(upbeat music) - Welcome to the Premier of Inspire.

We're honored to have you here with us on a brand new set in our studio, featuring a powerhouse group of hosts and guests, here to inspire you.

Coming up, we discuss "Women's Suffrage and Equal Voting Rights."

It's all next.

On Inspire.

(upbeat music) - Inspire is sponsored by Kansas Furniture Mart using furniture to inspire conversation.

And by the blanche Bryden Foundation.

(upbeat music) (upbeat music) - Hello, and welcome to Inspire.

I'm excited to be here with my cohosts, Danielle Norwood and Amber Dickinson.

Welcome to Inspire ladies and all of you.

- Thank you.

- We have a great show planned for you tonight.

We'll feature a couple of ladies who will tell us why it's healthy to get out and get dirty.

- And we're all so busy any those reminders to slow down.

Sarah Starr.

Who's the yoga instructor for the PBS Series.

Happy yoga with Sarah Starr.

We'll provide a moment of relaxation and inspiration.

But first let's see who our first interviews are for our very first show on Inspire.

- As we all know last year, marked the 100th anniversary of the ratification of the 19th amendment.

Giving women in America or at least some women in America, the right to vote.

Sarah Bell historian from the Watkins Museum of History is here to tell us about how the Chautauqua Movement contributed to women's suffrage.

And we have Linessa Frazier here to discuss the importance of having all of our voices heard in the election process.

Sarah and Linessa, welcome to Inspire.

- Thank you.

- Thank you.

- Sarah I want to start with you tell us about the Chautauqua Movement?

- Sure.

Well the Chautauqua started in 1874 in western New York State.

And it began by two Methodists, John Vincent, Lewis Miller.

And they had this idea that they wanted to have a place where people could come have sort of a moral educational experience.

And they had this idea that it would be in an outdoor, beautiful natural space.

Enjoy the time outdoors, but still learn something.

And the Chautauqua was really geared for a specific group of people, the White Protestant Middle Class.

And originally when it was in Western New York, it actually was geared for teaching Sunday school teachers.

Who at this time were mostly women.

And eventually it became so popular that it grew not only in just at the New York Institution but it spread across the country.

So all of these Independent Chautauqua Assemblies spring up across the country, including in Kansas.

Which actually had the first Chautauqua West of the Mississippi.

- And how were the topics chosen?

And were they alike around the world or around the United States?

- They were.

So the New York Institution was considered The Mother Chautauqua.

So this, you also heard of these Daughters Assemblies like the one that was an Ottawa, Kansas.

Which started in here eventually got to Ottawa in 1883.

And so some of the topics so religion was still a big part of this but it grew to include music and arts and literature and science and current events and so forth.

But my focus was on how did women use this for political activism?

And so I was curious to see, what about temperance?

What about the club movement and suffrage?

And so I got to trace it and see how did sufferage show up on the platform, or how did it not show up there?

And actually John Vincent was someone who was really against promoting women's suffrage on this Chautauqua platform.

In fact, he didn't even want women to be speakers on the platform- - Wow!

- even though they could be in the audience.

And this really spoke to at the time it was kind of this common belief about separate spheres, or gender roles, and proper places for women.

And while he had you could say the progressiveness enough to let them be in the audience be educated, there was a limit.

But women pushed back against that.

And so women did become speakers and eventually they did get suffrage to be included on the platform.

- So knowing that this was there was contention behind allowing women to have this platform, what was the public response to women being given this opportunity at the Chautauqua?

The Chautauqua became very popular from what you can tell.

And it was something that it was really prominently in rural areas.

And so, and you can think about Ottawa being more of this like small town it was drawing in crowds, more of these, the rural crowds.

And it was a great place for you think like women and their children and husbands would come as well, the whole families.

And the nice thing about the Chautauqua is that especially for mothers, there were activities for children as well.

So a woman could show up, they won't have to do chores or any sort of their usual cooking or cleaning for a whole week (chuckles) and their children would be taken care of elsewhere.

(chuckles) And so they could just sit and enjoy and listen.

