Live from the Museum

Students are invited to celebrate the First Amendment and the Civil Rights Movement during a virtual tour of the National Constitution Center’s newest gallery, The First Amendment. Protecting some of our most cherished freedoms—religious liberty, free speech, a free press, the freedom of assembly, and the right to petition—the First Amendment is a pillar of democracy and the American way. Take a closer look at how leaders of the Civil Rights Movement used the First Amendment to create constitutional change. 

Tuesday, January 23 | 11 am CT

Run time: 45 minutes

Click here to register via Zoom

Students are invited to join the National Constitution Center via Zoom for a celebration of student voices in the Civil Rights Movement. Together discover the stories of students who insisted on equality for all and how their actions shaped our constitutional history. 

Tuesday, January 19 | 11 am CT

Run time: 20 minutes

Live ASL Interpretation Available

Click here to register via Zoom

Participants will focus on separation of powers and how the Constitution set up a system of checks and balances between the different branches of government. There will also be conversations around Federalism and the debate over how to balance the powers of the national government, the powers of the states, and the rights of individuals. Professor Aziz Z. Huq of The University of Chicago Law School join the conversation. 

Wednesday, January 17 | 5:30–7 p.m. CT

Click here to register via Zoom

Sponsored by The National Constitution Center

Join in Thursday, February 24 from 12-1 pm CST for a conversation about the American Women Quarters™ Program with members of the team that helped bring this coin program to life. Representatives from the United States Mint, the National Women's History Museum (NWHM), and the Smithsonian Institution will discuss the new Maya Angelou Quarter—the first coin released in this historic coin program—and the American Women's Quarters™️ Program.

Click here to register.

Attendees will get a behind-the-scenes look at various aspects of the program, from the honoree selection process to the development and selection of each coin design. Don't miss this inspiring event from the National Women’s History Museum!

Join National Women’s History Museum and author Karen M. Greenwald for a live reading with Q&A of her book, A Vote For Susanna: The First Woman Mayor.

Time: 11:00am - 11:45am CT

Free event - register here

In 1887 the state of Kansas gave women the right to vote in municipal elections. But some men in the city of Argonia, Kansas didn’t think women should have a say in choosing their next mayor, so they put a woman on the ballot—as a joke. That woman was Susanna Salter—and soon the men would find the joke was on them! Narrated by a grandmother who remembered what happened on that election day, this is the true story of a woman who stood up for her right to vote and accomplished so much more.

The National Women’s History Museum strives to provide programs that are accessible to all visitors. For questions, or to request accommodations such as an ASL interpreter or captioning, please email history@womenshistory.org at least 7 days in advance of the program.

About the Author:

Karen M. Greenwald worked as a policy analyst for a presidential campaign, founded an internationally award-winning brand strategy boutique, and has written articles appearing in print, online, and in The Washington Post before turning to children's books. Karen belongs to SCBWI, 12x12, and co-founded #SunWriteFun—a popular NF summer contest that raises money for kidlit charities. Her debut picture book, A VOTE FOR SUSANNA, THE FIRST WOMAN MAYOR (Albert Whitman) launches in October 2021. It has been ranked on Amazon’s government kidlit Hot New Releases list since appearing for pre-order in February.

Time Oct 20, 2021 01:00 PM Central Time

Register here

Free speech faces increasingly complex and urgent tests, many centered on hostile or hateful expression and how, or if, it should be moderated.

A new Freedom Forum survey, “The First Amendment: Where America Stands,” found Americans almost evenly split over whether to prioritize protecting free speech or preventing hate speech.

Hear how even the experts disagree on key First Amendment issues and empower your own view — or change your mind.

“The First Amendment: Where America Stands” surveyed more than 3,000 Americans across geographic, demographic and ideological lines on their attitudes about the freedoms of religion, speech, press, assembly and petition.

First Five Live is a Freedom Forum conversation that explores topical issues and features current newsmakers who are using the five freedoms of the First Amendment to guide their work

Join National Women’s History Museum and author Delanda Coleman for a special Halloween-themed reading of her book, More Than a Princess, with Q&A to follow.

