Why Not in Vermont? The Long Campaign for Woman Suffrage in Vermont, a talk by Marilyn Blackwell, Ph.D. will be presented on Wed. Oct. 19 at 7 pm at the Hardwick Town House at 127 Church Street in Hardwick. Did you know that Vermont didn't ratify the 19th Amendment which gave women the vote until more than a year after national ratification?
In 1908, members of the Vermont Equal Suffrage Association noted, "Women Vote for President in Wyoming, Colorado, Utah and Idaho, Why Not in Vermont?" In a state with a long history of respect for individual rights, why were Vermont lawmakers resistant to women's voting rights? Through the stories of three Vermont suffragists, Lyn Blackwell will outline the shifting debate over women's full citizenship from the 1850s until 1920.
Two years ago, was the 100th Anniversary of the passage of 19th Amendment which gave women the right to vote. Women's rights are on the line today.
Blackwell co-authored a biography of Clarina Howard Nichols of Brattleboro. Nichols was a journalist, lobbyist and public speaker involved in all three of the major reform movements of the mid-19th century: temperance, abolition, and the women's movement. Blackwell has published many articles on nineteenth-century women and the social history of Vermont. Her most recent article, "Vermont and the Equal Rights Amendments: A Case against Exceptionalism," appeared in Vermont History in Summer/Fall 2019. She is currently researching the woman suffrage campaign in Vermont.
The program is sponsored by the Friends of the Jeudevine Library. The Hardwick Town House is at 127 Church Street in Hardwick. For more information call 472-5948.