So I think that this was very appealing.

And in fact, you could think of it as a way of almost filling in this need for women's education at a time when not everyone could go to college.

And so this was an opportunity to hear from some of the best orators at the time.

William Jennings Bryan is an example of someone who later on became one of the most popular Chautauqua orators.

And I think a lot of people made some good money at back in the day, just like traveling around on these different Chautauquas speaking to crowds and thousands and thousands of people.

- So do you see anything in modern times that sort of mimic what we saw happening at the Chautauqua?

- I get this question a lot.

(chuckles) - Okay.

And I think that the closest thing I can come up with is imagine if you were going to a Ted Talk but you just stayed there for days and camped out in tents.

And so, and not only camped out in tents, camped out in a hot Kansas summer, along a river, the which is where the, a lot of these were like in parks, or along lakes, or rivers.

It would have been hot, but, and you would have been all dressed up in your nice clothes for this.

But that's the closest I can think of is, is this kind of Ted Talk type of an experience.

- Part of my thought to go along with that, the women and men, the kids were all taken care of.

But as I looked at some of the pictures of the Chautauqua I noticed that the people taking care of the men, women, and children happened to be people of color.

- There is this photo that I found when I was doing research in the Franklin County Historical Society.

Now where the (indistinct) Chautauqua was.

And it was pretty early on in my research but it was this photo.

It was the most significant photo I've yet to find because it showed this group of mostly women and one man sitting around a table , with two women standing in the back.

And I use this photo in my presentation and I asked that my audience, tell me what you see?

And pretty quickly people come to the realization that the two women standing in the back, are women of color.

And the why this is so significant is because this was as I said, for a White Protestant Middle Class there are very few photos I have found of any women of color or people of color at the Chautauqua.

And yet there are no open seats at this table.

And so these women were obviously serving this at this luncheon, but the photo leaves more questions than answers because what I want to know is are they locals?

Were they servants of someone who, one of the women at this table?

what, where did they stay?

Could they attend the rest of the events?

So there's lot of questions still about just who all really was allowed to participate in these mainstream Chautauquas.

But what I did find is that in the 1890s, and again in the early 1900s.

A few African-American Chautauquas, that popped up in different parts of the country.

And so I think it reflected what was going on more broadly during this time period within our history when you look at women's clubs, you look at the suffrage organizations and temperance is that there were tend to be the mainstream movements were dominated by white middle-class educated women but there were also black women who were involved with their own clubs, their own suffrage and own temperance.

And it was one of those, I think both.

They are the, the wording was they're better off working with as I would say, their own kind over here and not allowed.

But also that black women had other priorities that they were focused on.

That there was not just about voting rights or passing this amendment.

It was also about civil rights and equality and every aspect of society.

So those differences you see more broadly showed up in Chautauqua as well.

- I like to know about the wearing of white?

- White was a color, not just for suffrage, but actually for the temperance movement.

White and yellow when, and yellow was really the prominent color for for suffrage as well.

But does anyone know why the color of yellow, the significance of the color yellow for the suffrage movement?

- No.

- No what is it?

- Well, it actually has to do with the Kansas sunflower.

(cheering) (clapping) (chuckling) So Kansas has this really amazing significance within the suffrage movement.

In fact, the, as I, I'm not a native Kansan but I studied the history of the state.

I learned how progressive of a state it really was in the 19th century.

And so, because it was one of the first states to try to pass an amendment for women suffrage to women could have full voting rights in 1867.

- That is so awesome Sarah Bell.

- And so, it was the year(chuckles) - And we're We're going to hear from more.

(laughs) We're gonna hear more.

(laughs) We'll be back with more on the women's suffrage in the Chautauqua.

But right now let's talk about getting outdoors with Dirty Girl Adventures.

(upbeat music) (upbeat music) - There are studies that show even putting a picture of nature in your home or in your office cubicle can help to decrease stress, so of course, going outside in real nature is even more stress relieving for us.

(upbeat music) - Also, we know that you can of course exercise while you're outside.

