Throughout 2020, the Women’s Suffrage Centennial Commission told the story of women’s fight for the vote through our signature projects, campaigns, and initiatives. From podcasts to statues, the WSCC celebrated the legacy of the suffragists with Americans nationwide.
Read the WSCC Agency Report, watch the WSCC Legacy Video, and explore below to discover the commemorative efforts of the Commission and our partners.
national women’s suffrage month
As the centerpiece of our centennial commemorations, the Commission worked with the U.S. Congress to designate August 2020 as National Women's Suffrage Month. The Senate designated this month-long celebration through S.Res.648, led by Senators Tammy Baldwin (D-WI) and Susan Collins (R-ME) and sponsored by all 26 women senators. Congresswomen Debbie Lesko (R-AZ) and Brenda Lawrence (D-MI), co-chairs of the Bipartisan Women’s Caucus, led the designation effort in the House, securing the passage of H.Res.1046.
To recognize National Women’s Suffrage Month, the Commission and its partners held suffrage-inspired programming throughout August to spark a national dialogue about the history of women’s fight for the vote and the legacy of the suffrage movement. Each week's programming focused on a unique theme: Educate, Activate, Celebrate, and Inspire.
The Commission and the Workhouse Arts Center, the historic site where the suffragists were imprisoned for picketing the White House in 1917, partnered to present the Bold Women in History Film Series during Drive-In Thursdays at the Workhouse in Lorton, Virginia throughout August 2020.
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The WSCC partnered with the Nashville based all-female singer-songwriter collective, Song Suffragettes, to host livestreamed weekly performances from The Listening Room every Monday in August at 7pm (ET) in celebration of the centennial. Enjoy the inspiring musical stylings of some local Nashville legends-in-the-making!
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The Herstory Time digital storytelling series brought the history of women’s fight for the vote to families and little learners across the country with WSCC Commissioners, Members of Congress, and suffrage history leaders reading children’s suffrage history books.
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Throughout National Women's Suffrage Month, the Commission shared "snapshots" of suffrage history with signature whiteboard animation videos. The series told the story of women’s fight for the vote in quick and engaging one-minute history lessons.
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On August 7, 2020, the Commission held a watch party on Youtube of the remastered PBS documentary One Woman, One Vote in partnership with the nonprofit 2020 One Woman One Vote Festival. Over 200+ viewers tuned in live for the screening.
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On August 11, the Commission launched a challenge to transcribe original suffrage documents in partnership with the Library of Congress.
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On August 13, the Commission sat down with leaders of the National Votes for Women Trail during a virtual brown bag lunch, titled “Become a Trailblazer: Uncovering the Whole Story of Women’s Suffrage.”
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On August 17, the Commission presented a live virtual event in partnership with Twitter titled "Women’s Fight for the Vote: Celebrating 100 Years of the 19th Amendment." The keynote event featured a discussion between Elaine Weiss, author of The Woman’s Hour: The Great Fight to Win the Vote, and former Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton.
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On August 18, 1920, Tennessee became the 36th and final state needed to ratify the 19th Amendment. 100 years later, on August 18, 2020, the Commission celebrated this critical milestone of American democracy with virtual events and commemorations from 9am ET-12:30pm ET, with over 1,000 viewers tuning in on Youtube, Facebook, and Twitter to honor the state that brought women’s suffrage across the finish line.
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In partnership with the Women's Suffrage Centennial Commission, the U.S. Mint released the 2020 Women’s Suffrage Centennial Silver Medal and Silver Dollar on August 18, 2020.
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The fight for the vote went beyond lobbying politicians with letter writing campaigns. Suffragists of the early 20th century transformed the controversial and polarizing idea of women’s suffrage to appeal to the masses. How did they do it?
On August 20, the Commission presented a keynote conversation between Mary Anne Carter, Chairman of the National Endowment for the Arts, and Pam Breaux, President and CEO of the National Assembly of State Arts Agencies, about the Endowment’s new book, Creativity and Persistence: Art that Fueled the Fight for Women’s Suffrage.
