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On behalf of the Montgomery
County Commission for Women and
its partners,
I welcome you to the hundredth
anniversary of women's suffrage.
My name is Nicole Drew
and I am the president of the
Montgomery County
Commission for Women.
Thank you for helping us
recognize such a momentous
occasion in history. The
culmination of a number of
efforts by many women and others
who fought for women's
right to vote.
We acknowledge that this is both
a commemoration of our past,
as well as a celebration of our
future.
And while there are too many to
name them all,
we applaud the countless
suffragists,
many of whom are   unsung
heroines like black suffragists
such as Ida B. Wells,
Mary Church Terrell,
and the twenty two founders of
Delta Sigma Theta Sorority
Incorporated, the only African
American women's organization
to participate in the March on
Washington in 1913.  
We also recognize Montgomery
County's own Lavinia Engle
who not only fought for the
ratification of suffrage,
but continued to protect voting
rights.
Tonight we present the
contributions of our partners,
although there were still many
women who did not get voting
rights
when the ratification first
occurred,
we acknowledge the piece the
victory for women and bring to
you an entertaining and
educational presentation of our
past, and a look into the future
of women's voting rights.
Some of the sessions of Congress
were really delightful.
I think it too bad in history
that we always or sometimes
stick to the factual data
and you miss some of the
colorful and delightful
episodes that went through it.
Lavinia Engle made this comment
in January of nineteen
seventy one. She was doing the
first of five interviews
for Marie Bennett Library of
Local History,
part of a joint effort by the
LWV of Montgomery County
and the department of public
libraries.
Lavinia's interviews are part of
a treasure trove of stories and
anecdotes and lost history
that help celebrate the one
hundredth anniversary of
the league and
women's suffrage.
Lavinia   was recruited as a
field secretary for
the National Suffrage
Association when she was fresh
out of
college in nineteen twelve.
She and Susan B. Anthony
testified before Congress
on behalf of the suffrage
movement.
The suffrage campaign had a
sense of
profound sense of values.,
Lavinia had told the
interviewer.
It was never a dour campaign, it
was never bitter.
There were no attacks.
Dr. Anna Howard Shaw said to me
once, when I was in my early
stages giving women's suffrage
speeches throughout the country,
Lavinia,   never try to convince
a person that he or she should
come to your point of view.
Find a point on which you
mutually agree and then move
the point.
Shaw was a physician,
a leader in the suffrage
movement.
And the first ordained female
Methodist minister in the US.
That was a lesson Lavinia took
to heart, not only during her
time working to win the vote for
women but also when she
moved on her work with the
league.,
as it became clear that the
suffrage movement would be
eventually be
successful. She says discussion
at the national conventions
would often turn to,
what we will do when the
amendment was ratified?
Lavinia and her colleagues
decided to create league of
women voters in which women
could teach each other
the things they needed to know,
how to be effective citizens.,
and that this organization
should be non partisan
but should encourage women to go
into the political parties
and work.
At the final convention in
Chicago in nineteen twenty,
the National American Woman
Suffrage Association decided to
turn over its assets to the new
League of Women Voters,
totaling well over half a
million dollars.
Lavinia's interview is
filled with stories that reflect
both the stubborn determination
of these women,
and their sense of humor.
Things she learned while
fighting to win the vote for
herself,
and her sisters around the
nation.
It's important to remember,
especially as the one hundredth
anniversary of women's suffrage
approaches, that the league
inherited more than financial
assets from the suffrage
movement.
We were also bequeathed decades
of organizational experience
and sheer grit.
Many women didn't end their
activism when the nineteenth
amendment was ratified in August
of nineteen twenty.
They simply joined their local
league office and continued to
advocate
for civil rights.
Lavinia clearly felt the
influence of those who've gone
before her.
In her interview, she describes
one of the first meetings she
attended when her mother, also
named Lavinia, took her to
a suffrage convention in
Baltimore.
Little Lavinia was seven or
eight at the time.
"My mother took me up to the
chair in which Susan B. Anthony
was sitting and said her, 'Aunt
Susan,'
as they all called her, 'this is
my daughter, Lavinia.'
Susan said 'Oh! Another
Lavinia!'  
and reached out and drew me over
to her and said, 'You'll be
another Lavinia
who campaigned for women's
suffrage.'
