Celebrating Centennial of League of Women Voters and the 19th Amendment - The Rolla Daily News
Members of the League of Women Voters of Missouri gathered in the Capitol Rotunda this week to celebrate the 100th Anniversary of the passage of the 19th�Amendment.�
League of Women Voters of Missouri President Evelyn Maddox introduced Missouri Secretary of State Jay Ashcroft who commended the League for its tireless work in encouraging civic participation and education.
“I just appreciate being part of this and appreciate what you stand for,” Ashcroft said. Ashcroft thanked the League for its nonpartisan approach to promoting civic engagement before reading the Governor’s proclamation recognizing the centennial of the ratification of the 19th Amendment.
Maddox said League members look forward to working with Ashcroft to ensure that elections are free, fair and accessible.
League members from Columbia, Kansas City, Moberly, Sedalia and St. Louis posed for photos by a plaque near the Rotunda that the League installed in 1931 as a tribute “to those women in Missouri whose courageous work opened the opportunities of complete citizenship to all women in the state.”
The League of Women Voters of Missouri is a non-partisan political organization founded in 1919 with a mission to create a more perfect democracy.
The 19th Amendment proclamation states:
One hundred and seventy-one years ago in 1848, the first Women’s Rights Convention was held in Seneca Falls, New York, marking the beginning of the bold and courageous Women’s Rights Movement; and the Women’s Rights Movement, as well as every other progressive social change movement, was made stronger by the women of Missouri from every race, class and ethnic background who served on the front line and ultimately played a unique and critical role in Missouri’s history.
And 100 years ago, on June 4, 1919, the United States Congress passed the 19th Amendment to the United States Constitution and sent it to the states. On July 3, 1919, Governor Frederick Gardner signed the bill that made Missouri the 11th state to ratify the 19th Amendment.
The citizens of Missouri are proud to celebrate the 100th Anniversary of Missouri’s ratification of the Nineteenth Amendment on July 3, 2019. The State of Missouri recognizes that the League of Women Voters of Missouri, which arose from the Missouri Woman Suffrage Association, has worked to educate and empower voters since its founding in October 1919.
The citizens of Missouri appreciate the struggles of the Suffragists and others who fought for the right to vote by all citizens. Michael L. Parson, Governor of the State of Missouri, recognized the 100th anniversary of the ratification of the 19th Amendment, and set his hand causing to be affixed the Great Seal of the State of Missouri, in the City of Jefferson, on June 10, 2019.
