Who gets to be a citizen? This session will focus on three significant Chicago-based women activists who were connected in their reform work, but who encountered difficulties in finding common ground. Ida B. Wells, Frances Willard and Jane Addams each worked to expand women’s rights and influence. However, they had significant disagreements in their approaches informed by their differing views about the impact of race and racism.

Employing art as social practice, Aram Han Sifuentes confronts social and racial injustices created by and through institutions and governments. In this virtual presentation, Han Sifuentes will guide us through her practice and the ways she employs fiber and performance to reimagine inclusive systems of civic engagement and belonging. This program is presented in partnership with George Washington University Textile Museum.

How do we encourage more women to run for political office and broaden support for women candidates? Join Jane Addams Hull-House Museum and presenting partners Chicago History Museum and DuSable Museum of African American History for a screening and discussion of the new documentary film SURGE. The film followed inspiring first time female candidates during the historic 2018 elections.

On this virtual tour partnership with Chicago History Museum learn about the life and work of Hull-House founder Jane Addams, the activism of its residents that secured the passage of the 19th Amendment. Tour the current exhibition Why Women Should Vote, based on a 1911 essay by Jane Addams advocating for women and immigrant women to take up the fight for the franchise.

In the standard story, the suffrage crusade began in Seneca Falls in 1848 and ended with the ratification of the Nineteenth Amendment in 1920. But this overwhelmingly white women’s movement did not win the vote for most black women. Securing their rights required a movement of their own. In Vanguard, acclaimed historian Martha S. Jones offers a new history of African American women’s political lives in America.

Hull-House was joined by Anya Jabour author of the new biography, Sophonisba Breckinridge: Championing Women’s Activism in Modern America (University of Illinois Press/ 2019) that highlights Sophonisba Breckinridge’s remarkable career as an educator and activist.

On this virtual tour collaboration with Chicago History Museum learn about the life and work of Hull-House founder Jane Addams, the unique work and activism of its residents, the settlement house’s lasting impact on the conditions immigrants faced in the city’s 19th Ward.

In a period of civic unrest and a public health emergency, museums can help confront and expose false histories that shape the current moment. Join Jane Addams Hull-House Museum and institutional members of the Association of Midwest Museum for an interactive presentation with guest presenter Mindy Fullilove, a public historian and social psychiatrist.

Join Jane Addams Hull-House Museum and Lisa Materson, author of For the Freedom of Her Race: Black Women and Electoral Politics in Illinois, 1877-1932 (University of North Carolina Press/March 2009) in a discussion about black suffragists in Illinois. Speakers include: Jane Rhodes (moderator), UIC Department Head and Professor of African American Studies and Beverly Cook, Senior Archivist at the Vivian Harsh Collection. The session will focus on the overlooked stories of black women in Illinois who advocated for voting rights and the racism within the suffrage movement – past and present - what is remembered, what is forgotten and how little has been told.