And I said,
'Oh, yes, Aunt Susan, I will.'
And she patted me on the head
and laughed and my mother said
well
I'll raise her up to the faith.
Lavinia   Engle kept the faith
until her death in nineteen
seventy nine.
First in the suffrage movement,
and then
during her nearly sixty years
working for the League of Women
Voters.
Thanks for joining us.
I'm Tonia Bui, cochair of the
suffrage twenty twenty
commemoration.
This is the first
virtual event ever hosted by the
Montgomery
County Commission for Women.
And what better way to do this
than to honor
the hundredth anniversary of the
Suffrage Movement.
I want to take a moment now
to thank those who went on this
virtual journey with us.
Starting with all of our
commemoration community
partners, the Montgomery County
executive
Marc Elrich, the entire
Montgomery County council, along
with Montgomery County Board of
Education president
Shebra Evans,
the entire Commission for  
Women, our executive director
Jodi Finkelstein,
and our Commission interns.
And a big shoutout to my event
co-chair
commissioner Patty Maclay.
There are so many people who
worked countless hours behind
the scenes to make
this event happen,
including our video editor
Natalie Harris, and the entire
Montgomery College TV production
team.
Keep watching! We'll showcase
the entire list of performers,
presenters,
and contributors later on.
Enjoy the rest of the program!
My name is Marc Elrich, county
executive
of Montgomery County.
It is an honor to join the
Commission for Women in
commemorating
the seventy two year struggle
for the women's right to vote.
Montgomery County women took
action and many endured
hardships
to help ratify the nineteenth
amendment.
These women were early leaders
in demanding the right to vote.
One such suffragist was Caroline
Hallowell   Miller,
a Quaker resident of Sandy
Spring
who organized the Maryland Woman
Suffrage Association in
eighteen eighty eight.
In nineteen nineteen, branches
of the Progress of Suffrage
Club organized the Montgomery
County to support voting rights
for African American women
and to register them as voters
in large numbers as rebuke
to racist politicians.
Many suffragettes picketed the
White House and were repeatedly
arrested and sent to prison.
This is only a glimpse of how
Montgomery County suffrage
leaders played a significant
role in paving the way for
women's equality and the right
to vote.
I want to thank the Commission
all the suffrage twenty twenty
commemoration community
partners,
event sponsors, and everyone who
worked behind the scenes
to make this event possible.
I would like to especially thank
Commission president Nicole Drew
esquire
and the cultures of this event
Tonia Bui and Patty Maclay.  
Before starting the program,
I also want to take a moment and
thank everyone who
participated in this year's
Power Girl Contest.
Congratulations to all the
winners,
As President of the Montgomery
County Council,
it gives me great pleasure to
recognize
the one hundredth anniversary of
women's suffrage.
It is hard to believe that the
right to vote for women
has only been in existence
for one hundred years.
The passage of the nineteenth
amendment was a great moment
in the history of our country
and I'm pleased to participate
in applauding it now.
Proclamation Montgomery County
Maryland.
Where as twenty twenty marks the
one hundredth anniversary
of the ratification of the
nineteenth amendment to
the United States constitution
August eighteenth 1920,
the amendment was adopted to
provide a constitutional
guarantee
of women's right to vote.
And whereas we suddenly
recognized the women's suffrage
was an
incomplete victory since Black
women, Native American women,
Asian women, and Latino women
were not extended
the right to vote in nineteen
twenty.
And whereas Maryland did not
ratified the nineteenth
amendment
until March twenty nine
nineteen forty one,
nearly twenty one years after
national ratification,
this was a step for suffrage
women continued to struggle
to secure voting rights
all by fighting against voter
suppression
in the form of discriminatory
all taxes
literacy tests, and voter roll
purges and whereas
Maryland women were leaders in
advocating for women's suffrage
including Margaret Prance
who, in sixteen forty eight
petitioned the Maryland General
Assembly
for her right to vote
becoming the first American
woman
to do so.
And wheras women in Montgomery
County
played critical roles in
advancing   equal voting rights,
including Lavinia Angle
who fought for suffrage and was
a founding member and leader
of the League of Women Voters of
Maryland.
The first woman to represent
Montgomery County in the
Maryland house of delegates,
and who continued her activism
for more than sixty years
And whereas women now play a
vital role in local, state, and
national government,
and their continued contribution
to the
progress in the history of this
county is honored and
celebrated
along with the hundredth
anniversary
of women suffrage.
