Women’s Equality Day celebrated in Warren

Group celebrates Women’s equality day in Warren

By LINDA M. LINONIS

linonis@vindy.com

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 the 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. Babyak responded that the first U.S. Navy nurses were African-American midwives who served on the USS Red Rover. “They were sought out because they could stand the sight of blood,” Babyak said, adding that Sisters of the Holy Cross also were aboard the ship.

The presenters also mentioned: Harriet Tubman, who escaped slavery to become an abolitionist; Mary Bowser, a freed slave who served as a Union spy during the Civil War; and Clara Barton, founder of the Red Cross, who collected bandages, food and clothing during the Civil War for soldiers.

Monique Franklin, in the role of Sojourner Truth, performed the African-American abolitionist and women’s rights activist’s speech, “Ain’t I a Woman.” Truth’s speech on gender inequalities was delivered in 1851 at the Ohio Women’s Rights Convention in Akron.

Mayor Doug Franklin presented proclamations to the sponsoring organizations. “The cause of women’s rights is ultimately the cause of human rights,” he said, adding that the struggle for equality continues today.

Patriotic tunes were sung by Chord of Appeals — Sherry Mills, Jo Ulery, Lana Opel and Kathy Grischow.

Sponsors were the League of Women Voters of Trumbull County, Upton Association, Warren Civic League, Warren Junior Women’s League and Warren City Federation of Women’s Clubs. Refreshments were provided by sponsors and Salvation Army Women’s Auxiliary Canteen.