So you could not just sit, and listen, and relax, which is awesome but you could exercise by hiking, walking, paddling, biking all those other outdoor things, disc golf.

Anything outside could be a combination of soothing for your soul and great for your physical wellbeing.

(upbeat music) - [Jennifer] It's not difficult to get out into nature at all.

Whether you live in the country, or in the city, to can really get out into nature in your own backyard.

There's lots of state parks, city parks that you can visit.

(upbeat music) - [Denise] Today we're at Kaw River State Park.

It's the newest state park in Kansas.

It's located right on the edge of Topeka next to the train, next to the river, next to the highway.

But it feels like we're in the middle of the woods because we are.

(upbeat music) When we're outside in nature, the healing properties include the sounds and the smells of nature.

It just brings us back maybe to our youth, to time that we used to play outside or be creative and imaginative with being outside.

Just listening to all the nature around us even when there's a car or motorcycle going past, I can still hear the birds.

And being grounded in nature so feeling attached to the earth actually is really helpful for people.

(upbeat music) There's initial research that shows spending time in nature, not even fast walking or running but just being outside helps decrease your A1C, if you have diabetes.

It decreases your stress, your anxiety, your heart rate, your high blood pressure, just getting outside.

Does all of those things.

It's great for our whole wellbeing.

- This is Jennifer and Denise with Dirty Girl Adventures.

- We hope we've inspired you to get out and get dirty.

(upbeat music) (upbeat music) - We're back with Sarah Bell and Linessa Frazier.

Ladies, in the last segment we discussed the History of Women's Suffrage and here we are today.

So have we gained equal voting rights for all?

Or do we still have some work to do?

- I think it's pretty obvious that we still have some work to do.

(laughs) - Absolutely.

I don't think that's a surprise to anyone.

- [Danielle] Not at all.

- I mean, I think we're familiar with the work of the suffragists like Anthony but I think we also know names like Ida B Wells and Sojourner Truth, who really advocated on behalf of women.

But I remember even my mom in the 1960s, actually protesting for rights for voting rights and equal rights for women as well as people of color.

So we've got a long way to go.

- It seems like we're kind of going backwards.

- [Linessa] Yeah - You know with the souls to polls and that whole thing where people want to go to church and then they want to go vote.

But that seems to be being suppressed - With souls to the polls.

It has been such an amazing movement because you can motivate people who have just as you said before, who have attended church in mass go to vote and then enjoy dinner.

Well with the voter changes that are happening in states like Georgia, they're even mandating that people at the polls not even receive water or food after having been there for a number of hours.

And that's really just egregio usly wrong.

As you think about some of the legislative changes that are coming down the pipe with regard to states like Arizona and Georgia, you see things that are happening that really make you think, is this really for the people?

Is this really for the good of the people as they are saying that it is?

And looking at it with the hat or with the lens of diversity, and equity, and inclusion, and you look at it from a diversity perspective with regard to epistemology, you think about what's really happening here?

What's the context for what's going on here?

And if you look at it from the perspective of inclusion you think who's being, who's sitting at the table in order to make these changes?

Who's sitting at the table?

Who's been invited to the conversation?

(indistinct) And then when you look at it from the perspective of equity and you think about if equity is something that will make things the same for people or palatable for everyone to do this certain thing and have the same end result.

And that end result being the ability to vote and to carry out that democratic you know.

- Right - Right.

Exactly.

(indistinct) Who are the people who are being disenfranchised in this situation where these laws are now being put into place?

- [Amber] Absolutely.

- So- - [Amber] And it's disproportionately people of color in particular black people who are being impacted most by these laws.

And I think it's really- - Yes.

- you know, the hard truth is that these voter fraud claims are baseless.

- Yes.

- The heritage foundation which is a conservative think tank has tracked since 2005 in Kansas have only been 14 confirmed cases of actual voter fraud.

Yet we're seeing these intense measures being put into place to try to correct this issue of voter fraud.

And so my question Linessa is, do you think that the policy response to these baseless claims of voter fraud are good attempts to solve this problem?

- You know, I think there are some situations in which things need to be rectified.

