Grateful for the 19th Amendment Turning 105

The 19th Amendment was certified 105 years ago this week.

Illustration of the 19th Amendment of the Constitution looking at a birthday cake with "105" candles on it.

It says:

Illustration of the U.S. Constitution with the text of the 19th Amendment ("The right of Citizens of the U.S. to vote shall now be abridged or denied by the US or by any state on account of sex."

Congress approved the Amendment on June 4, 1919, but then it had to be ratified by 36 of the 48 states.

Illustration of Congress building with arms and legs holding up a banner that says "19th Amendment Approved! Onto the States!"

Tennessee was the 36th state to ratify, on August 18, 1920. A few days later,¹ it was certified and made official.

Illustration of the contiguous U.S., where all but the south eastern states are colored in pink with numbers. This shows that the states that ratified the 19th amendment were everyone but the South (and Vermont).

A couple more states ratified in the next few years.

Illustration of the U.S., in an outline, highlighting three small states to show how in the early 1920s they also ratified the Amendment.

And, even though it already applied to them, it took nine more states 20+ years to ratify the amendment.

Illustration of the U.S., highlighting all the South Eastern states and pointing out the year they ratified the Amendment. E.g., Louisiana was 1970.

The 19th Amendment’s addition to our Constitution didn’t mean, in reality, that every woman in the U.S. got to vote from that moment on. Jim Crow laws, the Chinese Exclusion Act, and policies towards Native Americans prevented many women from voting for many years.

Illustration of the 19th Amendment with arms and legs saying, "Women can vote!" and standing off against a reedy pole with a straw hat called "poll tax," who is saying "Not if they don't pay up!"

This is one of the challenges with laws. They can seem super straightforward on their face (“You can’t prevent women from voting!”), but some other law or legal interpretation (“It’s fiiiiine to charge poll taxes, even though that effectively prevents any woman who can’t pay from voting.”) can warp the result.

Usually this is intentional, though never the claimed reason. (They have to be able to hide behind some other reason.) Poll taxes aren’t legal anymore, but this kind of thing, in different forms, is still very much a challenge today.

I’m grateful for all the people who fought for the 19th Amendment, the legislators who voted for it, and the advocates who continue to work to make voting as accessible as possible!

Voting selfies + 1 voting grandma

I’m also grateful for all the times I’ve voted, for being able to help my grandma vote from home, and for all the times you’ve voted, too.

Thanks for being here and voting!

(Also, are people in other states as excited about the sticker you get after voting, or is that just us in Minnesota? (Or is it not even a Minnesota thing and it’s just me?))

What is this blog about?

It’s been just over two years since I started a newsletter, with a few drawings decrying the misery of the first few months with a newborn alien. (Read it here, if you’re curious and enjoy things that are a tad TMI.) I was a bit obsessive about the “it gets better” adage, and when that “better” moment was truly going to arrive. I think drawing about it was a way to move that time period along.

Time did go by, and as the newborn became less alien and more human, I have become less interested in having this be the regular theme of what I’m writing, drawing, and thinking about. This isn’t new. I started Sketchbooks and Legal Pads to explore two spaces I have always found to be disparate — law and art (and then, technology) — and over time realized I didn’t like having these disparate versions of my thoughts strewn all over the place.

I am one person (surprise!), thinking and writing and drawing about all these different things, so it is possible to have a single container for seemingly opposing things. (Me, I’m the container!) I’ve decided to turn Maddy Not Mommy and Sketchbooks and Legal Pads into a single container.

Welcome to Yes, You Can Totally Do This! the newsletter about how we can all draw, be creative, and deal with the serious stuff with a little bit of delight.

I believe that communicating complex ideas or difficult concepts in a playful, visual way makes them easier to absorb. Delight, humor, and joy have a place alongside our serious world, helping us to stay engaged and hopeful.

Illustration of blonde woman reading a MN state laws books, wth colorful ideas coming from her head.

On top of that, I believe that everyone is creative and can draw. (Stop saying, "I can't draw!" I don't believe you!)

