My friend Roberta Riley and I have been emailing back and forth about hiring actress Debbie Dimitre or perhaps actress and playwright, Rachel Atkins to perform their profound pieces about the fight for the vote (the woman’s suffrage movement) at a gathering of some sort. I was thinking we could comb the assisted living facilities for women who would like to join us and share their stories as to where they were when it was announced that women received the right to vote.
Online I found a note and picture from a story written by Sean Dobbin about Mary Hannick. Mary is remembering that day. She was 11 years old and didn’t quite grasp the significance of the occasion, but will never forget her mother’s shouts of joy.
“You’ve never heard such exhilaration as we had in our house,” said Hannick. “My mother sang every word she said that day, and when she did go to vote, she took me and my younger sister with her so we could see what it was.”
Roberta Riley said that she thinks the suffrage movement used brilliant transformative tactics that would be inspiring to progressives in these trying times of divisive politics. Hmm… Another good reason to dig up the history of emancipation.