SUFFRAGE SONG HC (C: 0-1-2)
Seneca Falls Convention to the Voting Rights Act of
1965. This intersectional history of women and voting
rights chronicles the suffrage movement's triumphs,
setbacks, and problematic aspects.
"She put in her work, but there's so much left to do." Begun in the
Antebellum era, the song of suffrage was a rallying cry across the nation that would
persist over a century. Capturing the spirit of this refrain, New Yorker contributing
cartoonist Caitlin Cass pens a sweeping history of women's suffrage in the U.S. - a
kaleidoscopic story akin to a triumphant and mournful protest song that spans
decades and echoes into the present.
In Suffrage Song, Cass takes a critical, intersectional approach to the movement's
history - celebrating the pivotal, hard-fought battles for voting rights while
also laying bare the racist compromises suffrage leaders made along the way. She
explores the multigenerational arc of the movement, humanizing key historical
figures from the early days of the suffrage fight (Susan B. Anthony, Frances Watkins
Harper), to the dawn of the "New Women" (Alice Paul, Mary Church Terrell), to the
Civil Rights era (Fannie Lou Hamer, Ella Baker). Additionally, this book sheds light
on less chronicled figures such as Zitkala-Ša and Mabel Ping Hua-Lee, whose stories
reveal the complex racial dynamics that haunt this history. Impeccably researched
and rendered in an engaging and accessible comics style, Suffrage Song is sure to
spark discussion on the vital issue of voting rights that continues to resonate today.
Caitlin Cass is an American artist whose comics often reckon with her country's
thorny history. Cass's work has appeared in The New Yorker, The Lily, and The Nib.
She was a 2018 NYSCA/NYFA Artist Fellow in Fiction, and her 2020 solo exhibition
1965. This intersectional history of women and voting
rights chronicles the suffrage movement's triumphs,
setbacks, and problematic aspects.
"She put in her work, but there's so much left to do." Begun in the
Antebellum era, the song of suffrage was a rallying cry across the nation that would
persist over a century. Capturing the spirit of this refrain, New Yorker contributing
cartoonist Caitlin Cass pens a sweeping history of women's suffrage in the U.S. - a
kaleidoscopic story akin to a triumphant and mournful protest song that spans
decades and echoes into the present.
In Suffrage Song, Cass takes a critical, intersectional approach to the movement's
history - celebrating the pivotal, hard-fought battles for voting rights while
also laying bare the racist compromises suffrage leaders made along the way. She
explores the multigenerational arc of the movement, humanizing key historical
figures from the early days of the suffrage fight (Susan B. Anthony, Frances Watkins
Harper), to the dawn of the "New Women" (Alice Paul, Mary Church Terrell), to the
Civil Rights era (Fannie Lou Hamer, Ella Baker). Additionally, this book sheds light
on less chronicled figures such as Zitkala-Ša and Mabel Ping Hua-Lee, whose stories
reveal the complex racial dynamics that haunt this history. Impeccably researched
and rendered in an engaging and accessible comics style, Suffrage Song is sure to
spark discussion on the vital issue of voting rights that continues to resonate today.
Caitlin Cass is an American artist whose comics often reckon with her country's
thorny history. Cass's work has appeared in The New Yorker, The Lily, and The Nib.
She was a 2018 NYSCA/NYFA Artist Fellow in Fiction, and her 2020 solo exhibition