Saturday, August 14. 3-5 p.m.
HARD WON, NOT DONE: VOTING MATTERS
State House Lawn, 115 State Street, Montpelier

HARD WON, NOT DONE: VOTING MATTERS

The Vermont Suffrage Centennial Alliance invites you to join us on Saturday August 14 as we recognize a historic moment in the women suffrage movement, the right to vote.

Our program, "Hard Won, Not Done: Voting Matters," centers on voting and voting rights – the history, the struggles, the vigilance necessary to preserve this right. The event coalesces around four themes: non-citizen voting, enfranchisement, queer inclusion, and municipal voting.

Our keynote speaker, Annette Gordon-Reed, is a Pulitzer Prize and National Book Award-winning historian and author of "The Hemingses of Monticello: An American Family." Her talk, titled "Voting in Texas—156 Years of Struggle," explores what happened after Black Texans got the right to vote on Juneteenth 1865, denial of those rights during the South's period of redemption, and the fight for voting rights that still exists today. A native of Texas, Gordon-Reed grew up in the racially segregated town of Conroe and was the first child to integrate the town's all-white school.

OUR GUEST SPEAKERS
- Mia Schultz (Bennington), president of the Rutland-area NAACP, serves as MC and will speak on the importance of voting in municipal elections.

- Melody Mackin (nee Walker Brook), opens the event with a land dedication and discusses Native American Voting Rights.

- Nicole Nelson (Burlington), of "Dwight & Nicole" provides musical entertainment.

- Hussein Amuri (Winooski) and Tyler Hedding (East Montpelier) will read personal essays on non-citizen voting and "The ForThe People Act."

- Ferene Paris Meyer (Burlington) recites her poem, "Ferene Existing While Black."

- Dr. Jean Szvila (Winooski,) dedicated to making good trouble, will speak on LGBQTIA Inclusion.

- Cynthia Cagle (South Burlington) will work on her latest creation, The Light of Truth Upon Them, a painting that celebrates women and the vote.

Registration: Eventbrite: bit.ly/HardOneNotDone.

Rain Location: House Chamber at the State House.

For your convenience, here is a checklist of items you may want to bring with you:
- A lawn chair.
- A picnic blanket. If it hasn't rained recently, you could bring a picnic blanket to sit on instead of a chair.
- Water. There will be no beverages available, so please be sure to bring water to stay hydrated.