Now, therefore be it resolved
that the county executive and
county council
of Montgomery County, Maryland
hereby proclaim August twenty
twenty
in commemoration of the one
hundredth anniversary
of the passage and ratification
of the nineteenth amendment to
the United States constitution
granting women the right to vote
as women's suffrage
commemoration month in
Montgomery County
and in conjunction with the
Montgomery County Commission
for Women, we recommend that
residents and civic
institutions
ensure all students and adults
have the opportunity
to learn about and commemorate
the suffrage movement
and the vital role women hold in
our democracy
And it is signed today
County executive Marc Elrich and
me, Sidney Katz, as county
council president.
Today we do have that right,
and we must exercise it
we must also seek to occupy
leadership positions in
the corporate sector,
in elected office,
in nonprofit organizations,
in our communities. We must
continue to pave the way
for those young women who are
coming right along
to occupy those positions as
well.
Hello, Everyone. My name is
Patty Maclay. I am co chair of
our
suffrage twenty twenty
commemoration.
At this time, I would like to
introduce Dr. Robyn Muncy
a professor at the University of
Maryland and our guest speaker.
Her research shines light on
women, social policy, social
movements,
and labor and working class
history in twentieth century
America.
She has made many media
appearances
including documentaries for CNN,
PBS's   The American Experience,
and C. Span's Lectures in
American History.
Dr. Muncy has contributed to
many public history projects.
Her most recent work is as a
guest curator
of the exhibit entitled
'Rightfully Hers: American Women
and The Vote,' on display at
the National Archives in
Washington DC.
Today she joins us
to discuss the top three facts
to remember
about Women's Suffrage.
A brief discussion will follow,
led by Dr. DeRionne Pollard.
As president of Montgomery
College, Dr. Pollard serves in
many leadership roles, including
President of the American
Association for Women in
Community Colleges.
In addition, she was the keynote
speaker for the Commission for
Women's two thousand and eleven
Women's Legislative Briefing.
Dr. Pollard has received many
awards including being named
one of Washington DC's most
powerful women by Washingtonian
magazine.
Come join me now as we learn
even more about the Women's
Suffrage movement.
Thank you so much, Patty. I'm
honored to participate in this
commemoration of the nineteenth
amendment sponsored by
the Montgomery County Women's
Commission.
My contribution to the event is
to share the top three things
I think you need to know about
the amendment on this, its one
hundredth anniversary. The
nineteenth amendment said that
no state or the federal
government could deny the vote
on the basis of sex, and the
number one
thing I think you need to know
about that amendment
is that it represented a major
milestone in the history of
American democracy. More on that
in a minute. Number two,
even though it was a monumental
achievement,
the nineteenth amendment did not
enfranchise American women.
More on that in due course.
Number three, the movement that
produced the nineteenth
amendment, usually called the
Women's Suffrage Movement, was
multi racial, multi ethnic, and
cross class.
These three points have
important lessons for us today,
and I'll elaborate briefly on
each.
First,   the nineteenth  
amendment was a major milestone
in the history of American
democracy, in part because it
resulted in in the immediate  
enranchisement   of millions
of American women.,
remarkably expanding the U. S.
electorate.
And its ramifications in
American politics and government
reverberate today.
Since nineteen sixty four, for
instance, women have outvoted
men.
And a gender gap in presidential
elections opened
up in nineteen eighty.
These voting patterns, in turn,
produce policies that structure
our national life and, in fact,
our daily lives.
The legacy of this amendment is
quite profound.
For all the significance of the
nineteenth amendment, however,
it
is   inaccurate to state that
the nineteenth amendment
enfranchised American women.
It is inaccurate because
millions of women had the vote
before nineteen twenty, and
millions of women were still
excluded from the polls after
nineteen twenty.
If we miss this point, we  
misunderstand how political
change
happens or doesn't
and we become less effective
citizens.
This is why you need to know
that, before nineteen twenty,
millions of women
had the vote and they had won it
by measures taken by
their states. It was, indeed,
because so many women were
already voting that men in
Congress were more likely to
vote for the amendment
and send it to the states for
ratification.
Hard won local victories
eventually accumulated
to make a national victory
possible.