Time: 11:00am - 11:45am CT

Free event - register here

Princess Kiana was lying in bed. ‘Life in the castle is boring!’ she said. ‘I’ve got many things, but I need something more. There’s so much out there I have yet to explore.” Follow Kiana’s magical journey as she’ll explore all the things a girl can achieve. Guided by her fairy godmother, Kiana will discover that life is more than pretty things and fancy castles.

Delanda and Terrence Coleman are the authors of this charming tale, aiming to show girls around the world all they can achieve in the areas of science, technology, engineering, art, and math (STEAM). Through the lens of an African American princess, they offer the reader a rhyming kids’ book that showcases careers for girls in a modern way.

The National Women’s History Museum strives to provide programs that are accessible to all visitors. For questions, or to request accommodations such as an ASL interpreter or captioning, please email history@womenshistory.org at least 7 days in advance of the program.

About the Author:

Delanda Coleman has spent over fifteen years as a leader in Product Marketing for some of the world’s largest and innovative software companies, including Microsoft and Vimeo. Inspired by the birth of her daughter, she and her husband, Terrence, began writing books to expose children of color to science, technology, engineering, art, and math (STEAM). Together, they created Sydney and Coleman LLC, a media and publishing company, to create educational tools that enable parents to embrace and teach STEAM concepts to their children at home with confidence.

A native and resident of Boston, MA, Delanda holds a Masters in Business Administration (MBA) from New York University and a Bachelors from Northeastern University. She is an avid reader and world traveler.

You can follow her on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter at @MsDelanda or learn more about her at SydneyandColeman.com.‌ ‌ ‌

Today is National Voter Registration Day. Treat yourself to a My Vote. My Voice. T-shirt.

When ordering, remember that these t-shirts run small. Order today and wear your shirt when you go to the polls.

Help us to register South Dakotans to vote.

National Voter Registration Day is celebrated every year on the fourth Tuesday of September.

First celebrated in 2012, it is a nonpartisan civic holiday that celebrates our democracy, and one that involves the collective efforts of thousands of volunteers, nonprofit organizations, businesses, schools, libraries, election officials, and more from all over the country.

This year, National Voter Registration Day will take place on September 28 with a goal is to register 1 million new voters by 2022, reaching a total of 5.5 million new voters that have registered on the holiday across all fifty states and the District of Columbia since 2012.

Sponsored by nationalvoterregistrationday.org

by National Women's History Museum

Join the National Women's History Museum on Sunday, September 19 at 3 p.m. EDT as we honor Justice Ginsburg one year after her death. Amanda L. Tyler, who co-authored Justice, Justice Thou Shalt Pursue: A Life’s Work Fighting for a More Perfect Union (University of California Press, March 16, 2021) with the formidable Ginsburg will be joined on the virtual stage by Dr. Melissa Murray, Frederick I. and Grace Stokes Professor of Law at NYU School of Law for a conversation that honors Ginsburg's legacy of breaking barriers, fighting for gender equality, and inspiring multiple generations of women to pursue their dreams and the power of the ballot.

Register Here

A Vote for Women will be launched on Wednesday, March 31, 2021, at 1 pm CST through a high-profile digital event. This official book launch will encompass a series of speakers and a Q&A session, and invitees have been drawn from government, politics, education, business, and the non-profit sector. A full event program will be made available here shortly. 

To attend this event, please register by March 29, 2021.

To mark the 100th anniversary of the ratification of the 19th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, which provided a constitutional right to vote by prohibiting voter discrimination against women, the 2020 Women's Vote Centennial Initiative (WVCI), together with publisher St James’s House, is launching A Vote for Women: Celebrating the Women’s Suffrage Movement and the 19th Amendment. 

We Did It For You! Women's Journey Through History tells the story of how women got their rights in the United States. With catchy musical numbers and a dash of comic relief, this highly entertaining and educational musical is a must-see for teens and adults.

