Hi, this is John Delin. Thank you so much for tuning in to the Mormon Stories podcast.

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In 1789, the United States of America entered its first official year of operation. To many, the

United States represented a shining new symbol to the world of liberty, equality, and freedom.

And rightly so. Notwithstanding, for the first 82 years of its history, the nation born under

the ideals of no taxation without representation, and of the people, by the people, and for the people,

denied voting rights to over 50% of its adult population, including blacks and women.

Some of the founding fathers, including George Washington and Thomas Jefferson, were themselves

slaveholders. 81 years later, in 1870, the 15th amendment to the United States Constitution was

ratified, guaranteeing, at least in theory, the right to vote to black men. Many of the women who

played pivotal roles helping to free the blacks were hoping that they too would benefit from this

new era of electoral openness, but it was not yet to be. Once black men got the vote, it took

another 50 years or until 1920 for women of any color to obtain the same voting rights as these

male former slaves had received. That's 131 years from the time the country was founded.

How could this have happened? What does it mean that it took 131 years for women to get the vote

in the United States of America? In some ways, it's almost as if women were the afterthought,

beyond afterthoughts, in American society. Is that unfair to say?

On April 6, 1830, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints was established within the United

States. Since its inception, both blacks and women have played pivotal, but sometimes structurally

...