Fighting for Citizenship & the Vote

This article first appeared in the Moscow-Pullman Daily News "Nearby History" column on August 23, 2025.

By Hayley Noble, Executive Director

Pictured here, a voter and child at a Latah County voting booth, circa 1988. LCHS Photo: 01-09-032.

American democracy sits upon a foundation of free, fair, and accessible elections. Those elections are central to the function of our nation. When the Founding Fathers and Framers drafted the Declaration of Independence (1776) and the U.S. Constitution (1787) proclaiming American sovereignty, citizenship was held by white, property-owning men. As the concepts of citizenship have evolved, so too have voting rights and who gets to participate in our government and elections. At the time of the American Revolution, the Founding Fathers sought to create a government different from the tyrannical British monarchic system, in which the aristocracy held power, and instead decided that a democratic government “for the people, by the people” was the way forward.  

Many argue that America is a republic and not a democracy, when it is in fact both. Ours is a representative democracy, in which elected representatives vote in the people’s stead. Those representatives act by “deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed” through elections and input from constituents. As more women, lower classes, and people of color gained property and standing in society, they began asking why they were not represented within the government and able to participate in elections.  

At the conclusion of the Civil War, Congress mandated that former Confederate states ratify several amendments to obtain representation in Congress. The fourteenth amendment (1868) outlined citizenship, and the rights and privileges afforded to citizens, and equal protection under the law. The fifteenth amendment (1870) prohibited the government from denying a citizen’s right to vote, regardless of race or previous servitude. According to these amendments, all people born or naturalized in the United States are citizens, and citizens of any race may not be denied their right to vote. But what about gender? The nineteenth amendment (1920) prohibited the government from denying citizens the right to vote based on sex. Furthermore, Native Americans did not gain citizenship and suffrage until 1924 with the passage of the Indian Citizenship Act.   

Despite these acts and amendments, many citizens were still disenfranchised due to a lack of enforcement of these laws, arguments over constitutional intent and interpretation, and racial prejudice - cue the civil rights movement. Protests and marches called on the government to recognize citizenship and abolish legalized systems of oppression and discrimination. The Civil Rights Act of 1964, Voting Rights Act of 1965, and Civil Rights Act of 1968 called for equal treatment for people of color in education, voting, housing, and employment.  

The passage of these acts did not mean that prejudice went away, but that people of different backgrounds, races, and genders could legally exercise their rights as citizens and participate in our democracy through voting and seeking office. And we have witnessed more and more women and people of color elected to public office in the sixty-odd years since the civil rights movement, demonstrating the American democratic process at work as our populace grows and we continue to call America the “home of the free.”  

Much of this history is outlined and explained in a special traveling Smithsonian exhibit, Voices and Votes: Democracy in America, opening today at the University of Idaho Library second-floor gallery. The exhibit is presented by the Latah County Historical Society in partnership with the University of Idaho Library and sponsored by the Idaho Humanities Council. This exhibition is part of the Museum on Main Street program, in which the Smithsonian partners with state humanities councils to bring exhibits to rural communities. In addition to the national exhibition, the Latah County Historical Society, University of Idaho Library, and Moscow League of Women Voters are offering accompanying public programs that center the exhibit’s themes and questions. The exhibition and all programs are free and open to the public. The last day to view the exhibition is October 3^rd.  All information can be found at https://www.latahcountyhistoricalsociety.org/voices-votes.  

As we enter the commemoration period for America’s 250^th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence, this exhibit examines the very questions at the center of constitutional debates. Who has the right to vote? What are the freedoms and responsibilities of citizens? How do you participate as a citizen? How do we encourage more people to participate in our democracy? Voices and Votes is based on a permanent exhibit at the National Museum of American History, American Democracy: A Great Leap of Faith. Exhibit content was created by Smithsonian curators and includes visual and interactive exhibit features that focus on the history of voting rights, with local artifacts provided by the Latah County Historical Society and University of Idaho Special Collections and Archives.

Throwing tea into the Boston Harbor to protest unfair taxation, marching for civil rights, and exercising voting rights guaranteed through citizenship is all at the core of American patriotism, born out of the Founding Fathers, the American Revolution, and their desire to create a democratic system “for the people, by the people.” All of this history is deeply significant and examined in the Voices and Votes exhibition and public programs. Please join us and spread the word about this exciting and timely opportunity to ponder the big questions at the heart of our country’s history and learn how voting rights have changed in our 250 years as a nation.