Sufferin' Till Suffrage
(Dorough, Bob / Yohe, Tom) Performed by Essra Mohawk
(Yeah! Hurray!)
Now you have heard of Women's Rights,
And how we've tried to reach new heights.
If we're "all created equal"...
That's us too!
(Yeah!)
But you will proba ... bly not recall
That it's not been too ... too long at all,
Since we even had the right to
Cast a vote.
(Well!)
Well, sure, some men bowed down and called us "Mrs." (Yeah!)
Let us hang the wash out and wash the dishes, (Huh!)
But when the time rolled around to elect a president...
What did they say, Sister, (What did they say?)
They said, uh, "See ya later, alligator,
And don't forget my ... my mashed potatoes,
'Cause I'm going downtown to cast my vote for president."
Oh, we were suffering until suffrage,
Not a woman here could vote, no matter what age,
Then the 19th Amendment struck down that restrictive rule. (Oh yeah!)
And now we pull down on the lever,
Cast our ballots and we endeavor
To improve our country, state, county, town, and school.
(Tell 'em 'bout it!)
Those pilgrim women who ...
Who braved the boat
Could cook the turkey, but they ...
They could not vote.
Even Betsy Ross who sewed the flag was left behind that first election day.
(What a shame, Sisters!)
Then Susan B. Anthony (Yeah!) and Julia Howe,
(Lucretia!) Lucretia Mott, (and others!) they showed us how;
They carried signs and marched in lines
Until at long last the law was passed.
Oh, we were suffering until suffrage,
Not a woman here could vote, no matter what age,
Then the 19th Amendment struck down that restrictive rule. (Oh yeah!)
And now we pull down on the lever,
Cast our ballots and we endeavor
To improve our country, state, county, town, and school. (Right On! Right On!)
Yes the 19th Amendment
Struck down that restrictive rule. (Right On! Right On!)
Yes the 19th Amendment
Struck down that restrictive rule.
(Yeah, yeah!
Yeah, yeah!
Right on!
We got it now!)
Since 1920...
Sisters, unite!
Vote on!
Now you have heard of Women's Rights,
And how we've tried to reach new heights.
If we're "all created equal"...
That's us too!
(Yeah!)
But you will proba ... bly not recall
That it's not been too ... too long at all,
Since we even had the right to
Cast a vote.
(Well!)
Well, sure, some men bowed down and called us "Mrs." (Yeah!)
Let us hang the wash out and wash the dishes, (Huh!)
But when the time rolled around to elect a president...
What did they say, Sister, (What did they say?)
They said, uh, "See ya later, alligator,
And don't forget my ... my mashed potatoes,
'Cause I'm going downtown to cast my vote for president."
Oh, we were suffering until suffrage,
Not a woman here could vote, no matter what age,
Then the 19th Amendment struck down that restrictive rule. (Oh yeah!)
And now we pull down on the lever,
Cast our ballots and we endeavor
To improve our country, state, county, town, and school.
(Tell 'em 'bout it!)
Those pilgrim women who ...
Who braved the boat
Could cook the turkey, but they ...
They could not vote.
Even Betsy Ross who sewed the flag was left behind that first election day.
(What a shame, Sisters!)
Then Susan B. Anthony (Yeah!) and Julia Howe,
(Lucretia!) Lucretia Mott, (and others!) they showed us how;
They carried signs and marched in lines
Until at long last the law was passed.
Oh, we were suffering until suffrage,
Not a woman here could vote, no matter what age,
Then the 19th Amendment struck down that restrictive rule. (Oh yeah!)
And now we pull down on the lever,
Cast our ballots and we endeavor
To improve our country, state, county, town, and school. (Right On! Right On!)
Yes the 19th Amendment
Struck down that restrictive rule. (Right On! Right On!)
Yes the 19th Amendment
Struck down that restrictive rule.
(Yeah, yeah!
Yeah, yeah!
Right on!
We got it now!)
Since 1920...
Sisters, unite!
Vote on!
Back when I was a kid, there was no Disney Channel, no Teletoon, no DVDs or PVRs: if a kid wanted to watch cartoons, that kid needed to be sitting in front of the TV on a Saturday morning. And, no matter that sociologists say we were all being indoctrinated by sugar cereal ads, there was nothing my brothers and I liked better than having a song from Schoolhouse Rocks pop up between Goober and the Ghost Chasers and the Great Grape Ape. We loved them all, and while we may have been slightly disappointed when it turned out to be a dreamy number like Figure Eight, the grammar songs were huge favourites (Conjuction Junction! Interjection!), and most of all, the American History songs got us up and singing -- chicken dancing to Elbow Room (got-ta got-ta get me some...), getting all soulful with I'm Just a Bill (and I'ma sittin' here on Capitol Hiiiiill...). Talk about indoctrinating! And we're Canadian! Now, maybe it was a subconsciously protofeminist thing, but my absolute favourite was definitely Sufferin' Till Suffrage -- the beat, the voice, and don't forget mah, mah, mah mashed potatoes. (Right on Sister!)
I heard this comedian, Joe Machi, recently on Last Comic Standing and I found this joke hilarious:
And I'm thinking that this kind of joke might be a hint that we're ready for a re-examination of history. Schoolhouse Rocks -- with the injuns helpfully getting out of the way of Manifest Destiny and no mention made at all of slavery, slaughters, or the imperialistic conquest of Hawaii -- makes for a nice white-washing of American History, and we all sang along and loved every minute of it. Now, I am certainly not equating a rosy view of American History with those Hamas-sponsored children's cartoons that are designed to indoctrinate impressionable children into anti-Semitic views; The Shot Heard 'Round the World is not a call to arms:
But, wouldn't it be wonderful if we all had a more balanced view of the world we live in and the missteps that our ancestors took along the pathway to the present? Wouldn't it be great to share that balanced view with our children while they're still young? Dave and I both loved Schoolhouse Rocks so much when we were kids that we bought the DVD set for our own girls when it first came out, and what a difference it was to pop one of these discs into the player in my van -- waiting for Saturday morning cartoons is for chumps anymore! But, as much as I still loved the songs, I couldn't help but try to give the girls some context whenever the American History songs came on. And maybe that's where balance starts.
But back to Sufferin' Till Suffrage -- this is essentially a protest song about injustices done in the past, and as a little girl and now as an adult, I identify with the message. In 1977, TV execs thought that children could handle some sad history with a happy ending and it could serve as a template for new releases. Could it be time for a new round of jump-off-the-couch-and-sing-along fact-based children's songs? I know the airwaves are cluttered with choice these days, but as this series proved way back in the 70s, when the songs are catchy enough, kids are going to listen. And learn. (Oh yeah!)