An entertaining and quick tour of women's journey through history, starting with the struggle women had in the 17th century Puritan Revolution through to our 21st century empowered women politicians. Hear great speeches and listen to first-hand stories of why women persevered against so many obstacles so that we can have our rights including the right to vote.

This is a free virtual event. Please RSVP by making a reservation for your seats.

Sponsored by Framingham Public Library. This program is supported in part by a grant from the Framingham Local Cultural Council, a local agency which is supported by the Mass Cultural Council, a state agency.

Women everywhere have left their mark on each of our personal histories. They’ve inspired, encouraged, and paved the way forward and it’s time we know their name. Help us tell their stories by giving them a voice through the Know Her Story Art & Essay Contest, sponsored by Her Vote. Her Voice. and the South Dakota Historical Society Foundation.

Write an original essay or create an original piece of art about a South Dakota woman who made an impact. The creative work should address who the woman is, what she did, what impact this had on those around her, and why we should know her story.

This contest is brought to you by Lawrence & Schiller, BankWest, and First PREMIER Bank/PREMIER Bankcard, Education and Advocacy Partners of Her Vote. Her Voice.

CLICK FOR MORE INFORMATION

DEADLINE MARCH 26, 2021

A joint Schell History Lecture and Gunderson Lecture in honor of Women's History Month

Sponsored by the Department of History with support from the Knudson School of Law, Office for Diversity. Center for Diversity & Community. University of South Dakota Libraries, and Women, Gender & Sexuality Studies Program.

Speaker: Professor Martha S. Jones

Professor Martha S. Jones is the Society of Black Alumni Presidential Professor and Professor of History at The Johns Hopkins University. She is a legal and cultural historian whose work examines how Black Americans have shaped the story of American democracy.

Register to receive the Zoom link

When Vice President Kamala Harris invoked six women from the past in August 2020. she explained it was on their shoulders that she stood: Mary Church Terrell. Ida B. Wells. Mary Mcleod Bethune. Diane Nash. Fannie Lous Hamer. and Constance Baker Motley. Harris is the inheritor of these women of the Vanguard. For them. the 19th Amendment was a milestone but not a victory. When we appreciate what an open secret Black women's disenfranchisement was in 1920. the facts of the 19th Amendment fit awkwardly with events that feature tight shows. period costumes. and marching bands. Members of Congress who promulgated the 19th Amendment. state lawmakers who ratified it. and suffragists themselves alt understood that nothing in its terms prohibited states from strategically using poll taxes. literacy tests. and understanding tests to keep Black women from registering to vote. Nothing in the new amendment promised to curb the intimidation and violence that threatened Black women who came out to polling places. Voting rights and voter suppression went hand in hand in 1920. Out of the ashes of these scenes. Black women built a new movement for voting rights. one that took them 45 years. until 1965. when they won passage of the Voting Rights Act.

For more information about Martha S. Jones, visit marthasjones.com and ccmntspeakers.com/project/martha-jones

Join internationally exhibited artist, filmmaker, and writer Mariam Ghani for a virtual conversation about two of her upcoming projects developed around the 100th anniversary of the 1918 pandemic. Watch clips from the film DIS-EASE, which examines themes of illness, otherness, and invasion. Then enjoy the short The Fire Next Time. This film traces the connection between epidemics and social upheaval from the 1800s to the present. Ghani is joined in conversation by Saisha Grayson, time-based media curator at the Smithsonian American Art Museum, and Sabrina Sholts, the eruptions curator of biological anthropology at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History. Learn more about Ghani’s films, Sholts’s 2018 exhibit Outbreak: Epidemics in a Connected World, and how past health crises inform how we navigate COVID-19’s impact on our individual lives and societal landscapes. Ghani’s documentary What We Left Unfinished (2019) is also available for viewing on the Women Filmmakers Virtual Festival webpage from Monday, March 15, to Sunday, March 22. Questions and comments submitted by viewers about this film will be discussed during this virtual program.

