Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...

Commissioners approve a resolution for women’s suffrage anniversary

COLUMBUS—The League of Women Voters of North Carolina visited Polk County this week to recognize the 100th anniversary of the 19th Amendment to the United States Constitution giving women the right to vote. 

The League of Women Voters was also established in 1920 and is celebrating its 100- year anniversary. 

Rachel Poller, with the League of Women Voters of North Carolina spoke to county commissioners during a meeting Monday night. 

Poller is with the League of Women Voters in Hendersonville and said some day they would like to see a League of Women Voters in Polk County. 

Commissioners approved a resolution and following it being read, gave the League of Women Voters a standing ovation. 

Polk County Commissioner Chair Myron Yoder said where would we be if it weren’t for the women and all they do for our community. 

Gasperson said this past Saturday was the 200th anniversary of Susan B. Anthony’s birthday. Gasperson gave some history on Anthony, saying she originally was advocating for women to be able to speak in public because they were not allowed. He said she gave 100s of lectures every year and many times there were mobs with people throwing rotten eggs and benches. 

“Think of this woman,” Gasperson said. “What an incredible woman.” 

Anthony was arrested and found guilty without discussion, but never paid her fine. Women were not allowed to serve on juries at the time. 

Anthony died 14 years prior to the passage of the 19th Amendment. 

The 19th Amendment has to be ratified by two-thirds of the states and that was not accomplished until Aug. 18, 1920, when Tennessee cast its vote of support. Tennessee was the last of 36 states to ratify, which was done by one vote. An East Tennessee lawyer and member of the House of Representatives received a letter from his widowed mother imploring him to vote for suffrage, so he changed his vote on the third reading of the bill. 

 

Celebrating the 100th anniversary of the passage of the 19th Amendment to the Constitution of the United States and the founding of the League of Women Voters

WHEREAS, an organized movement to enfranchise women began in July of 1848 at a convention in Seneca Falls, New York; and 

WHEREAS, through the efforts of brave and courageous women referred to as suffragists, who sacrificed family, their personal life and their financial resources over 70 years, equal rights for women, especially the right to vote were achieved; and

WHEREAS, women and men, black and white, supported the women’s suffrage movement for women to gain the constitutional right of having a voice in making the laws that govern them; and 

WHEREAS, the women’s suffrage movement led to the passage of the 19th Amendment to the Constitution of the United States in 1919; with ratification by the states by the summer of 1920; and

WHEREAS, the National Women’s Suffrage Association dissolved in 1920 to create the League of Women Voters of the United States to register and educate all voters; and 

WHEREAS, the League of Women Voters of North Carolina was launched on Oct. 7, 1920, on the steps of the Guilford County Courthouse by Gertrude Weil, a politically active and tireless young woman from Goldsboro, N.C.; and

WHEREAS, women today constitute a majority vote in our state and the United States and are running for office in higher numbers and are more active in the election process than ever before in history; and

NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED, that we, the Polk County Board of County Commissioners hereby recognize and celebrate the 100th Anniversary of the passage of the 19th Amendment to the United States Constitution and the founding of the League of Women Voters in the United States and North Carolina, and commend those women and men who continue to carry on the nonpartisan work of engaging voters and defending democracy throughout the local, state and national level in a civil manner to improve the civic health of our communities.