JENN McKINLAY: When I first heard about this anthology, I thought what a perfect way to commemorate the Fourth of July, by celebrating the right to vote shared by each and every citizen of the U.S. And here is Ann Parker, one of this all star crime fiction lineup, here to tell us more about it! Take it away, Ann.
Ann Parker: July 4—The perfect day for the launch of the crime fiction anthology Low Down Dirty Vote! What is more central to our country, to our government, to the ups and downs of our politics, than the vote? Who has it, who doesn’t. How the right to vote can be subverted, twisted, denied.
So, when editor Mysti Berry asked if I wanted to contribute to this anthology, which has the theme of voter suppression, I said, “Sure!”
But first, I had to come up with a story…
Being that I am who I am, my musings turned to the past, and a long buried memory stepped forward to nudge me. I couldn’t have been more than seven years old, maybe eight. We were visiting grandparents and relatives in Colorado, and the “grownups” were talking about some recent or upcoming election. (I’m going to guess that it was the 1960 election, given my age at that time and the fact that this was about when I became “aware” of such things as political parties, voting, elections, etc.) I recall, very clearly, my paternal grandfather saying to the room at large: “She [my grandmother] votes the way I tell her to.” I waited to see if he laughed. If what he said was some kind of joke.
He didn’t. It wasn’t.
His comment stuck with me, and decades later, surfaced again as I pondered story possibilities for Mysti’s anthology.
Voter suppression?
Indeed.
And at the most personal, intimate level.
So, I had my hook. Now, I needed a time and place.
I turned my focus to the past and began exploring the history of women’s rights and politics in the U.S. … And I found my setting: 1870, Wyoming Territory.
On December 10, 1869, Wyoming’s territorial legislators passed a bill that was signed into law granting women the right to vote. As to why Wyoming, and why then...well, there are all kinds of stories and theories. Arguments abounded against giving women the vote. You can read some of the common 19th century arguments against women’s suffrage in the online Slate article, “Common 19th Century Arguments Against Women’s Suffrage, Neatly Refuted,” by Rebecca Onion.
 |
| Women Vote in Cheyenne, November 1888. The steeple of the Union Pacific Depot is visible in the background. Library of Congress. |
So, did men stop their wives from voting, or tell them how to vote? This is not the kind of thing one would read about in the newspapers of the day, but I suspect such voter suppression (or manipulation) existed in the private sphere: over dining tables, in the bedrooms, on the way to the polls—admonitions, threats, orders, directives, delivered from man to wife, father to daughter, brother to sister.
I have only a single, personal data point from 1960. How many more, do you imagine, might there be, stretching from the past to the present?
Even one is one too many.
IMHO.
What about you, Reds and readers, what does voting mean to you? And we're not talking political parties or any of that jazz, we're talking the simple act of voting. How did you feel the first time you pulled the lever, punched the card, or inked in the spot?
--------------------------
Low Down Dirty Vote: Find buy links and learn more about the anthology here. All proceeds are being donated to the ACLU to fight voter suppression.
Ann Parker is the author of the award-winning Silver Rush historical mystery series. Her short story, “A Clean Sweep,” appears in the Low Down Dirty Voteanthology.