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From August 24-29, 2020, the Commission sponsored a 1,000-square-foot mosaic of the iconic suffragist and civil rights leader, Ida B. Wells, in the Main Hall of Washington, D.C.’s Union Station.
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On August 24, 2020, the White House unveiled Building the Movement: America’s Youth Celebrate 100 Years of Women’s Suffrage, an art exhibit presented by the Office of the White House Curator in partnership with the Office of the First Lady, with support from the Commission.
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On August 26, 2020, exactly 100 years after the 19th Amendment was fully certified into the Constitution, the Commission held a full day of centennial commemorations, including an all-women skydiving demonstration in New York City, a women-led Air Force flyover across the nation’s capital, and a suffrage centennial themed baseball game at Nationals Park.
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The Commission partnered with federal, state, and local leaders to illuminate the country in the historic suffrage colors, purple and gold, on August 26, 2020.
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The Commission, the U.S. Capitol Historical Society, and the Kluge Center at the Library of Congress joined together for a six-part suffrage symposium, which launched August 27. Each week for six weeks, the symposium featured a panel discussion between the country's leading suffrage scholars exploring the impact of the 19th Amendment on women's political participation in the United States.
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For our online series “The Suff Buffs: Your Not So Average Herstory Series,” the WSCC brought together leading suffrage authors and historians to create an unparalleled anthology of suffrage literature. On August 31, those articles were published together digitally as a free, one-of-a-kind-book entitled On Their Shoulders: The Radical Stories of Women’s Fight for the Vote.
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Public Art Projects
Only 8 percent of monuments and memorials in the United States represent women’s role in American history, and through the creation of memorials, statues, monuments, and murals, the Commission is committed to public art, to telling the stories of the suffrage movement in ways that make women's history visible and accessible, and to ensuring that this history is taught, told, and remembered for the next 100 years.
The Turning Point Suffragist Memorial Association, in partnership with the Commission, is building a national memorial dedicated to the generations of bold women who fought for the vote. The site of the memorial is in Occoquan Regional Park in Lorton, Virginia, on part of the historic prison grounds where suffragists went to jail for picketing outside the White House in 1917. Turning Point is expected to be unveiled in 2021.
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The Commission permanently loaned statues of suffragists Lucy Burns and Dora Lewis to the Lucy Burns Museum at the Workhouse Arts Center in Lorton, Virginia. Today, the Workhouse Arts Center is a dynamic, multi-use artistic space, but in 1917, it was the site of the Occoquan Workhouse, where dozens of suffragists were imprisoned for picketing the White House in support of women's right to vote.
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The Commission has partnered with the Town of Seneca Falls for a one-of-a-kind commemorative centennial statue that will bring to life the earliest chapters in the story of women’s fight for the vote.
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In 2019, the Commission joined forces with the National Votes for Women Trail, led by the National Collaborative for Women’s History Sites, to support their initiative to place at least 250 historic roadside markers at significant suffrage history sites in all 50 states.
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The Commission and the National Endowment for the Arts partnered to create a public art grant program that has provided $25,000 in funding to each of the nation's six regional arts organizations that together represent all 50 states and U.S. territories. Those are Arts Midwest, Mid-America Arts Alliance, Mid Atlantic Arts Foundation, New England Foundation for the Arts, South Arts, and the Western States Arts Federation.
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The Commission permanently loaned statues of Tennessee legislator Joe Hanover and suffragist and civil rights leader Ida B. Wells to the Equality Trailblazers Monument in Memphis, Tennessee. Hanover ensured that the 19th Amendment came to a vote in Tennessee in August 1920, and Wells started her career as a journalist and activist in Memphis. The monument will open to the public December 2020.
