Women's group eyes tribute to suffrage

Lewiston Tribune, Idaho
·2 min read

Apr. 25—The League of Women Voters of the Lewis Clark Valley is raising money to place a kiosk in the Lewiston Community Park celebrating the 19th Amendment and the women's suffrage movement.

Cheryl Tousley of the League of Women Voters said that, along with a kiosk, the group is planning to have three trees, a bench and a waste receptacle. The display is planned to be finished in August to coincide with the 103rd anniversary of the passing of the 19th Amendment, but fundraising is taking place now.

The estimated cost for the kiosk is $1,500, plus $1,200 for the bench, $350 for the waste receptacle and $300 apiece for the trees. A donation of $500 or more will give the donor a naming opportunity at the site, according to the League of Women Voters fundraising letter.

Those who want to donate can contact the Lewis Clark Credit Union at 800-919-2872 and donate to the League Legacy Tree Fund Account No. 16828. Checks can also be made out to the League of Women Voters of the Lewis Clark Valley, P.O. Box 178, Lewiston, ID 83501.

The display not only recognizes the national movement but also local women who participated, Tousley said. The organization wanted the kiosk to include more information, so it will have a QR code people can scan on their phones to take people to a website that has more information on the local women involved in the suffrage movement.

The title of the kiosk is "Pioneering for Women's Rights," and will include the wording of the 19th Amendment, which was passed in August 1920. Although women fought for the right to vote for almost half a century, the kiosk display states that women in the American West led the way because many Western states passed suffrage laws, including Idaho in 1896. But there was still a demand to turn the right to vote for women into a federal amendment.

"A new generation of suffragists took over the fight, and the strategies changed. Women began to demand suffrage. They were jailed for it. Women were attacked for it," the display information is planned to state. "Women struggled and fought for it, in a struggle that ultimately culminated in the successful ratification of the 19th Amendment in 1920. And yet...WE CAN'T REST."

Tousley said it's important to remember the past and what women achieved so "things don't go backward."

Brewster may be contacted at kbrewster@lmtribune.com or at (208) 848-2297.