This is how political change
happens.
Just as millions of women
already had the vote before
the nineteenth amendment, so
were millions   still
excluded from the polls after
nineteen twenty.
Women in Puerto Rico, for
instance, remain disfranchised
because the amendment   said
that no state or the federal
government could deny the vote
on the basis of sex, but it said
nothing about the territories.
Women in Puerto Rico continued
their fight for the vote until
nineteen thirty five, when
finally all adult women
in Puerto Rico could cast a
ballot.
African American women in
southern states also remained
largely excluded from the polls.
They were excluded by the same
measures that widely
disfranchised African American
men in the early twentieth
century.
Still   southern Black women
protested against their
exclusion
and continued their voting
rights activism to the present
day,
claiming a dramatic victory in
nineteen sixty five
with passage of the voting
rights act.
A substantial portion of Native
American women were also denied
voting rights in nineteen
twenty, as were all   Asian
immigrant women.
Struggles for the vote among
these groups continued into
the nineteen fifties.
The denial of ballots to
language minorities and
disabled Americans, of course,
carried voting rights activism
through the twentieth century.
So, you see, it is simply an
accurate to say that
the nineteenth amendment
enfranchised American women.
That claim   gets the meaning of
the amendment wrong,
and in the bargain, obscures
both how political change
really happens,
and the persistence of women's
work to attain and retain
voting rights.
The third thing I want you to
know is that the movement that
produced the nineteenth
amendment was dazzlingly
diverse.
In the nineteen tens, when the
women's suffrage movement
achieved its signature
successes, including
the nineteenth amendment, it was
multi racial, multi ethnic, and
across class.
Let's use Maryland as a quick
example.
In nineteen fifteen,
middle class African American
suffragists Augusta Giselle and
Estelle Young founded the
Progressive Women's Suffrage
League in Baltimore. And in
nineteen nineteen, working class
Black suffragist   Martha
Wheeler
from rural Washington County
declared herself ready
to organize for the cause.
Working class white women, who
were members of the Amalgamated
Clothing Workers Union of
Baltimore work for suffrage in
the teens and middle class white
suffragists, both
urban and rural, organized local
suffrage organisations
and participated in national
suffrage events.
By the nineteen tens,
the Women's Suffrage Movement
across the United States
mirrored the movement in
Maryland,.
Building a diverse mass movement
was what it took
to win the signal successes of
the Women's Suffrage Movement.
And we need to know this,
because the struggle over voting
rights
is our struggle.
Contention over who should vote
began with the founding of our
Republic and continues to this
day.
It is endemic to our democracy.
By grounding ourselves in the
history of the struggle, we can
become more effective
participants in it.
Thank you.
Thank you, Dr. Muncy. This has
been such an informative  
conversation that you've been
providing this year with
the data. I want to explore and
get more in depth, three of the
points that
you brought
and give you an opportunity to
speak to a little bit further
to them. You raise some
important points and facts
in the critical, in the story of
women gaining the right to vote
as we celebrate this
uh, commemorative one hundredth
anniversary.
And I wanna explore in the first
one
is really speaking to this idea
that I found so provocative.
You said that millions of
American women
had the right to, or secured the
right to, vote
prior to the nineteenth
amendment.
How did that happen? Where did
you see it and probably
how did their votes and lead
to the nineteenth amendment?
Um, thank you so much. I mean,
the short answer to the how
part of that question, how did
women gain, millions of women,
gain the vote before the
nineteenth amendment,
is really creative, massive
grassroots struggle over
generations.
In the process of of engaging in
that struggle, they used
every tactic in the books. They
pioneered some new ones.
%HESITATION They petitioned
their, at their legislatures,
they testified before
legislatures, published
newspapers and and pamphlets
they
are
engaged in
sort of soap box speeches on
street corners and huge rallies
and
conventions. They organized
parades %HESITATION Suffragists
were actually the first to
pickett at the White House,
that's one of
their
signature uh tactics
and they they went up in hot air
balloons and dropped votes
for women buttons over the
populace below.
Um, one of my favorite tactics
was the new departure,
which began in the eighteen
sixties and early eighteen
seventies
And it involved women   actually
going to the voter registrars
or to the the polling place and
demanding the right to vote
and saying that they they knew
they had the right to vote
under the Fourteenth Amendment
as citizens.
