Thread: On the anniversary of the #VotingRightsAct & in the centennial of #suffrage, voting rights are under attack through targeted voter ID laws, efforts to restrict the formerly incarcerated from voting, & efforts to restrict safe mail in ballots in a pandemic. #twitterstorians

Whenever politics are competitive, politicians have incentives to both enfranchise those who would support them & disfranchise those who support their opposition. We see this in the history of #suffrage. #19thAmendment #twitterstorians #VotesforWomen #twitterstorians

22 states, beginning w/ Wisconsin in 1848, allowed #immigrants who had declared their intention to become citizens but not completed the naturalization process to vote. During #Reconstruction, declarant immigrant voting was legalized in much of the South. It spread west as well.

The intention was to incentivize moving to a particular state. Business leaders & politicians originally pushed for the practice. See @histnerd 's work. TX added declarant immigrant voting thinking that German immigrant voters would help counter the votes of former secessionists

Declarant immigrant voting peaked in the late 19th c. The Dakotas were the final states to include it in their constitutions, & other states started requiring voters to be citizens. By the 1910, declarant immigrant voting where it still existed really bothered suffragists.

Suffragists argued that as citizens they should have the #vote, but the #SCOTUS argued that citizenship did not equate to voting, which was a privilege bestowed by the states. In Minor v. Happersett they pointed to immigrant voting to prove that citizenship does not equal voting.

Particularly in the midst of the patriotism of #WWI & the beginning/precursor to the nativist movement of the 1920s, suffragists argued that the fact that they as (mostly white) citizens lacked the vote while even German & Mexican immigrants had the vote was incredibly unjust.

In several states the woman suffrage movement & the immigrant disfranchisement movement overlapped. Amendments in these states -if passed- would have enfranchised women & required voters to be citizens for the 1st time. #19thAmendment #suffrage #VotesForWomen #twitterstorians

My article in the @JournalGAPE suffrage centennial issue traces this overlap from SD, to TX, & AR, all of which held referendums on suffrage amendments that contained citizenship clauses. @womnknowhistory @shgape @CambridgeUP @CUPAcademic @CambridgeCore https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/journal-of-the-gilded-age-and-progressive-era/article/immigrant-declarants-and-loyal-american-women-how-suffragists-helped-redefine-the-rights-of-citizens/B478BD887C5C43F664544DC81E374360/share/e45d224fc8f3e6f7007ae970ba81ea057b5dafe2

Also check out articles from amazing scholars including @hmprescott @lmacthompson1 in the @JournalGAPE #suffrage centennial special issue. @womnknowhistory #twitterstorians https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/journal-of-the-gilded-age-and-progressive-era/article/right-to-ourselves-womens-suffrage-and-the-birth-control-movement/BD3750F23168E0B03E929BB5C7D8B6EF