Suffrage Centennials

The National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) has announced $29 million dollars in awards for 215 humanities projects across the nation. The grants include funding to produce a television series, South by Somewhere, on the foodways, history, and culture of the American South, an archaeological analysis of the overseer’s quarters at James Madison’s Montpelier plantation, and support for the creation of a new permanent gallery at the Please Touch Museum to teach children about the 1876 Centennial Fair in Philadelphia where women activists appealed for voting rights.

This round of funding, NEH’s third and last for fiscal year 2019, supports research, education, preservation, and public programs in the humanities. These peer-reviewed grants were awarded in addition to $48 million in annual operating support provided to the national network of state and territorial humanities councils during fiscal year 2019.

This funding cycle includes grants for several longstanding NEH-supported scholarly editions projects that illuminate foundational texts and the lives of influential individuals. New grants will enable continued work on the papers of presidents George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, and Abraham Lincoln, as well as publication of the complete speeches, correspondence, and writings of Martin Luther King Jr. and Eleanor Roosevelt, plus a new scholarly edition and translation of the Dead Sea Scrolls.

Several others will provide for community-based public programs around significant milestones in national and regional U.S. history, such as grants for statewide reading and discussion programs in Maine tied to the state’s bicentennial in 2020, funding for a three-part documentary on the history and identity of Alaska by filmmaker Ric Burns.

NEH will also support Unladylike 2020, a series of animated films about female trailblazers of the Progressive Era.

NEH Public Scholar grants, which support popular nonfiction books in the humanities, will enable publication of a biography of Sacagawea as a window into the experiences of Northern Plains, Rockies, and Pacific Northwest Native American tribes; an examination of the mythos of Alexander the Great across multiple cultures and eras; and a book on the portrayal of returning WW II veterans in the blockbuster 1946 film The Best Years of Our Lives.

Great news about this Ida B. Wells program. It will be featured at the International Black Women’s Congress and its 35th annual gathering. Carry on, Safiya.

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It was big news when a statue of Sojourner Truth was unveiled in Ulster County of the Hudson Valley during 2013. Since then the State of New York has announced plans to erect a statue of Truth on state land in Ulster County, NY. And the statue planned for unveiling in New York City in Central Park in August 2020 will have three women—Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Susan B. Anthony, and Sojourner Truth featured. Adding Truth to the Central Park statue design was announced in August 2019.

Sojourner Truth Statue in Hudson Valley: VIDEO! on Vimeo.

CHANGE IN STATUE DESIGN FOR CENTRAL PARK

The NYC Public Design Commission will review the amended design of the statue, which will be unveiled on The Mall in Central Park on August 26, 2020, the 100th anniversary of the ratification of the 19th amendment. The 200th anniversary of Susan B. Anthony’s birth will also be observed during 2020.

“Our goal has always been to honor the diverse women in history who fought for equality and justice and who dedicated their lives to the fight for women’s rights. We want to tell their stories and help create a full and fair historical record of their vast and varied contributions. The Public Design Commission required that a scroll with names and quotes of 22 diverse women’s suffrage leaders be removed. It is fitting that Anthony, Stanton, and Truth stand together in this statue as they often did in life,” said Pam Elam, President of Monumental Women.

Monumental Women’s Statue Fund was organized as a not-for-profit group in 2014 with the initial goal of breaking the bronze ceiling and creating the first statue of real women in Central Park with other statues planned throughout New York City. To find out more about Monumental Women, or to get involved, visit: monumentalwomen.org

SUFFRAGE EVENTS IN THE UK

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Let’s get busy planning for August 26th and 2020!

Plan for August 26th, the women’s 4th of July! on Vimeo.

August 26th, or Women’s Equality Day, may be over for 2019. But it’s a reminder to get prepared now for August 2020, when the nation is geared up to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the 19th Amendment to the US Constitution. This is a reminder to get going now!