One of the places where that
happened was here in DC in
eighteen seventy one, where
African American journalist
Mary Ann Shadd Cary and sixty
three other women
presented themselves to the
registrar and said, we know we
have the right to vote. They
were of course, like women all
across the country, turned aside
%HESITATION and Mary Ann Shad
Cary then
%HESITATION issued an affidavit
of protest saying she was being
denied her citizenship rights
and she remained a part of
the struggle
of for for years and years to
come.
And other women across the
country are doing that very
same thing, and in the process
 they succeeded in
%HESITATION winning local and
some state and territorial
suffrage rights.
In the west, in particular,
%HESITATION women began to win
%HESITATION
important suffrage rights
even in the eighteen sixties.
Eighteen sixty nine Wyoming, as
a territory,   enfranchised
women on the same basis as men
and
when Wyoming then came into the
%HESITATION
to the union as a state
it I continue to enfranchise
women on the same basis as men.
Colorado did so in eighteen
ninety three, Idaho in eighteen
ninety six, and Utah did
eighteen
ninety six as well.
So, by the time we get to
nineteen hundred,
four states in the west had
enfranchised women on the same
basis as men. And then,
beginning in nineteen ten
there's just
sort of this rapid fire set of
successes that is in nineteen
ten Washington state  
enfranchised women on the same
basis as men,
and by the mid teens really
%HESITATION most of the states
in the west had enfranchised
women on the same basis as men.
In the Midwest, Illinois is
a major victory in nineteen
thirteen.
In that state women, were
enfranchised in presidential
elections and in municipal
elections.
In nineteen seventeen, New York 
enfranchised women
on the same basis as men, and
Michigan did the same in
nineteen eighteen.
In fact, before we get to the
ratification of the nineteenth
amendment, over half of the
states had enfranchised women,
at least in presidential
elections and as women gained
suffrage rights, as they begin
to amass electoral power in
the states in the early
twentieth century in particular
the votes
for the federal amendment in
Congress increase.
So, you can see that the
existing
electoral power of women
explains the victory of
the federal amendment and then
the federal amendment in turn  
enfranchised millions more
women. So, they started they had
a movement, they started
momentum and then that went from
west to east
and Midwest.
Yet, what we see is that
African American women in the
south were disenfranchised just
as much as we saw African
American men were for quite some
time.
I really welcome your talking a
little bit about the measures
that
were used to disenfranchise
black women in the south
but then also talk about how
black women, African American
women
responded in that moment to help
really secure
their own right to vote.
Yeah, fantastic and super
important question. So,
beginning and
especially the eighteen nineties
southern states began to tamp
down the electoral power of
African American men and they
did it through poll taxes,
through unfairly administered
literacy tests,
through threats of brute
violence,
and the threats of economic
reprisals.
So, by the time we get to the
nineteen tens
um, African American men in the
south are largely disfranchised.
That meant that when the
nineteenth amendment was
ratified in nineteen twenty,
African American women were
also disfranchised by those same
measures,.
But African American women did
not take that
passively. They appeared in
nineteen twenty, they went to
the voter registration offices.
They demanded the right
to vote. Thousands actually
succeeded in registering, but
many more were turned back.
And   they didn't quit, they
continue to demand their right
to vote. They even sent protest
up to the department of justice,
to to the U. S. presidents in
the nineteen twenties
saying that their protests at we
know we have the right to vote
based on the fourteenth, the
fifteenth, and the nineteenth
amendment.
What are you gonna do about it?
Of course, in the nineteen
twenties, the federal government
did not intervene on their
behalf, but African American
women stayed the course. In the
nineteen thirties., Women like
Amelia   Boynton in Selma
Alabama
%HESITATION fought for her right
to vote and continued to
fight for the right to vote
among others in to the
nineteen sixties. Rosa Parks is
a major voting rights activists
in the nineteen forties
Septima Clark is a major
voting rights activists in the
nineteen fifties and of course
Fannie Lou Hamer in the nineteen
sixties and the result
of all of that activism among
black women was
the abolition of the poll tax
through
a constitutional amendment in
nineteen sixty four, as well as,
of course, the voting rights act
of nineteen sixty five.
mmhm
I tell you that just gives me  
shivers thinking about that
as we think about %HESITATION
the encroachments we see in
modern day society about the
right to vote. Dr Muncy, I found
that insight that you offered so
provocative and insightful and
I I wanted to delve into one
last point that
you made in your comments
earlier
where you talked about the
diversity the suffrage movement
in Maryland
and I'm really curious to see
if there are other states where
you saw that same diversity.
