Sunday, March 24 – Union County
“Reclaiming Our Voice: New Jersey’s Central Role in the Fight for Woman Suffrage”
The Historical Society of Plainfield will host a lecture entitled “Reclaiming Our Voice: New Jersey’s Central Role in the Fight for Woman Suffrage” on Sunday, March 24, 2019, starting at 2:00 PM at the Drake House Museum.
Carol Simon Levine will portray Lillian Feickert, president of the New Jersey Woman Suffrage Association from 1912-1920, who lived in Plainfield and North Plainfield. She will tell the story of the role of New Jersey women in the long struggle for woman suffrage.
Two hundred and twenty-five years ago, women had the right to vote in only one state, New Jersey, a right they would lose in 1807, and not win back for more than five generations. New Jersey's role in the struggle to regain that right is largely overlooked.
Hear the stories of the many women with New Jersey ties, including the Grimke sisters (who spoke out against slavery and for women's rights from their home in Shrewsbury), Dr. Florence Spearing Randolph (chair of the NJ Association of Colored Women's Clubs and executive board member on the NJ Woman Suffrage Association), Alice Low Turnbull Hopkins (who threw her considerable support behind Alice Paul's Washington pickets), and Alice Paul, the dynamo who re-energized the movement for a federal amendment. Together their tireless efforts propelled woman suffrage past reluctant male voters and through state and national legislatures to the final success of the 19th Amendment.
Carol Simon Levin is a retired librarian, author, storyteller and program presenter based in Bedminster, NJ. In 2016, she wrote Remembering the Ladies: From Patriots in Petticoats to Presidential Candidates, about amazing American women, which was illustrated by 36 artists. It is an interactive book about lost stories of fascinating and forgotten women in American history. In addition to a coloring page, each entry includes a short biography, a fascinating fact and a quote by the woman.
Please consider wearing white in a tribute to U.S. suffragists. Seating is limited and is on a first-come first-serve basis. Light refreshments will be served. Members: free and non-members: donations are always appreciated.
