ON A SPECIAL LIVE EDITION of the Codcast, Jesse Mermell and Jennifer Nassour bridge the gap between women in the early 1900s, who were protesting for the right to vote, and today, when the struggle goes on in a different way.

In the first segment of the podcast, Mermell and Nassour interview Tina Cassidy, the author of a book about Alice Paul, a woman who not only led the first women’s march in US history but who changed stereotypes about feminism by putting an attractive woman on a white horse at the head of a group of protesters seeking the right to vote.

After learning about Paul, Mermell and Nassour sit down with Tanisha Sullivan, president of the Boston branch of the NAACP; Andrea Campbell, president of the Boston City Council; and Keiko Orrall, a former state legislator. They talk about the challenges facing women today in politics, how women sometimes hold women back, and how Republican women are not always welcome at the table.

Sullivan reveals that the Boston branch of the NAACP did not pursue her national organization to hold its convention in Boston in 2020.  “We ultimately supported it,” she said.

Sullivan said the reaction to the announcement, which came out on Monday, was interesting. “Most white people are really excited – we’ve made it, racism is over” – while people of color are asking: “Why would they come here?”

The announcement does signal that Boston has come a long way on matters of race, Sullivan said, but she hopes the convention will be an occasion for the city to dig further into its past and look to the future. “What we cannot do is party during the convention,” she said.

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