth Century Studies in Macon, Georgia, where she was the recipient of the award for Best Graduate Student Essay.
History Is Lunch is a weekly lecture series of the Mississippi Department of Archives and History that explores different aspects of the state's past. The hour-long programs are held in the Craig H. Neilsen Auditorium of the Museum of Mississippi History and Mississippi Civil Rights Museum building in Jackson. MDAH livestreams videos of the program at noon on Wednesdays on their Facebook page, [ Ссылка ].