I think you need to look at those on a one to one, on one basis.

I don't think just in one fell swoop we can correct everything.

But when you really think about 14 in that period of time, that's not significant.

And so why are we looking at these sweeping changes that's not going to impact our communities in a favorable way and looking at trying to make those changes without looking at the relevance of what the situation is.

It's not right?

- I think in particular, when you're looking, you know, you brought up Georgia, they cleaned out over a million people from the registration.

- [Linessa] Yes.

- That's over a million people that no longer get to exercise their democratic right because they're trying to cut down on this voter fraud that even the Trump administration through their investigations found just doesn't exist.

- [Linessa] It doesn't.

It doesn't.

And you've had people in courts time and again, say it's not even relevant, is well not only is it not relevant, it's not even real.

So that's pretty significant.

- [Betty Lou] They're just trying to take the focus off of what really is happening.

- Exactly.

And I'm just thankful for people like Stacey Abrams- who looks at a situation - [Amber] Yes.

(indistinct) and says, "Okay, I didn't win."

So what do I now do about this?

And how do I motivate and mobilize people in order to get out and actually vote versus suppressing their right to do so?

- Such a great conversation (upbeat music) And I didn't even get to ask a question, but that's okay, girl (laughs) because we need to be going to a break.

Sarah and Linessa, thank you for being here with us on our first episode of Inspire.

Coming up next.

Let's slow down a bit.

Sarah Starr treats us to a moment of mindfulness and relaxation.

(upbeat music) - Thanks ladies.

I'm Sarah Starr, and I'm excited to bring you a bit of inspiration to add to your daily activity routine.

In today's session, we'll be focusing on improving balance, helping to create more stability and awareness in your everyday living.

Join me as we create more calm and focused with this quick accessible yoga practice.

Exploring our center of gravity and strengthening our bodies while using a chair for support.

Relax and remember your happy yoga smile.

Namaste.

(upbeat music) - Begin by standing with your left hip closest to the chair.

With your left hand to the chair for support.

Adding a lateral stretch, reach the right arm up and over to the left.

Breathing wide into the right side body.

Continue rooting down evenly through the feet, lifting up and out of both sides of the waist.

(upbeat music) (upbeat music) Release and repeat to the opposite side.

(upbeat music) With the right hand to the chair for support.

Reach the left arm up and over to the right.

Breathing wide into the left side body.

(upbeat music) (upbeat music) Release and return to center.

Using the right hand to the chair for support.

Standing with your right hip closest to the chair.

Shift the weight into the right foot.

Using the left hand to draw the left knee in.

Slowly draw the left knee open to the left.

Lower the left hip slightly so it's in line with the right.

Standing tall with the core engaged.

(upbeat music) Draw the left knee back to center and release.

Repeating to the opposite side.

With the left hand to the chair for support shift the weight into the left foot.

Use the right hand to lift the right knee up, standing tall with the core gently guide the right knee open.

Roll the outer right hip down as you from the outer left hip in, gently pressing the tap of the left thigh back.

(upbeat music) Draw the right knee back to center and release, transitioning into modified tree pose, standing with your right hip closest to the chair, using the right hand to the chair for support.

Shift the weight into the right foot, place the left heel to the right ankle, calf muscle below the knee, or use the left hand to place the left foot to the top of the right thigh.

(upbeat music) Reach the left arm to the sky, lengthening the tailbone towards the earth, keeping the pelvis in a neutral position lightly firming the lower ribs in.

(upbeat music) Adding a lateral stretch, reach the left arm up and over to the right.

Lengthening to the left side body.

(upbeat music) Slowly returned to upright and release.

Repeating modified tree pose to the opposite side.

Using the left hand to the chair for support, shift the weight into the left foot, place the right heel to the left ankle.

Calf muscle below the knee.

Or use the right hand to place the right foot to the top of the left thigh.

Continue lengthening the tailbone towards the earth, lightly lifting to the lower belly.

And when you're ready reach the right arm to the sky.