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The Commission hired South Carolina-based artist Sunny Mullarkey to create artwork honoring women's long battle for the ballot and the generations of activists who led the way toward equality.
The mural depicts suffrage leaders Carrie Chapman Catt, Mary Church Terrell, Alice Paul, and Ida B. Wells amid silhouettes of marching suffragists. The portraits of these trailblazing women are surrounded by 36 yellow roses, a symbol of the victory of the movement. At the center of the piece stands a mythological woman, inspired by historic suffrage artwork, holding a banner with the words "Equality for All."
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The Commission worked with Members of Congress to ensure that all Americans will be inspired by the radical women who waged and won the battle for the ballot through the Every Word We Utter Monument. The monument depicts Susan B. Anthony, Elizabeth Cady Stanton and her daughter Harriot Stanton Blatch, Sojourner Truth, Alice Paul, and Ida B. Wells.
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Educational Programs
Through blogs, books, exhibits, and panel discussions, the Commission found creative ways to share suffrage history in all its complexity with millions of Americans across the country.
The Women’s Suffrage Centennial Commission amplified the stories of the suffrage movement through brand new suffrage history podcasts for all ages!
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The Suff Shop, the Commission's online webstore dedicated to creating original and historical suffrage centennial merchandise, was an essential tool in the Commission's mission to educate and inspire.
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To lift women out of the footnotes of history and into our collective American story during the suffrage centennial, the Commission brought together leading suffrage historians to compile new scholarship on women’s fight for the vote. This series of blog articles, titled “The Suff Buffs: Your Not So Average Herstory Series,” provided an unparalleled anthology of suffrage literature available free-of-charge on the Commission’s website.
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In 2020, the Commission partnered with the American Library Association (ALA) to send children's suffrage history books to libraries across the United States, ensuring that the story of women's fight for the vote is accessible to learners and future changemakers in diverse communities nationwide.
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Through support from the Commission, the National Archives provided 2,500 free popup displays, titled Rightfully Hers, to schools and cultural institutions nationwide in honor of the 100th anniversary of the 19th Amendment and women’s constitutional right to vote.
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The Commission partnered with Pasadena Celebrates 2020, an initiative of the National Women’s History Alliance, to support the group’s suffrage centennial float in the New Year’s Day Rose Parade® on January 1, 2020.
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On February 3, 2020, the Commission launched its Trailblazing Book Fairies initiative in celebration of Black History Month. In partnership with The Book Fairies and The Little Free Library, two nonprofits focused on providing communities with free books, the Commission placed 120 books about Black suffragists throughout the nation’s capital for community members to discover.
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Early in 2020, the Commission partnered with playwright Mat Smart, Phoenix Theater in Indianapolis, Indiana, Riverside Theater in Iowa City, Iowa, and Theatre Horizon in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania to sponsor special live performances for students of The Agitators, which tells the story of the friendship between abolitionists and suffragists Susan B. Anthony and Frederick Douglass.
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The Commission partnered with the Berkshire Conference of Women Historians to provide a behind-the-scenes look into Washington, D.C.’s suffrage centennial exhibitions.
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The Library of Congress held its 20th annual National Book Festival through virtual stages from September 25-27. The all-digital format allowed attendees to experience events from their homes, and they could choose to follow “Timely Topic Threads” through specific online portals. The Commission sponsored the “Fearless Women” thread featuring 24 authors during 20 programs.
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The Commission partnered with the National Archives and Women's Vote Centennial Initiative for a virtual program on October 22, 2020 reflecting on the diversity and depth of centennial commemorations around the country and the ways in which the suffragists fought for equality and continue to inspire American leaders and changemakers towards a more perfect democracy.
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The Commission partnered with the Girl Scouts of the United States of America to commemorate 100 years of the 19th Amendment through a special Votes for Women 1920-2020 Patch.
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Explore more of the Commission’s educational programs, including an educational video series with the Smithsonian Institution, a centennial motorcycle ride, and more!
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