Democracy 101: Organize, Agitate, Educate
From Elaine Weiss: America’s Democratic Movements Were Powered by Citizenship Schools.
September 05, 2026
This semiquincentennial year has brought us many opportunities to reflect on the original gap between the nation’s stated ideals and its actual practices, and the long painful journey toward closing them. The 15th Amendment in 1870; the 19th Amendment in 1920; the Voting Rights Act of 1965—these corrective Constitutional amendments came about only after decades of persuasion, pressure, and even bloodshed, to expand the franchise beyond the Founders’ vision of an electorate of wealthy white men. Yet it is rarely remembered that what powered these great movements towards expanded democracy was the quiet engine of civic education.
Featured Image: Board of Directors, National League of Women Voters, including Carrie Chapman Catt, Chicago Convention, February 1920. Image from Library of Congress.