Mayor Teri Johnston and the City Commission, during this week’s meeting, proclaimed August 26th as Women’s Equality Day.
That day marks the 101st anniversary of the 19th Amendment, which gave women the right to vote.
Darlene Lovell Thomas, President of the Key West Chapter of NOW, received the proclamation. She was joined by a number of powerful women in the community, including Monroe County Mayor Michelle Coldiron, and League of Women Voters Chapter President Marge Holtz as well as Key West Mayor Teri Johnston.
“It’s been 101 years,” said Thomas, “but not all women got the right to vote that day. Ethnic women and women of color are still fighting today.”
In fact, Native American women did not gain the right to vote until 1924, Asian Pacific Islander American women in 1952, and Black and Latin American women suffered suppression until the passage of the Voting Rights Acts of 1965 and 1975.
“The fact that today women are active in local, state and national government and are running for office in unprecedented numbers reminds us that we all follow in the footsteps of these resolute American suffragists,” reads the proclamation.