WTTW News invites you to Black Voices: A WTTW News Community Conversation, a virtual event on Monday, March 28 at 8:00 pm. 

The 19th Amendment was passed by Congress in 1919 and ratified in August 1920, granting women the right to vote. But state laws designed to keep Black Americans from voting still stood — including poll taxes and literacy tests. It wasn’t until the Voting Rights Act of 1965 that all Black Americans — including Black women — were able to vote freely. 

Today, voting rights is still a key issue — a new voting rights bill stalled in Congress as many Republican-led state legislatures pass laws to restrict access to the ballot box. This all comes ahead of the 2022 midterm elections. 

In honor of Women’s History Month, Chicago Tonight: Black Voices’ March Community Conversation will take a look back both on the women’s suffrage and the Civil Rights movements, and also look forward at where voting rights stand today.

Brandis Friedman, Chicago Tonight co-anchor and Chicago Tonight: Black Voices host, will moderate the conversation featuring Felicia Davis Blakely, president and CEO of Chicago Foundation for Women; Mary Morten, president of the Morten Group; and Katrina Phidd, communications and digital strategy manager at Chicago Votes.

Lead support for CHICAGO TONIGHT: BLACK VOICES is provided by Fifth Third Bank. Additional support is provided by Gertrude Dyane and James H. Wooten, Jr.; Allstate; Chicago Community Trust; The Joseph & Bessie Feinberg Foundation; The Abe and Ida Cooper Foundation; Lloyd A. Fry Foundation; Nicholas Antoine; Judy and John McCarter; and Hiranda and Paul Donoghue.