(Peterboro, NY – Aug. 2015) Young and old are invited to a living history event Looking Back –and Ahead: The Long Road to Equality at 2 p.m. on Saturday Aug. 22 to break ground for an Equality Garden in Peterboro.
As seeds are planted, programming will weave the history of the century of organizing that led to the 19th Amendment, as well as the century of organizing still underway as the United States continues its work toward Equality. Suzanne B. Spring PhD, Jeff McArn and students from Colgate University and Hamilton College will facilitate the participatory program commemorating Equality Day.
Suzanne B. Spring PhD is Senior Lecturer in Writing and Rhetoric, the Coordinator of Second Language Writing, and the Director of the LGBTQ Program at Colgate University. Jeffrey McArn has been Hamilton’s College Chaplain since 1996, when he was ordained as a minister in the Presbyterian Church. A native of Laurinburg, NC, McArn is a graduate of Davidson College and Harvard Divinity School.
Chaplain McArn and Dr. Spring are Co-Chairs of the Cultural Diversity Committee for the National Abolition Hall of Fame and Museum in Peterboro.
Peterboro will observe Equality Day with a second event at 2 p.m. on Sunday Aug. 23 when Norm Dann presents Ballots and Bloomers: Passionate Reforms and Peterboro. Dann will share his research on writings of Elizabeth Cady Stanton, (cousin of Gerrit Smith) and of Elizabeth Smith Miller (Gerrit Smith’s daughter), and the reforms that were influenced.
On Aug. 261970, Betty Freidan and the National Organization for Women (NOW) organized a nationwide Women’s Strike for Equality to demand equal opportunities. More than 100,000 women participated. This strike shined light on the injustices and disparities lived daily by women across the nation.
In 1971, Representative Bella Abzug (D-NY) introduced a bill, which designated Aug. 26 as Women’s Equality Day. This date was selected to commemorate the 1920 passage of the 19th amendment to the Constitution, which granted women suffrage.
Women’s Equality Day celebrates women’s suffrage but also brings attention to women’s continuous path towards true equality. The President is authorized and requested to issue a proclamation annually in commemoration for the struggle that continues to this day.
Both events take place at the Smithfield Community Center, 5255 Pleasant Valley Road, Peterboro.
For further updates and information, visit www.peterboroNY.org.