Did you just say you can’t draw?! I don’t believe you!

Illustration of a surprised person, with facial features created by blobs pasted on.

I use comics to interpret and simplify complex concepts. A few times a month, this newsletter will use comics to explain something in law, tech, or another part of our complicated world. Other weeks, the post will focus on drawing, creativity, or the value of making art. Life with small child is sure to make its way in here as well because it’s still shaping how I think about all of these things.

This is just a more expansive way of thinking about what I’ve been doing this whole time, so whatever brought you here initially is still part of the container. For example, in addition to the tiny alien drawings, in the past I’ve written about how I value scribbles,

Are scribbles a waste of time? I don't think so.

MADDY BUCK

JUL 10

Every idea starts with a scribble. I remind myself of this whenever I’m working on the ugly part of a project that feels like a chaotic mess.

Read full story

how to make sense of recent Supreme Court oral arguments,

What's Happening with Birthright Citizenship?

MADDY BUCK

MAY 27

Before you turn away at the seriousness of that subject line, I can assure you that a) this edition still includes drawings of babies and b) next week’s will feature the word “potty” numerous times.

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how I think we can all be creative,

Maybe we're all secretly creative

MADDY BUCK

APRIL 23, 2024

We're just hiding it...

Read full story

and how AI could provide artists a new avenue to receive value for their work, if we just prioritize this (or if the law forces us).

There Could Be a New Market for Our Digital Art, But We're Giving It All Away for Free

MADDY BUCK

AUG 14

Read full story

When new technology uses old work in a new way

MADDY BUCK

DECEMBER 20, 2024

It should lead to new forms of compensation, no?

Read full story

Serious topics and delightful art seem like opposites, even to me sometimes. But as a lawyer-artist, I can’t help but combine them in everything that I do.

Illustration looks like it's on a yellow legal pad. It is of two lawyers in suits, with colorful shapes coming fro their thought bubbles. Text says, "Are lawyers secretly creative?"

(Answer: I think many are.)

Outside of this newsletter and my illustration projects, I am working on a graphic memoir about about law school, the law's connection to women in the workplace, and finding a path that feels right. Sometimes that project makes its way in here as well.

Thanks for being here, as always.

Scribbles, Collage, and Artists Going to Work

I often think about how weird it is that bad decisions are being made or destruction is happening in one place, but the sun is still shining, the pasta still tastes good, and kids are still running around laughing in my neighborhood. I’m not really asking for this to change, exactly. If we were all in despair 24/7, then we couldn’t accomplish anything that might alleviate whatever is bringing us down. But I still find it weird.

It’s summer. Summer is the best. But I keep reading the news with disbelief at how the values I thought were important to this country (supporting research, consulting expertise, welcoming refugees, maintaining allies, respecting laws, avoiding extortion) are being thrown overboard.

This isn’t news to anyone. It seems to be the hardest thing to talk about lately because there aren’t quick, easy remedies.

When the pandemic took over in 2020, all the writing projects I’d been working on stopped. Meaning, I stopped writing. I didn’t know what to say, so I just moved blobs around on a page and made collages.

I haven’t lost my words this time, but I have been noticing the appeal of toddler art. I started scribbling in my sketchbook the other day, and may need to fill the entire book with scribbles. It was that satisfying.

There’s a Toni Morrison quote that illustrator and graphic journalist Wendy MacNaughton has been sharing lately. It goes like this:

This is precisely the time when artists go to work. There is no time for despair, no place for self-pity, no need for silence, no room for fear. We speak, we write, we do language. That is how civilizations heal.
I know the world is bruised and bleeding, and though it is important not to ignore its pain, it is also critical to refuse to succumb to its malevolence. Like failure, chaos contains information that can lead to knowledge — even wisdom. Like art.

I don’t know how we’ll rein in the absurdity, but I’m going to keep thinking about this quote as I get to work.

Thanks for being here!

Oh! And in other news, my Book of Anger zine is being added to the Zine and Wellness collection of the Bodleian Old Library at Oxford. Time to visit the UK!