Is that an element that was
essential for success.
I'd love to hear you speak to
that briefly.
You bet! I'm I think anytime we
look really closely at any of
these movements, at the point of
success, we find a multi racial,
multi ethnic, cross class
movement as a result. As we look
at Maryland on the east coast,
we'll maybe just turn to
California in the west.
California, as I mentioned,  
enfranchised women
on the same basis as men in
nineteen eleven.
And it did so as a result of a
of a wildly diverse
movement. In 1908     at the
first, I think it's
the first
%HESITATION Wage Earner Suffrage
league was formed in
California. That's working class
women, wage earning women, who
formed a group that fought for
suffrage. They marched in
a parade in Oakland in 1908     
alongside a waitress local union
in that in that parade
%HESITATION down in the south
of the of the state.
Um,   Maria de Lopez was an
important Latina activist
in the suffrage movement. She
was famous for giving
her speeches in Spanish
and of translating
the speeches of other just
suffragists Spanish and of
translating
%HESITATION pamphlets and
other materials into Spanish.
%HESITATION The African American
%HESITATION
movement was centered especially
in churches like
an A. M. E. church in Stockton
and third Baptist up in San
Francisco and then in the first
election wheres   California
women voted, one of the women or
the new voters to gain the most
attention from the press was
a Chinese American woman Tai
Lung Schultz
who was very proud to be voting
and very clear on
%HESITATION the foundations
on which she was going to make
her decisions about an election.
I think if we look as I say
at closely at any place where
there were these %HESITATION
victories of suffrage we find
the same dazzling diversity.
Thank you, Dr. Muncy, for those
truly insightful perspectives
about this issue and helping to
remind us, at least what I'm
taking away from this, how one
actually starts a movement is
about activism is about
believing the cause,
it's certainly about courage,
and it's also about coalitions.
So important to us.
I want to thank deeply the
Montgomery County caolition—
Commission for Women for the
work that they've done in
elevating this conversation
and helping us to remember the
work that was done to secure
of the   right to vote for
women.
I also want to thank them for
the active program they're
having right now, Suffrage 2020
Commemoration     program.
I know that much more still
coming in this space. And
finally,
I want to thank my friends and
colleagues at   MCTV
for always being such wonderful
technical professional support
to us to produce these types of
programs. Most of all, I hope
each and everyone of you enjoyed
our comments today,
but more importantly, remember
that is our job to fight for and
to protect the right to vote.
Take care, and be well.
I am Shebra Evans, president of
the Montgomery County Board of
Education.
This year, we are a
predominately
female board and we support
equity in all areas
of our life.
This is an event to be
commemorated, one hundred years
to be exact.
As   important as it is to
commemorate this important
milestone
it is equally important to
remember the journey that
brought us to
today.
And to honor those who showed us
where we stand.
I'm reminded of an old
advertisement,
we've come a long way, baby.
the focus of this celebration is
the struggle women right to
vote.
Many strong women worked
tirelessly for this truly
democratic right and today, we
want to take a moment to honor
those women.
We truly stand on the shoulders
of giants.
We honor and
acknowledge our history that
which fills us with pride.
As well as our feelings of our
for mothers
We know that, for African
American women, the struggle for
suffrage did not end until
August of nineteen sixty five
when
President Johnson signed the
voting rights act,
outlawing discriminatory
practices
forbiding   Black men and women
from voting.
That the true promise of
universal
suffrage and equity began to
emerge.
It was women Augusta Chissell,
Ida B. Wells,
Mary Church Terrell, that didn't
give up when others thought the
fight was over.
Even as we celebrate our right
to vote, even as we remember
those who came before us, we
also must
be vigilant in ensuring that
that right to vote and that
promise
is there for all of our
citizens.
I look forward to our continued
collaboration
as we support one another and
make Montgomery County the best
can be for our students
where they're learning, growing,
and thriving.
And we're gonna work to make
sure that their success is their
future.
Thank you.
