Local women celebrate 19th Amendment

DAVE MOSIER/independent editor

Nearly 50 women — elected officials and staff, YWCA staff, and others — met in front of the Van Wert County Courthouse on Thursday for a photo commemorating the 100th anniversary of the ratification of the 19th Amendment giving women the vote.

County Prosecutor Eva Yarger said the event came about when she was talking to former county commissioner Ava Good, who said she felt something should be done to honor passage of the amendment.

“I went to the commissioners and said that we need to do something about this,” Yarger said.

The commissioners agreed and, in addition to attending the event Thursday, also approved a proclamation designating August 18, 1920, as the day the 19th Amendment was ratified.

Many younger women may not know that former male slaves were given the right to vote more than 50 years before women earned that right. Women’s suffrage was bitterly opposed by male traditionalists, and even some women, and it was only through the efforts of such pivotal figures as Susan B. Anthony, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Carrie Chapman Catt, Ida B. Wells, Alice Paul, and Lucretia Mott that the 19th Amendment came into being and was adopted.

Ironically, some of those most involved in the Women’s Suffrage movement — Anthony, Mott, and Stanton, for example — were also key figures in the Abolitionist movement and, in effect, helped secure the right for Black males with the ratification of the 15th Amendment more than half a century before women earned that right. In fact, Mott, a Quaker who was born in 1793 and died in 1880, didn’t live to see ratification of the amendment she fought so hard for.

Moreover, final ratification of the amendment in Tennessee after 35 other states had ratified it came down to a single vote.

During a program on the Women’s Suffrage leaders back in March, which was sponsored by the YWCA of Van Wert County, Brumback Library, the Van Wert County Historical Society, and the local chapter of the American Association of University Women, YWCA Advocacy Coordinator Kelly Houg spoke about the importance of women getting the vote.

“I think women can change the course of history; we’ve seen it time and time again,” Houg noted. “This year, as with every year, I think it’s important for women to make sure their voices are heard, and to make sure we are all going to the polls to push what we feel is important.”

Yarger said Thursday’s event was a timely way to remember ratification of the 19th Amendment — especially with the negatives happening that year with the Covid-19 pandemic and other challenges.

“It’s nice to have something a little more positive to focus on,” she added.