[00:00:11.160] [music] [00:00:07.920] She most certainly suffered unjust rejection galore. [00:00:14.280] I don't know her at all. [00:00:15.920] She seems really fascinating and I'd like to know more. [00:00:20.720] Who was the face behind Chinese Girl Wants Vote? [00:00:24.360] From the National Park Service: [00:00:26.760] Dr. Mabel Ping-Hua Lee was born in China and lived from 1896 to 1966. [00:00:33.720] After immigrating to the United States when she was just sixteen years old [00:00:39.240] Mabel Lee was a known figure in New York suffrage movement. [00:00:42.000] When New York City suffragists [00:00:43.200] held a parade in 1912 to advocate for women's voting rights [00:00:48.240] Mabel Lee on horseback helped lead the parade from its start. [00:00:52.680] In 1920, the 19th Amendment gave women throughout the U.S. the right to vote, [00:00:57.880] but Chinese women like Mabel Lee could not vote until 1943. [00:01:03.720] This was because of the Chinese Exclusion Act, [00:01:06.200] a federal law that was in place before she was born. [00:01:09.600] The Chinese Exclusion Act limited [00:01:11.320] Chinese immigration and prevented them from becoming citizens. [00:01:16.080] Here are some of Mabel's words from her [00:01:18.440] writings, "China's Submerged Half" and "The Meaning of Woman Suffrage." [00:01:26.200] I plead [00:01:28.520] for a wider sphere of usefulness for the long submerged women of China. [00:01:34.080] I ask for our girls to open the door to the treasury of knowledge, [00:01:38.360] the same opportunities for physical development as boys, and the same rights [00:01:42.440] of participation in all human activities of which they are individually capable. [00:01:48.040] The neglect [and] indifference to a woman's welfare [00:01:50.920] in the past must be remedied. [00:01:53.120] Prejudice must be removed and a healthy [00:01:55.520] public sentiment created to support the progressive movements. [00:02:00.240] To us girls especially, who are among the first to emerge, [will] fall the duties of pioneers [00:02:06.480] and, if we do our share, ours will be the honor and the glory. [00:02:09.880] For no nation can ever make real and lasting progress in civilization unless [00:02:15.440] its women are following close to its men if not actually abreast with them. [00:02:20.960] It's a fact that no matter where we go we cannot escape [00:02:23.920] hearing about woman suffrage. [00:02:27.080] The idea of woman suffrage at first [00:02:29.000] stood for something abnormal, strange, and extraordinary, and so has [00:02:32.840] finally become the word for anything ridiculous. [00:02:36.040] The idea that women should ever wish to have or be anything more than their [00:02:39.240] primitive mothers appears at first thought to be indeed tragic enough to be comic. [00:02:44.160] But if we sit down and really think it over, [00:02:46.240] throwing aside all sentimentalism, we find that it is nothing more than [00:02:50.120] a wider application of our ideas of justice and equality. [00:02:54.840] We all believe in the idea of democracy. [00:02:58.240] Woman suffrage is the application of democracy to women. [00:03:03.440] The fundamental principle of democracy is equality of opportunity. [00:03:10.880] I cannot too strongly impress the importance of suffrage, [00:03:14.200] for the requirement of women to contribute their share [00:03:17.400] to the steady progress of our [00:03:18.920] country towards prosperity and national greatness. [00:03:24.320] After graduating from Barnard College, [00:03:26.840] Mabel Lee got a Ph.D. in Economics at Columbia University. [00:03:31.720] She was the first Chinese woman to do so. [00:03:35.280] After her father died in 1924, she took over his role as director [00:03:39.840] of the First Chinese Baptist Church of New York City. [00:03:44.000] She later founded a Chinese community center offering vocational and English classes [00:03:49.280] a health clinic, and a kindergarten. [00:03:52.520] Dr. Mabel Ping-Hua Lee never married [00:03:54.840] and devoted her life to the Chinese American community in the United States. [00:04:00.700] [music] [00:04:03.720] The fundamental principle of democracy is equality of opportunity. [00:04:09.360] I cannot too strongly impress the importance of suffrage, [00:04:13.440] for the requirement of women to be worthy citizens and contribute their share [00:04:18.680] to the steady progress of our country towards prosperity and national greatness. [00:04:24.320] [music]