Someone I admire from the
Women's Suffrage Movement is
Alice Paul.
For years, she organized
parades, hunger strike,
and picketts in DC until she was
imprisoned and force fed.
I feel a connection to her in my
own life because there was
a time when my relatives saw me
as a girl who was entitled to
a political opinion.
I had to show them that
I'm a woman who can contribute
to society.
like the activists were
successful,
eventually my relatives learned
to respect me more.
Someone that
I admire from the Woman Suffrage
Movement is W. E. B.
Du Bois. He criticized exclusion
of black women in
the mainstream suffragist
movement.
He also founded the National
Association for the Advancement
of Colored People to eliminate
race based discrimination.
Black women were not allowed to
be included in marches and were
often not invited to
conventions. I feel connection
to this person in my own life
because without great people
like him, myself and other women
of color would never have been
given the rights and freedoms
that we have today.
Someone I admire from the
Women's Suffrage Movement was
Sojourner Truth  
She escaped slavery in eighteen
twenty six. Her last owner, John
Demont
tracked her down and illegally
sold her son.
Truth sued Demont
and became the first black woman
to sue a white man and win.
I feel a connection to this
person in my own life
because I want to dedicate my
life to advocating against
injustices in my community and
fighting for equal
opportunities for all.
Someone I admire from the
Women's
Suffrage Movement is um
Elizabeth Gabels   she was one
of
the first leaders of the women's
rights movement
after high school
it is a bit experience sexual
discrimination
she watched how many of her men
classmates were accepted into
the major universities. I feel
like a connection to her in my
own
life because when I was in
middle school my professor used
to pick one of his students to
be his assistant however,
he did not choose me because I'm
a girl.
Someone I admire from suffragist
movment
is activist Ida B. Wells.
She into to slavery
and was well known for her
campaign
I feel a deep connection to her
because of her intersectional
perspective that she brought to
the movement as a woman of
color, much like
myself.
She was not represented in the
movement,
but that was all the more reason
for her to use her voice and
educate others.
and inspiring   someone like me
to raise my voice as well.
Someone I greatly admire from
the Women's Suffrage Movement
is Lucy Stone. She was
revolutionary in countless ways
to the women's and abolition
movements, things that continue
today.
I feel a connection to her in my
own life because of all of
the changes she spearheaded, it
was her last words to her
daughter that moved me. She said
to make the world better.
This is been a constant motto in
our home and my children
strive to embrace it in
everything they do. I strongly
believe in votes for women.
Thanks to the wonderful
Montgomery College students for
sharing their thoughts about
how studying suffragists
has impacted their lives today.
And thank you Montgomery County
Commission for Women for
creating this special suffrage
twenty twenty
commemoration
I'm Kate Campbell Stevenson, and
I have the pleasure of singing
the closing
song, Standing on the Shoulders
lyrics and music written by
Joyce Johnson Rouse.
Over my many years of research
and performing
I learned that true social
progress happens only when
younger and older citizens from
all walks of life
joined together to create
positive social change.
We extend our profound gratitude
to the suffragists
Due to their persistence and
their monumental efforts we now
all
have access
to the ballot box.
The best way to honor them
and the generations to come
is to make our voices heard
and vote!  
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Wow! Wasn't that fantastic! What
a privilege to have the talented
Kate Campbell Stevenson perform.
I hope you enjoyed our show.
Our planning began last year
when many community partners
came
together with a single goal, to
create
an event that would tell the
story of American women's
seventy two year struggle to win
the vote.
Faced with a pandemic, we made a
quick decision to go virtual
instead of canceling our event.
In less than two months, our
partners created content for
this amazing show.
However this program only
captures a small portion of our
effort
to remember the achievements of
Women's Suffrage Movement.
Please visit the commission's
website,
Facebook page, Twitter,
and YouTube channels for much,
much more.
At this time I would like to
thank Dr. Muncy and Dr. Pollard
for broadening our understanding
of women's suffrage
and I sincerely want to thank my
co-chair, Tonia Bui
for her incredible media
production skills.
Now join me to recognize all of
the creative partners who made
this event a success.
And thank you for tuning in.
Thank you to our Diamond Sponsor
Bunstein Management Corporation
E. YA
Bethesda Farm    
Women's Market.
Thank you to our Diamond Sponsor
Carl M. Freemen Foundation
