PLATTSBURGH —Monday, Aug. 26, marks the anniversary date of the certification of the 19th Amendment which gave white women in the United States the right to vote.
A Women’s Equality Day commemoration will be held Monday from 1 to 3 p.m. at the Kent-Delord House Museum, 17 Cumberland Ave. Plattsburgh. Light refreshments are provided courtesy of the Champlain Valley Business and Professional Women. The event is free and open to the public.
In 1973, the Senate and House of Representatives officially designated Aug. 26 as Women’s Equality Day, and the President issues a proclamation annually in commemoration of that day in 1920. Aug. 26 is a reminder that women of the United States have united to assure that these rights and privileges are available to all citizens equally and is a symbol of the continued fight for equal rights.
Presented by LWV of the North Country Voter Services Chair Suzy Johnson, the program is an opportunity to learn more about the New York Equal Rights Amendment (NY ERA), a ballot proposal to amend the New York State Constitution.
Adding to existing protections against discrimination based on race and religion, this amendment to the Constitution would explicitly protect discrimination based on a person’s ethnicity, national origin, age, disability, and sex—including their sexual orientation, gender identity, and gender expression in addition to pregnancy and pregnancy outcomes.
New Yorkers will have the opportunity to vote for or against this Amendment on Nov. 5.
“People have an option, but we want to make sure that people understand if they said yes, what they’re saying yes to,” Helen Nerska, president, League of Women Voters of the North Country, said.
“Her presentation is going to explain this amendment explicitly protects discrimination based on a person’s ethnicity, national origin, age, disability, and sex. That’s what this amendment will do. Because we’re the League of Women Voters, we’re totally non-partial. The League itself is supporting this amendment. What we do is to educate on issues. The League does have issues that they promote.”
The League has been doing this programming since 2018, even by Zoom in 2020 during the height of the Covid Pandemic.
“This is not new,” Nerska said.
“At first, we were just talking about gender equality and to commemorate the history of the suffrage movement. We sort of moved on and we are educating on the different aspects of what it means to have rights. Last year, we talked about literacy tests that were given and some, in fact, hindered your rights to vote because they were so strict.
“We sort of expanded it to be an educational day. It’s always going to be on the 26th of August because that’s the day in 1920 that 19th amendment to the Constitution went to effect, gave some women the right to vote. Not all women got the right to vote on that day. In terms of women’s rights, they fought for this 50, 60, 70 years. It’s hard to imagine fighting for something for that long, and they did, thank goodness.”
This commemoration event is a collaboration with the League of Women Voters of the North Country, Clinton County Historical Association, Kent-Delord House Museum, Champlain Valley Business and Professional Women, North Country Underground Railroad Historical Association and Saranac Chapter NSDAR.