Events planned for 19th amendment celebration

On Thursday, there was a dedication of a plaque that will honor the Suffragists' original Statehouse office in Indiana in Indianapolis. Submitted photo

Bartholomew County will be part of the commemoration of the passage of the 19th Amendment a century ago which gave women the right to vote in Indiana.

A variety of events, exhibits, talks and dramatic portrayals will be brought to Columbus this year to mark the centennial anniversary of the amendment, which was ratified on Aug. 26, 1920.

Actress, librarian and researcher Laura Keyes will be in Columbus on Aug. 26 to portray Elizabeth Cady Stanton. An abolitionist, human rights activist and one of the first leaders of the woman’s rights movement, Stanton (1815-1902) worked closely with iconic suffrage leader Susan B. Anthony to win the women’s right to vote.

Described by some 19th Century journalists as “the brains behind Anthony’s brawn” in the suffrage movement, Stanton and Anthony established the National Woman Suffrage Movement in 1869.

In another presentation, a discussion about Hoosier suffragettes will be scheduled in Columbus on a still undetermined date in August.

Led by Indiana State University research and instruction librarian Marsha Miller, the name of the presentation will be: “From Amanda to Zerelda: Hoosier Suffragists Who Raised a Ruckus For Women’s Suffrage.” This event will include a chronological look at Indiana suffrage history, according to Mary Clare Speckner, community services coordinator for the Bartholomew County Library.

In addition, there will also be a traveling exhibit created by the Indiana Historical Society titled “Securing the Vote: Women’s Suffrage in Indiana” that will appear in Columbus from July 10 to Aug. 5. This exhibit explores how women across Indiana passionately labored for suffrage beginning in the 1850s through countless meetings, campaigns and grassroots efforts, according to the historical society’s website.

The exhibit will be supplemented with items and research regarding suffrage efforts here in Bartholomew County, said Diane Robbins, executive director of the Bartholomew County Historical Society.

The first effort to give all Hoosier women the right to vote was introduced in the 1881 session of the Indiana General Assembly. It was effectively blocked from consideration the following year.

In 1912, State Rep. Valentine D. Ault said he does not think the majority of women in Bartholomew County wanted the right to vote. Four years later, Ault’s successor — Dr. Errol A. Tucker — said he was also not in favor of the suffrage movement in 1916.

There were multiple times when public opinions expressed in the Columbus Republican, forerunner to the Republic, described the entire concept of giving women the vote as a passing fad.

What became a turning point in Indiana was the Maston-McKinley Partial Suffrage Bill of 1917, which granted women the right to vote in municipal, school and certain special elections.

In response, Indiana suffragists mobilized women throughout the state, registering close to 40,000 Hoosier women to vote in the summer of 1917.

The measure faced extreme opposition and the Indiana Supreme Court struck down the partial suffrage law in October 1917.

While that effectively ended the effort to give women the right to vote at the state level, the court’s decision caused the Women’s Franchise League of Indiana to refocus their combined efforts toward supporting a federal amendment.

Other suffrage groups across the country were doing the same thing, and this time, the ladies emerged victorious.

Once the 19th Amendment was ratified in April 1920, the Women’s Franchise League went out of existence. In it’s place was a new organization: The League of Women Voters.

“Women have made a lot of progress in the last 100 years,” Robbins said. “But there’s always room for more.”

[sc:pullout-title pullout-title=”About the 19th Amendment” ][sc:pullout-text-begin]

The 19th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution granted American women the right to vote, a right known as women’s suffrage, and was ratified on Aug. 18, 1920.

Much of the opposition came from Southern states. Many lawmakers feared that women would vote in large groups, which would affect the outcome of elections.  Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, Maryland, Mississippi, South Carolina and Virginia had rejected it.

But when Tennessee voted in favor of the amendment on August 18, 1920, it was officially ratified.

Source: History.com

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