Cathleen Cahill and Alison Parker have a conversation about their respective books, “Recasting the Vote: How Women of Color Transformed the Suffrage Movement” and
“Unceasing Militant: The Life of Mary Church Terrell”

Cathleen D. Cahill is author of “Recasting the Vote: How Women of Color Transformed the Suffrage Movement.” We think we know the story of women’s suffrage in the United States: women met at Seneca Falls, marched in Washington, D.C., and demanded the vote until they won it with the ratification of the Nineteenth Amendment. But the fight for women's voting rights extended far beyond these familiar scenes. In “Recasting the Vote,” Cahill tells the powerful stories of a multiracial group of activists who propelled the national suffrage movement toward a more inclusive vision of equal rights. As we celebrate the centennial of a great triumph for the women’s movement, Cahill’s powerful history reminds us of the work that remains.

Cahill is associate professor of history at The Pennsylvania State University, winner of the 2011 Labriola Center American Indian National Book Award and finalist for the 2012 David J. Weber-Clements Prize, Western History Association.

Alison M. Parker is author of “Unceasing Militant: The Life of Mary Church Terrell.” Born into slavery during the Civil War, Mary Church Terrell (1863–1954) would become one of the most prominent activists of her time, with a career bridging the late 19^th century to the civil rights movement of the 1950s. Though most accounts of Terrell focus almost exclusively on her public activism, Parker also looks at the often turbulent, unexplored moments in her life to provide a more complete account of a woman dedicated to changing the culture and institutions that perpetuated inequality throughout the United States. Drawing on newly discovered letters and diaries, Parker weaves together the joys and struggles of Terrell's personal, private life with the challenges and achievements of her public, political career, producing a stunning portrait of an often under-recognized political leader.

Parker is history department chair and Richards Professor of American History at the University of Delaware.

This virtual event will be hosted by Chaitra Powell, African American collections and outreach archivist at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill University Libraries.

This talk is part of Off the Shelf, a collaboration between the University Libraries and the UNC Press to present new works on racial and social justice in our history and our world. The talk is co-presented by Women’s and Gender Studies at UNC-Chapel Hill.

To order this book, visit uncpress.org or call 1-800-848-6224. To receive a 40% discount off the book price, register for this event and you will receive a discount code.

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