Lucinda Robb author page

Lucinda Robb biography

Lucinda Robb is an American author and historical researcher whose work includes projects examining women’s political rights and participation in American democracy. She was project director of Our Mothers Before Us: Women and Democracy, 1789–1920 at the Center for Legislative Archives. The project uncovered historical documents and developed a travelling exhibition and educational programme about women’s contributions to American democracy.

Robb also helped organise the United States National Archives’ commemoration of the 75th anniversary of the Nineteenth Amendment in 1995. The amendment, ratified in 1920, prohibited denying American citizens the right to vote on the basis of sex. She founded KidsGiving, an organisation established to encourage children to participate in charitable giving, and has served on the board of the National Archives Foundation.

Her children’s nonfiction book The Suffragist Playbook: Your Guide to Changing the World, co-written with Rebecca Boggs Roberts, was published by Candlewick Press in 2020. Written for readers aged 12 and over, it examines the American women’s suffrage movement and the strategies campaigners used to secure voting rights. The book discusses petitions, demonstrations, public speaking and political organising, alongside the experiences of campaigners including Susan B. Anthony, Sojourner Truth, Ida B. Wells and Alice Paul. It also addresses racism within the movement and the imprisonment of suffrage activists.

In 2021, The Suffragist Playbook won the International Literacy Association’s Children’s and Young Adults’ Book Award in the Intermediate Nonfiction category. A paperback edition was published by Candlewick Press in September 2022.