This program is made possible by the Smithsonian American Women’s History Initiative, Because of Her Story, and is co-presented with the National Museum of Natural History. The South Dakota State Historical Society is an Affiliate partner of the Smithsonian.

Wednesday, March 17, 4:30 p.m. CST

Register Now

Time: 11:45 AM - 1:00 PM (MDT)
Registration Deadline: 3/16/21 11:30 AM (MDT)
Kelly Kirk, Instructor of History at Black Hills State University, will be the guest speaker for a special presentation celebrating Women's History Month.

Women In Networking (WIN) is an organization for women in business that provides an opportunity to widen their professional networks and promote your business and network with other women. WIN connects women, familiarizes participants with other businesses and/or upcoming events, and supports the SD CEO Women's Business Center.

Register today >>>

Women’s Film and Video from the Smithsonian - National Museum of African Art

Mourning is often a private, isolating experience. But when the occasions for grief stem from larger social forces, individual pain begins to intersect with the public and the global. Such is the case in the work of Zina Saro-Wiwa, which addresses mourning in response to state violence. The daughter of Nigerian activist and martyr Ken Saro-Wiwa, the artist was born in Nigeria, educated in England, and now lives between Los Angeles and Port Harcourt, Nigeria. It was when living in Brooklyn, NY that she, like so many other immigrants, came to terms with what she had lost in her country of birth. In the video “Sarogua Mourning” (11:37 min, 2011)--an incoming acquisition to the National Museum of African Art--we see Saro-Wiwa attempt to cry for her father for the first time since his murder. Join us for a screening of this important work followed by a conversation between the artist and curator Karen E. Milbourne.

 This program is part of  “Viewfinder: Women’s Film and Video from the Smithsonian,”  a monthly virtual film screening and conversation series sponsored by the Smithsonian American Women’s History Initiative, Because of Her Story. The South Dakota State Historical Society is an Affiliate partner of the Smithsonian.

This first sequence of selected works reflects on interiority—a particularly timely topic during this global pandemic. Visit WomensHistory.si.edu for more information about upcoming events in this screening series.

Register For This Event

Join renowned Chilean American artist Cecilia Vicuña for a virtual conversation about her work that explores the deep histories, coastal traditions, and the ecology of her homeland of Chile. Enjoy two short video artworks, Seed Song (2015) and Un nudo vivo/ A Living Knot (2017), featuring artistic rituals for healing human-environment relations. Vicuña is joined in conversation by Amalia Cordova, Latino curator for digital and emerging media at the Smithsonian’s Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage, and Saisha Grayson, time-based media curator at the Smithsonian American Art Museum. Vicuña’s film Kon Kon (2010) is also available for viewing on the Women Filmmakers Virtual Festival webpage from Monday, March 1, to Sunday, March 7. Questions and comments submitted by viewers about the film will be discussed during this virtual program.

This program is made possible by the Smithsonian American Women’s History Initiative, Because of Her Story, and is co-presented with the Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage. The South Dakota State Historical Society is an Affiliate partner of the Smithsonian.

Wednesday, March 3, 4:30 p.m. CST

Register now

ABC News will kick off Women’s History Month with a new podcast In Plain Sight: Lady Bird Johnson. Best Case Studios is co-producing the program hosted by author Julia Sweig.

The series draws from more than 123 hours of the former first lady’s daily audio diaries. Sweig is the author of a new book on Claudia Alta “Lady Bird” Johnson that will be released in March.

The first two episodes drop on March 1.

Make your voice count. Vote for a presidential candidate as well as ballot measures at the state and local level.

When are Polling Places Open? Polls are open from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. local time.

For more information click arrows. >>>

Exercise your vote and your voice at the polls by voting in local and national elections all day.

Zoom discussion - no charge
Sunday, October 25 at 2PM CT / 1PM MT

Dr. Claire Jerry, lead curator of political history in the Division of Political and Military History at the Smithsonian National Museum of American History, will present via Zoom on women’s suffrage. The program is courtesy of the Museum of the South Dakota State Historical Society.   

