Warren marks anniversary of women's right to vote with conversation between generations
WARREN
About 50 people gathered Tuesday afternoon in the Women’s Park, Mahoning Avenue Northwest, to celebrate Women’s Equality Day.
The event marked the 94th anniversary of the 19th Amendment, which gave women the right to vote and was ratified Aug. 26, 1920. In 1971, U.S. Rep. Bella Abzug, D-N.Y., promoted a Congressional Resolution that designated the date as Women’s Equality Day.
The keynote presentation Tuesday was a conversation between Sally Thomas, curator of Sutliff Museum, and Carole Babyak, member of the Sutliff Museum Civil War 150 Committee. Babyak, in costume of the day, and Thomas, in contemporary clothes, offered a glimpe of “Roles of Women During the Civil War.”
Babyak talked about sanitary fairs and the patriotic spirit they reflected. The fairs, she said, were fundraisers. The money benefited the welfare of Union soldiers and charitable relief organizations that helped the wounded.
Babyak also mentioned Angelina Grimke, who with her sister Sarah, was among outspoken abolitionists. What made Angelina unique, the speaker said, was the fact she was a slave and could speak to that experience. She wrote and spoke about women’s rights and equality during a time when slaves had no rights.
Thomas asked Babyak about women in the Union and Confederate Armies.
Read more about this unusual program in Wednesday's Vindicator or on Vindy.com.