Do you have a cause you’re passionate about?

Take a few tips from the suffragists, who led one of the
largest and longest movements in American history.

The women’s suffrage movement was

ROBERTS
decades in the making and came with

ROBB &
the
many harsh setbacks. But it resulted
the Suffragist Playbook Quiz—
in these
many of a permanent victory:
can you women’s right
answer?
to vote. How did the suffragists do
it? One hundred years later, an eye-
Who was the first person to make fighting for
opening
women’s suffrage lookjob,
her full-time at despite
their being
playbook shows
the suffragist playbook
suffragist
p l ay b o o k
pelted with eggs and sprayed by a firehose?
that some of their strategies seem
oddlymet
Which suffragist familiar. Women’s marches at
with two presidents
inauguration time? Check. Publicity
and published a successful autobiography?
stunts, optics, and influencers? They
Who held the very first march on your guide to
practically
Washington, DC—andinvented
were the first them. Petitions,
people ever to picket the White House?
lobbying, speeches, raising money, changing the world
and
Which writing
suffragist articles?
decided All of that, too.
to defy racist
laws and keep her seat, generations B

before Rosa Parks’s famous protest?

From moments of inspiration to some
of the movement’s darker aspects—
the suffragists, Ida B. Wells (B)
Answers: Lucy Stone (A), Sojourner Truth (C),
including the racism of some suffragist
leaders, violence against picketers,
and hunger strikes in jail—this clear-
ight © 2020 by Bug Robbins US $15.99 / $21.99 CAN
eyed view takes in the roles of key
RADE EDITION figures: Susan B. Anthony, Lucy
Stone, Sojourner Truth, Elizabeth
LUCINDA ROBB &
Cady Stanton, Frances Willard, Ida
REBECCA BOGGS ROBERTS
B. Wells, Alice Paul, and many more.
Engagingly narrated by Lucinda Robb
and Rebecca Boggs Roberts, whose Coming Fall 2020
HC: 978-1-5362-1033-0
friendship goes back generations (to
$15.99 ($21.99 CAN)
their grandmothers, Lady Bird Johnson Also available as an e-book and in audio
and Lindy Boggs, and their mothers, Age 12 and up • 160 pages

Lynda Robb and Cokie Roberts), this

unique melding of seminal history media contact:
Karen Walsh, Executive Director of
and smart tactics is sure to capture the
Publicity for Brands and Key Titles
attention of activists-in-the-making karen.walsh@candlewick.com
today. (617) 588-4516

candlewick press
a note from the authors

We have a story we want to tell you, one that’s inspiring, exasperating, and sometimes
shameful. It’s the story of the suffrage movement and the amazing women—and even a few
men—who accomplished something remarkable that still impacts us today. When we were
growing up, this story got glossed over in history class because teachers were racing to get
through World War II before the end of the year. It seemed like the whole women voting
thing was inevitable anyway, so it didn’t need much more than a few sentences. But that
couldn’t be more wrong.

Our foremothers didn’t just make the world a better place; they left future generations an
arsenal of tactics to achieve their goals. They learned so much through painful trial and error,
and we can’t afford to let it be forgotten—including their mistakes. Starting with virtually no
political power or public support, a diverse group of suffragists effected the largest single
change to American democracy, without resorting to armed rebellion or overthrowing the
government. They were fearless, creative, tenacious, and radical (one of our ongoing writing
challenges was finding family-friendly synonyms for badass). They were also, just as we are
today, deeply flawed and human. We find that liberating. You don’t have to be perfect to
make the world a better place; you just have to step up.

As we celebrate the centennial of the Nineteenth Amendment, a lot of the hoopla focuses
on the pageantry: the sashes, banners, hats, and dresses. We love the pageantry; it was
an intentional and effective political tactic. But the costumes tend to make it feel like the
suffrage movement belongs in another time, when in fact their strategies and rhetoric can
be incredibly effective for today’s activists. That’s why this isn’t just a history book, but a
playbook.

As for us, our friendship goes back generations. Lucinda’s grandmother Lady Bird Johnson
and Rebecca’s grandmother Lindy Boggs became friends in the 1940s, when both were
young southern political wives in Washington, DC. Our mothers, Lynda Robb and Cokie
Roberts, were lifelong friends. We met as babies (there is even a family legend that Lucinda
was promised to Rebecca’s brother at birth), reconnected as college students at Princeton,
and as adults became colleagues and mutual admirers in the museum education world of
Washington.

Between us, we have six kids ranging from ten to eighteen, so we are acutely aware of how
the next generation is learning American history. We’ve both published research on the
 suffrage movement, and when Lucinda suggested collaborating on a book for young readers,
Rebecca jumped at the chance. We wrote The Suffragist Playbook in the nooks and crannies
of our busy lives; we literally edited this authors’ note while cooking family dinner and
pretending to watch baseball practice. Ideally, we want our book to be a little like The Art of
War if it were written for activists, with a pinch of How to Win Friends & Influence People, and by
the last page, without realizing it, you would actually know suffrage history. It was important
to us that the tactics be genuinely practical. Some of our children want to save the planet, and
some just want to save puppies. We hope the lessons in our book apply to both. Thank you.

P.S. Rebecca wants you to know that she is acutely jealous that Lucinda has actually held the
Nineteenth Amendment in her (gloved) hands. Lucinda wants you to know that it . . . was . . .
AWESOME!

rebecca boggs roberts is the author of Suffragists in Washington, DC: The 1913
Parade and the Fight for the Vote and Historic Congressional Cemetery. She has
photo by Moshe Zusman

been many things, including a journalist, producer, tour guide, forensic

anthropologist, event planner, political consultant, jazz singer, and radio talk
show host. Currently she is a program coordinator for Smithsonian Associates,
where she has made it a personal mission to highlight the history of our
capital city. She lives in Washington, DC, with her husband, three sons, and a
big fat dog.

lucinda robb was project director for Our Mothers Before Us: Women and
Democracy, 1789–1920 at the Center for Legislative Archives. The project
photo by Karen Kasmauski

rediscovered thousands of overlooked original documents and produced

a traveling exhibit and education program highlighting the role of women
in American democracy. She also helped organize the National Archives’
celebration of the seventy-fifth anniversary of the Nineteenth Amendment
in 1995. She lives in Virginia with her husband, three children, one dog, and
more than five hundred PEZ dispensers.