What can those with visibility and influence do–beyond stating support for a particular movement–to combat injustice? Can those with power and privilege advance the interests of others–without hijacking or getting in the way of the efforts of the marginalized groups they mean to support?
Kroeger addresses these matters in The Suffragents, the untold story of how some of New York’s most powerful men formed the Men’s League for Woman Suffrage, which grew between 1909 and 1917 from 150 founding members into a force of thousands across 35 states. Led by such luminaries as Oswald Garrison Villard, John Dewey, Max Eastman, Rabbi Stephen S. Wise, and George Foster Peabody, members of the League worked the streets, the stage, the press, and the legislative and executive branches of government. In the process, they helped convince waffling politicians, a dismissive public, and a largely hostile press to support the women’s demand.
Brooke Kroeger is a journalist, author of five books, a professor of journalism at the NYU Arthur L. Carter Journalism Institute and director of its masters degree unit, Global and Joint Program Studies, which she founded in 2007. The Suffragents is her latest, preceded by Undercover Reporting: The Truth About Deception (2012) and its companion online database, undercoverreporting.org, Nellie Bly: Daredevil, Reporter, Feminist; Fannie: The Talent for Success of Writer Fannie Hurst (1994); and Passing: When People Can’t Be Who They Are (2003).
The event, a Bentson Dean’s Lecture, is free and open to the public. Call 212.998.8100 or email ken.kidd@nyu.edu for more information. Entry is on a first-come, first-served basis.
Funded by the Bentson Foundation, Bentson Dean’s Lectures are traditionally delivered by current full-time College of Arts and Science professors as well as adjuncts and visiting professors who are leaders in their respective fields.
Subway Lines: 6 (Astor Place); R, W (8th Street); A, B, C, D, E, F, M (West 4th Street).
