Susie Anderson
Staff Writer
On July 20, 1898, suffragette Carrie Chapman Catt asked Chautauqua audiences to believe in the power of the enfranchisement of women from the Amphitheater stage.
“Is it not plain, that if we put more intelligence and more morality into the ballot box, that we have lifted the grade of civilization? It is a simple mathematical problem,” Catt said, according to the Chautauqua Assembly Herald. “Why not test it?”
In 1919, Catt proposed the establishment of a League of Women Voters six months before women were granted the right to vote.
One hundred and twenty seven years after Catt addressed Chautauqua and 105 years since women gained the right to vote, Celina Stewart — chief executive officer of the League of Women Voters of the United States — will uphold Catt’s vision for the necessity of a fair and free vote. At 10:45 a.m. today on the Amphitheater stage, Stewart will give the first lecture of Chautauqua Lecture Series’ Week Six theme “The Global Rise of Authoritarianism.” Looking back on the early work of Catt and the League, Stewart recalled throughlines of the same fight that the League battles now.
As chief executive officer of the League, Stewart is charged with upholding the organization’s century-strong commitment to empower voters and defend democracy. When addressing Chautauqua audiences, she wants to break down the reality of authoritarianism in the United States.
“I want to talk about what it is in plain language — it is the political system we’re under right now. There are efforts to make it concentrated in the hands of the few, and it limits freedom and access to liberty,” Stewart said.
One of the biggest challenges facing voters now is inaction, Stewart said.
“The government is employing a shock doctrine technique against American citizens and residents of the United States. We’re being overwhelmed with information so much that people don’t know what to do, and so they freeze,” she said.
At a local, state and national level, the League is working to combat that paralysis through initiatives such as the Unite and Rise 8.5 campaign. Unite and Rise 8.5 aims to mobilize 8.5 million voters to stand up for their rights in the face of a constitutional crisis. Whether through such initiatives or other community efforts, Stewart encourages voters to find ways to show up for their rights.
“Find something that feels right for you — some action that you can take — because an individual working out of the noise and doing something is going to create a collective movement across the country, which will shut authoritarianism — and the threat that it’s having on this country — down,” Stewart said.
Born to parents committed to civil rights work, Stewart felt the power of activism from a young age. Political activism drew her to a career defending democracy.
“I remember going to vote, I remember showing up to protests, I remember being engaged. But for me, it was just fun. We were going out with neighbors and friends and like-minded people,” Stewart said.
She channeled her excitement for activism into a law degree, and upon first joining the League, Stewart opened up the organization to broader litigation efforts.
“We started filing more plaintive litigation and intervenor litigation so that we were part of the conversation carving out and creating the systemic reform we wanted and that we felt American voters wanted across the country,” Stewart said.
Throughout her work at the League, Stewart referenced a commitment to expanding intentional inclusion and bringing as many voices as possible to the table. As the League developed their Diversity, Equity and Inclusion policies in 2019, Stewart said they asked themselves the following questions: “How do we take the statement and make it a living thing? So how do we incorporate it into our hiring? How do we incorporate it into recruiting leadership at the local, state and national level?”
Since her start at the League, Stewart has seen the fruits of that labor.
“When I started in 2018, there was one black member of the board. And now our board is 50% women of color,” Stewart said.
A priority of the League is becoming a model for states and local organizations to be intentionally inclusive.
“It’s something that we have been grappling with our entire history. It’s still work to be done. It’s certainly not perfect. This work rarely is, but there’s certainly a commitment to do it,” she said. “I, as a Black woman, it’s just something that is so core to who I am in making sure that there are as many voices at the table as possible, and that we are really doing it in a way that’s intentional.”
In the current political climate where democracy is in flux, Stewart said she finds hope for democracy in people. The recent success of the League’s Light for Our Democracy rally in March — bridging 79 nationwide gatherings during the President’s address to Congress — reflected the power of mobilized Americans.
“Seventeen thousand people joined us online during that two-hour event. We had more people than we’ve ever had in spaces like that,” Stewart said. “These movements are just getting bigger and bigger and bigger each time — bigger turnout, more people engaged, different people engaged.”
The high levels of turnout and engagement Stewart has witnessed through the League reflects a shared desire to defend democracy among Americans, regardless of partisan differences.
“I think that is a symbol that all of us are impacted by what’s going on. It’s not just a particular group, whether that’s your race or gender — it is all of us being impacted by the policies, the executive orders and things that are coming out of the White House right now,” Stewart said.
When voters feel the burden of the onslaught of information or fall into disillusionment, Stewart focuses on tracking down the source of their pain.
“The League helps connect the dots by educating, by being out in communities and asking young people, ‘Where is your pain right now?’ Now, let’s figure out who is responsible for that and what power you have to change that,” Stewart said.
Bridging the gap between sentiment and action is a goal for Stewart and the League.
“That is where we activate and really energize people because now we connect the dots between their pain and their purpose,” she said.