Firmly press the sole of the right foot to the inner left thigh, resisting with the outer left leg, pointing the right knee open to the right opening across the hips.

Adding a lateral stretch, reach the right arm up and over to the left, breathing wide into the right side body.

(upbeat music) Stay connected to your smooth even breath as you release.

(upbeat music) Coming to take a seat.

Completing our yoga practice for today.

Namaste.

(upbeat music) - Thank you for joining me.

Hopefully I've inspired more activity and mindfulness in your day.

See you next time.

(upbeat music) - Thank you Sarah Starr for that moment of mindfulness.

What a beautiful feature.

(laughs) - Namaste.

(laughs) - Namaste.

- Namaste.

And girls we learned a lot about the women's suffrage and equal voting rights from Sarah and Linessa earlier but where do you think we really are today?

- Not in a good place.

I think that core democratic principles are being completely ignored.

And I think that people's voices are being taken away from them and it's got to change.

- So what should we be doing about it?

- I think one thing is that people need to demand education on these issues.

I think that when we evaluate sort of some of the curriculum that's being taught in schools I don't know that these kinds of issues are being emphasized.

And so people through no fault of their own don't understand that this is even happening to them.

So I think, you know, thinking about how we teach these things to people and how we educate our population is one way, but then people need to contact their legislators.

And tell them that these types of things are not okay.

- But I also think that it's up to us because not everybody is voting at the polls and it just infuriates me to see the number of people doing everything.

But on election day, especially in the primaries, you know.

You have an opportunity to make your voice heard specially there, especially on the local level.

- So- - Yeah.

- that's how I feel about it.

- And when think about the people who actually gave their lives - Yes.

for the right to vote.

It's just such, it's a crime- - It is.

- not to take advantage of them.

- It is.

- I do think it's important too to consider that some people don't have the resources that they need to understand how they register to vote or where they need to go vote.

And I think it's contingent upon our government to help those people understand instead of hurt their potential for voting.

- Take advantage of both sides of the story and pay attention to who you're listening to.

Are you listening to news, where it's actual fair, facts- - balanced.

- balanced, and not just an opinion show- - Exactly.

- or an opinion piece.

- And there's so much fake news out there.

And I feel bad because I'm in the news industry that people lump us all together, but we are not all those people.

And people need to get educated As you said, as to what is real and what is fake and then do your own research.

We can't be lazy citizens.

- And I think that people need to understand that the media is not the enemy.

- [Betty] No.

And we used to in fact, think about the media as being the almost the fourth branch of government, that this watchdog that was there to help us understand when our rights were being taken advantage of.

- [Danielle] Exactly.

- So finding new sources that are credible, checking your facts and just arming yourself with that information is the only way to go.

- And you look at other countries who are envious of the American way.

You just have to stop and think how thankful we should be and we need it to continue.

- Yes.

- And in that regard, we've got to protect those fundamental rights that are unique to American citizens.

Not everyone in this world has the opportunity to voice their opinion in a democratic way.

- Yes.

- And the fact that we have that right is something we should guard dearly and to be put in a position where we're not able to do that is, you know, shame on some of our elected officials.

- [Danielle] Yes.

And they work for us.

- Yes, yes.

- That's the whole point.

They work for us.

We put them in there, it's up to us to make good responsible choices as to who we elect.

- And hold them accountable for that.

- And to hold them accountable.

- [Betty Lou] Hold them accountable.

Absolutely right.

- Can we tell we're passionate about all this (laughs) Just saying.

- And thank you.

And that is all the time we have for tonight but we hope you've been just as inspired as we have been by powerful stories and features showcasing magnificent women, making moves in our community, nation, and in the world.

And remember, you can watch this program again@watch.ktwu.org.

- And if you are so inspired to learn more about our guests, find out what is coming up on future shows and get access to additional content.

Be sure to visit our website at www.ktwu.org/inspire Inspiring women, inspiring you.

On KTWU Thank you for watching.

Upbeat music - Inspire is sponsored by Kansas Furniture Mart.

Using furniture to inspire conversation.

And by the Blanche Bryden Foundation.