19Th Amendment Centennial Booklet Edition II.Indd
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Message from Monmouth County Clerk 2020 Monmouth County Offi cials Christine Giordano Hanlon, Esq. As you may be aware, this year marks the 100th Anniversary of the 19th Amendment, which granted women the right to vote. Since my offi ce oversees a large part of the elections process for Monmouth County, I am very excited to launch a recognition program of the 19th Amendment Centennial, to commemorate this historic milestone. Throughout the next year, I encourage you to visit our elections website at www.MonmouthCountyVotes.com and to follow the Monmouth County Clerk’s Offi ce on Facebook, From left to right: Deputy Director Susan M. Kiley, Pat Impreveduto, Director Thomas A. Arnone, Lillian G. Burry and Nick DiRocco Twitter, and Instagram. We will update our pages about the latest news and with historic fl ashbacks honoring the 100th Monmouth County Board of Chosen Freeholders Anniversary of the 19th Amendment, using the hashtag Thomas A. Arnone, Director Susan M. Kiley, Deputy Director #WomensVote100Monmouth. Lillian G. Burry Pat Impreveduto VeryVery trulytruly yours,yours, Dominick “Nick” DiRocco Monmouth County Constitutional Offi cers Christine GiordanoG d Hanlon,H l Esq.E Monmouth County Clerk Connect with the County Clerk’s Offi ce: Facebook.com/MonmouthCountyClerk Instagram.com/MonmouthCountyClerk Twitter.com/MonmouthCoClerk Flickr.com/MonmouthCountyClerk Monmouth Monmouth Monmouth Monmouth County Clerk County Sheriff County Surrogate County Prosecutor Christine Giordano Hanlon, Esq. Shaun Golden Rosemarie Peters Christopher Gramiccioni Special Acknowledgements This 19th Amendment Centennial Commemorative Booklet was written and developed by Monmouth County Clerk Christine Giordano Hanlon, Assistant to the County Clerk Jennifer Collins, and 2019 County Clerk Summer Intern Victoria Cattelona. Thank you to Aaron Townsend of the Monmouth County Public Information Offi ce for designing the booklet and to Monmouth County Document Services, under the direction of Mark Allen, for printing the booklets. “Pink Tea” Recognition Event General History of the Suffrage Movement In commemoration of the 100th Anniversary of New Jersey ratifying the 19th Amendment on February 9, 1920, The 1848 Seneca Falls Convention marked the formal beginning of the American women’s suffrage movement. Monmouth County Clerk Christine Giordano Hanlon hosted a “Pink Tea” on February 6, 2020 at the historic Notable suffragists, including Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Lucretia Mott, demanded legal recognition of women’s Woman’s Club of Matawan. The event was an opportunity for women elected offi cials and election offi cials in political rights and sought to educate the public about women’s suffrage. An outgrowth of the abolitionist Monmouth County, as well as members of the Monmouth County League of Women Voters chapters and the movement, women’s suffrage efforts recognized each individual’s political liberty regardless of gender. The Woman’s Club of Matawan to gather, meet, and collectively recognize the centennial of the women’s suffrage movement coincided with other reforms in a period of American history known as the Progressive Era, which movement. featured public and legislative initiatives to protect laborers, ensure children’s rights, improve public education, mandate temperance, and advance consumer protection. New Jersey Secretary of State Tahesha Way, who is the top election offi cial in the State of New Jersey and oversees the State Division of Elections, served as the keynote speaker and discussed the importance of the historic Multiple organizations formed to support women’s suffrage. Prominent leaders included Carrie Chapman Catt, milestone and the State’s “NJ Women Vote” 19th Amendment Centennial Organization. who led the National American Woman Suffrage Association (NAWSA), and Alice Paul, a New Jersey native, who headed the National Woman’s Party (NWP). Numerous demonstrations, which occasionally involved arrests and Peggy Dellinger, President of the League of Women Voters’ Southern Monmouth Chapter, as well as a trustee physical harm, and lobbying efforts occurred in the second half of the nineteenth century and into the twentieth. and the exhibit chair for the Township of Ocean Historical Museum, spoke about her “Votes for Women: New Finally, with support from President Woodrow Wilson, Congress passed the Nineteenth Amendment on June 4, Jersey and Beyond” museum exhibit and provided a historical overview of the women’s suffrage movement. 