Saturday, August 26th - 1 to 2:30 pm at Kent-Delord House Museum Carriage Barn, 17 Cumberland Avenue, Plattsburgh. Program: New York State's Literacy Challenge to Voting Rights with Jackie Madison and Helen Nerska .
The public is invited to join the annual celebration of Women’s Equality Day on Saturday, August 26th, from 1 pm to 2:30 pm at the Kent-Delord House Museum Carriage Barn. Women's Equality Day was first declared on August 26, 1920, when women across the United States finally won the right to vote with the passing of the 19th Amendment which stated that one could not be denied the right to vote based on gender. The County's 2023 celebration is sponsored by the League of Women Voters of the North Country, the Clinton County Historical Association, the North Country Underground Railroad Historical Association, the Kent-Delord House Museum and the Champlain Valley Business and Professional Women (BPW).
While August 26th, 1920, was an important step in the development of U.S. voting rights, it was not the last step. Until the 1965 Bill of Rights, there were many state sanctioned restrictions imposed on voters. New York State was no different when it added a constitutional amendment in 1922 disallowing any citizen the right to vote who could not certify having the equivalent of an eighth-grade education where English was the language of instruction or pass a state sanctioned literacy test. Join the discussion of this amendment and its effect on thousands of U.S. citizens over the four decades it was enforced. The program is free.