Women's Equality Day to be observed today

Robin Caudell, The Press-Republican, Plattsburgh, N.Y.
·5 min read

Aug. 26—AUSABLE CHASM — Today, women across the United States commemorate Women's Equality Day.

Established in 1971, it celebrates the adoption of the 19th Amendment to the Constitution on August 26, 1920, and raises awareness about the importance of gender equality and to commemorate the work and sacrifices made by women during the suffrage movement.

This year, the Clinton County Historical Association, the League of Women Voters of the North Country, and the North County Underground Railroad Historical Association join together to commemorate the day with a program on 'Suffrage, racism and the challenges for the right to vote after 1920.'

ON BEHALF OF ALL WOMEN

The public is encouraged to bring their voice, ideas, and concerns and participate in celebrating equality for all women.

"That's 102 years ago," Helen Nerska, co-director of the League of Women Voters and director of CCHA.

"We celebrate on behalf of all women, recognizing that New York State women got the right to vote in 1917. Our state was among the first to ratify the 19th amendment.

"The first request for this amendment to the Constitution was in 1878. That's 42 years before it was ratified and 72 years after the first National Movement for Women's Rights was held in Seneca Falls in 1848."

EVERYTHING THAT STILL NEEDS TO HAPPEN

Every year since 1972, beginning with President Richard Nixon, each U.S. president has issued a proclamation.

"The proclamations have the personality of the office in it," Nerska said.

"Many would tell us what they have done for women. But the one President Biden issued last year, it was very interesting because he addressed everything that still needs to happen."

The League of Women of Voters, Clinton County Historical Association and North Country Underground Railroad Historical Association will go forward to recognize Women's Equality Day each year.

"Because there is so much history that triggers," Nerska said.

"After the 19th Amendment, the League of Women Voters was organized because there was a need to register voters, women at the time. There was always the struggle of men and women of color facing the challenges of poll taxes, terror, all sorts of things that were challenging the right to vote.

"This is a real complex story, and it's a long story. We are just going to be talking about it each year. We're going to be recognizing different stories."

WELLS, BURROUGHS, WILLARD

This year's programming features discussions on anti-lynching activist and journalist Ida B. Wells, educator and activist Nannie Helen Burroughs, and educator and reformer Francis E. Willard, founder of the Women's Christian Temperance Union.

Presenters are Nerska; Jacqueline Madison, president of the North Country Underground Railroad Historical Association; and Andrea Baer, a Board Trustee.

"Francis died in 1898, and we are talking about Women's Equality Day," Nerska said.

"How we're tying her in is because Ida B. Wells recognized that as soon as men of color got the right to vote, this reign of terror started. Ida B. Wells had what we're calling a 'war of words' with Francis Willard because Francis Willard was trying to get the South on board for temperance."

FORCE BILL

Willard's response to "The Force Bill," which would grant the federal government oversight in national elections, would have impacted Southern states where the Black vote had been systematically suppressed since 1865.

"She was asked the question what do you think of the race problem and the Force Bill, she was actually making excuses by trying to say the Southern people were lovely and hospitable and were not individually bad people," Nerska said.

"She was placating Southerners for her cause is what she was doing. That interview came back to bite her."

Wells along with orator and statesman Frederick Douglass censured Willard for her response that appeared in the New York Voice, a New York City temperance organ.

"When Ida B. Wells went to England, and Francis Willard was over there," Nerska said.

"Willard was interviewed, and Ida challenged her. She said white women are not speaking out against lynching. That's why Ida was there. So we're talking about Ida B. Wells and the work she did to try to get people to recognize the terror factor in lynching, the fact that lynching was used as method of deterring people from voting."

NOT ALL COULD VOTE

Although the 19th Amendment passed in 1920, it was a only a victory for white women.

"African Americans didn't get the right to vote until 1965, Asians in 1943 (Chinese Exclusion Repeal Act), and I think Indians (Indian Citizenship Act of 1924) also was in the '20s," Madison said.

"They did not get to vote right away either.

"So for people of color, that 19th Amendment didn't apply."

DIFFICULTY VOTING

Gerrymandering was used even then to suppress the vote.

"There were the lynchings that Ida referred to as a way to really terrorize people," Madison said.

"They also would do things like they had a special tax (poll tax) in some places. You had to the special tax in order to vote. Or the other thing was that they came up with a test. They had tests to vote.

"So if you didn't pass the test, you couldn't vote. Today, they are sort of doing some things I think are way off the wall, too.

"They are requiring people to not assist someone. So if someone is thirsty or hungry or needs a chair and they are in line, you can't help them or you will be charged with assisting them to vote."

Email: rcaudell@pressrepublican.com

Twitter@RobinCaudell