1919. New Jersey ratifi ed the Nineteenth Amendment on February 9, 1920 and the States ratifi ed the amendment Also, Jesse Burns, Executive Director of the League of Women Voters of New Jersey informed about the national on August 18, 1920. The Nineteenth Amendment prevents the federal government and the states from denying organization’s 100th anniversary. any individual the right to vote on the basis of sex, ultimately extending the right to vote to women and marking the success of a sustained movement that lasted more than seven decades. Timeline of Key Events 1848, July 19-20: Seneca Falls Convention held in New York 1857: Harriet Lafetra petitions New Jersey state legislature to support women’s suffrage 1869: Wyoming becomes fi rst territory to grant women voting rights 1872, November 5: Susan B. Anthony illegally votes in presidential election; later arrested 1873, December 23: Woman’s Christian Temperance Union (WCTU) founded 1878: Woman Suffrage Amendment proposed to Congress 1884: Therese Walling Seabrook meets with New Jersey Assembly Judiciary Committee 1887: WTCU’s New Jersey chapter endorses women’s suffrage 1890, February 18: National American Woman Suffrage Association (NAWSA) founded 1913, March 3: Suffragists parade on Pennsylvania Avenue 1916, November 7: First congresswoman, Jeannette Rankin, elected 1918, January 9: President Wilson announces support for women’s suffrage 1919, May 21: House passes Nineteenth Amendment 1919, June 4: Senate passes Nineteenth Amendment 1920, February 9: New Jersey ratifi es the Nineteenth Amendment 1920, August 18: States ratify Nineteenth Amendment (L to R) Freeholder Lillian G. Burry, County Clerk Christine Giordano Hanlon, Surrogate Rosemarie Peters, 1920, August 26: Nineteenth Amendment is offi cially signed into law and Freeholder Deputy Director Sue Kiley Monmouth County and the Suffrage Movement County Clerk’s Archives and History Day and Week Ocean Grove - Ocean Grove was a vibrant center for women’s suffrage and On Saturday, October 12, 2019, Clerk Hanlon and the Monmouth County temperance activism. Women in the community were uniquely independent as Archives Division of the County Clerk’s Offi ce hosted the 24th Annual early as the Civil War; women owned 69 percent of properties in Ocean Grove, Monmouth County Archives and History Day at the Monmouth County Library and a female doctor practiced medicine there. Sarah Jane Corson Downs, New Headquarters in Manalapan. Jersey’s second state president of the Woman’s Christian Temperance Union (WCTU), moved to Ocean Grove in the 1880s and served the organization During the event, which celebrates local history, more than 60 local and state when it endorsed women’s suffrage in 1887. Some of the most famous suffragists, history organizations put up displays relating to New Jersey history and their among them Carrie Chapman Catt and Alice Paul, visited Ocean Grove. Margaret organizations. The event’s theme focused on “Four Centuries of Monmouth Wilson, President Wilson’s daughter and a prolifi c singer, performed in the community in 1916 and in 1919. County Women,” to which there was an accompanying exhibit catalog. Shrewsbury - New Jersey was a popular destination for Quakers as early as the The keynote speaker was actress Michele LaRue who presented an anti-suffrage 1670s. The Quakers’ emphasis on the “equality of souls” contributed to an early satire titled “Someone Must Wash the Dishes.” During the event, Clerk Hanlon recognition of women’s value in colonial communities, where women performed hosted a panel discussion featuring volunteers from the Monmouth County in leadership roles and engaged in social activism in regards to abolition, family Historical Association who portrayed fi ve of the women featured in our catalog, Margaret Haskell, Caroline Gallup counseling, and education. Harriet Lafetra, a Hicksite Quaker whose views and Reed, Molly Pitcher, Geraldine Thompson, and Dorothy Hill. Thank you to our performers for bringing the practices were more liberal than those of orthodox Quakers, petitioned the New history and time period of these prominent Monmouth County women to life. Jersey State Legislature for women’s political rights in 1857. Lafetra is buried at the Left – Carrie Chapman Catt, Right – Dr. Anna Howard Shaw, Courtesy cemetery located at the Shrewsbury Friends meetinghouse. Library of Congress Clerk Hanlon and the Archives Division also hosted Archives Day Seminars the following week on October Asbury Park - New Jersey women rallied around the 16, 2019, which included actress and storyteller Carol state to promote women’s suffrage. After several years Smith Levin, who performed as suffragette Lillian of political maneuvering, suffrage advocates convinced Feickert. Levin’s performance showcased the career the state legislature to hold a referendum for a women’s suffrage amendment to the state constitution. The of Feickert who served as the New Jersey Women referendum was to be held October 19, 1915. During Suffrage Association’s president between 1912 and the year leading up to the referendum,