Those interested should email Museum Director Jay Smith (Jay.Smith@state.sd.us) in advance of the program to receive a direct invitation to join the call. 

 Jerry will present from her office in Washington, D.C. Attendees will be able to ask questions via chat at the end of the presentation.    The program will feature people and materials important to the suffrage movement. The number of suffragists who are household names is small, and their material history has been even more hidden. While acknowledging the famous, this presentation will introduce additional suffrage activists whose contributions should be remembered and the objects they used on their way to victory.   

Brought to you by Black Hills State University
This event is a celebration of the 100th anniversary since the passing of the 19th Amendment which is when women started having the right to vote. You will learn about some of the historical women and events that have fueled the progress of women's rights over the last 100 years. We will also shed light on the progress yet to be made and empower you to take action.

Date: Friday, October 23, 2020
Time: 1PM to 5:30PM MST
Join via Zoom
Cost: $10

REGISTER >>>
This item will be available for purchase until October 22, 2020 at 11:56 PM MST

Our friends at the Minnesota Historical Society present Allan Lichtman of American University.

Lichtman will explore how Americans have fought and died for the right to vote yet the world’s oldest continuously operating democracy guarantees the franchise to no one, not even citizens.

This lack of universal voting rights originated in a crucial mistake by America’s founders: omitting a right to vote from the Constitution and leaving the franchise to the discretion of individual states. The battles for the vote from the founding to the present, show that today our voting rights are in greater jeopardy than at any time in recent years.

Free, advanced registration required. Join via Zoom.

GET TICKETS >>>

Our neighbors, the Minnesota Historical Society, presents the Live Virtual Lecture "The Murky Past and Contested Future of the Electoral College" with OAH Distinguished Lecturer Rosemarie Zagarri.

Zagarri, of George Mason University, will discuss the origins of the Electoral College as a jerrybuilt compromise, devised by the framers of the Constitution, that satisfied no one completely.

Free, advanced registration required.

GET TICKETS >>>

Facebook Live session with Sara Frankenstein 12:30PM CT | 11:30 PM MT Click arrows to go to Her Vote. Her Voice. Facebook page. Click on Facebook Live session at 12:30 CT. >>>

To vote in U.S. elections, you must be a U.S. citizen, turn 18 on or before Election Day, and meet South Dakota’s residency and registration requirements. Attorney, Sara Frankenstein, partner of Gunderson, Palmer, Nelson & Ashmore, LLP, will share information about voting. You may be surprised at some of the voting facts that she will share.

Election Day is Tuesday, November 3, 2020. South Dakota allows any voter to request a ballot by mail. You can also vote in person. South Dakota offers early voting.

Vote on Election Day

Voters registered in South Dakota can look up where to vote on South Dakota's site.

Vote early

South Dakota voters can also vote before Election Day through a process called absentee in-person voting. The period for absentee in-person voting runs from Friday, September 18, 2020 to Monday, November 2, 2020, but dates and hours may vary based on where you live.

The South Dakota Hall of Fame will be inducting its 2020 class, two members being Her Vote. Her Voice.’s delegate Katherine Kinsman and our SD suffragist Mamie Pyle. Tune in online on the Hall of Fame Facebook page and SD Public Broadcasting to watch the event.

Click the arrows to watch the event. >>>

Each year, up to ten outstanding South Dakotans are inducted into the Hall of Fame for their achievements that inspire our youth, lead the generations, and build our future. The Honors Ceremony is held every year to celebrate and recognize these individuals as they are inducted into the South Dakota Hall of Fame.

The stories of inductees are from all corners of the state and differ by gender, race, political orientation, vocation, and avocation. What they have in common is their pursuit and achievements of excellence. Their induction into the Hall of Fame is just the first step in honoring and sharing what they have accomplished. Their stories are archived, digitized, and shared through the Hall’s unique programs to serve as inspiration and motivation, especially in helping young people understand their potential.