During 2020 there will be events, conferences, exhibits, theatre, books, movies, and much more to honor the 100 years women have been voting in the US. And 2020 is also a national election year. Many consider August 26th in 2019 as when the gate opens for special events and celebrations launching the 2020 centennial. So it’s happening now. Be inspired by the momentum.

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What’s Vision 2020? It’s a national women’s equality initiative headquartered at Drexel University’s Institute for Women’s Health and Leadership in Philadelphia, PA. In the year 2020, Vision 2020 will lead Women 100: A National Celebration of American Women to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the 19th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution: women’s right to vote.

Throughout the year of 2020, Philadelphia, the birthplace of American democracy, will be home to Vision 2020’s Women 100 programs and events, complemented by the work of Proud Partners — organizations committed to gender equality that have created their own programming in support of Women 100. Vision 2020 applauds Let’s Rock the Cradle, one of its Women 100 Proud Partners, on the organization’s commitment to advancing women’s equality and looks forward to its 2020 program.

LetsRockTheCradle.com networks with writers, bloggers, photographers and others to encourage the planning and support of events, conferences, and other efforts to spread the word about the 100 years since the 19th Amendment to the US Constitution in 1920.

For more information, or to get involved in Vision 2020’s Women 100, visit women100.org.

The History Press has published a book about Harry T. Burn written by Tyler L. Boyd, a family descendant and great grandnephew. Harry T. Burn cast a deciding vote to ratify the Nineteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution that granted voting rights to millions of American women. Born and raised in McMinn County, Burn served in Tennessee government in various capacities for many years, including terms in the state senate and as delegate to state constitutional conventions. The 1920 vote in the Tennessee state legislature will be the topic of a television special feature program during 2020.

This book focuses on Burn, his life and the controversial vote in favor of women’s voting rights. Many factors played into Burn’s support, including that of his mother and the many representatives of national women’s organizations and their advocates who showed up in the summer heat of Nashville to advocate for and against women’s suffrage.

The History Press sells this Burn biography for $26.99.

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HAPPY AUGUST 26th, Women’s Equality Day. Make sure August 26th is celebrated by you and your organization. Support efforts to make August 26th a national holiday! Get ready NOW for August 26th during 2020.

The support for 2020 and its celebration is coming from many places. Check out Suffragette City 100, for example, a non-partisan multimedia historic timeline countdown to election 2020 with a focus on celebrating the 100th anniversary of the 19th Amendment by retelling the epic saga of the 144 year fight for the women’s right to vote from 1776 to 1920. Highlighted are  the abolitionist movement as well as efforts to advance the causes of civil, labor, and human rights. Cynthia Barbedette is co-founder and historian. She is a former museum educator, librarian, and social worker. 

Here at SuffrageCentennials.com we applaud the interest and momentum that this upcoming centennial observance is causing. We have been publishing since 2013, back when the word “suffrage” wasn’t understood and many individuals associated the word with suffering. Now the observance has taken off, thanks to numerous volunteers and advocates behind the scenes who have been persistent in organizing and advocating for recognition of this important rite of passage.

We’re a sister web site to Suffrage Wagon News Channel, a news platform for updates to the museum-quality wagon artifact used by Edna Buckman Kearns and other suffrage activists in organizing on the grassroots for votes for women. Suffrage Wagon News Channel has been publishing since 2009.

The “Spirit of 1776” suffrage wagon will be on exhibit at the New York State Museum in Albany, NY during 2020. And it will be part of the rotating permanent museum exhibit after 2020.

During 2013 when we started publishing here about Suffrage Centennials during 2020, there was precious little on the web about the 100 years since the 19th Amendment to the US Constitution in 1920. Now, expect to find alerts and reminders everywhere, such as the AARP publication. That’s only one of many many examples.

SuffrageCentennialsNews

The place to go is the most recent issue of the Gazette, published by the National Women’s History Alliance, formerly the National Women’s History Project. Contact them. You’ll be surprised at how much is planned and already ongoing. Follow SuffrageCentennials.com