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.

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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

Northern State University will commemorate the 100th anniversary of women’s right to vote with a celebratory march through campus, a historical speech re-enactment, and an exhibit of artifacts from the time period. 

The festivities will take place on Aug. 26, honoring the ratification of the 19th Amendment. Marchers will gather in the parking lot of Steele Hall at 12:30 p.m. and proceed to Lincoln Hall. The march will culminate at the steps of Lincoln, where NSU Theatre students Lydia Jae Saxton, Suzi Fitterer and Sydney Raap will perform a re-enactment of a speech from the era starting at about 12:50 p.m. Also that day, the League of Women Voters will be helping students register to vote from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. in the Avera Student Center. 

The Aug. 26 event is open to the public. Masks are required for indoor portions, including viewing the exhibition. Outside, participants are asked to practice social distancing. To learn more, contact NSU Executive Director of Student Success Dr. Stacie Varnson: 605-626-7781.

3 CRAFT ACTIVITIES - ANY TIME TODAY
Feeling inspired by Women’s Equality Day on Aug. 26? Try your hand at three crafts that celebrate remarkable women in the Portrait Gallery’s collection, accessible through the Smithsonian’s Learning Lab. Make a collage of Harriet Tubman, a mixed media portrait of Belva Ann Lockwood and a word portrait of Gloria Steinem and Dorothy Pitman Hughes. Happy Women’s Equality Day!

Online via the Smithsonian’s Learning Lab

All-day August 26

The Women’s Suffrage Centennial Commission has partnered with Snapchat to virtually commemorate the Forward Into Light campaign.

Starting on August 26, Snapchatters will be able to use augmented reality lenses to apply a purple and gold gradient to their surroundings and add their photos to a digital mosaic of suffragists inspired by the WSCC’s Our Story: Portraits of Change mosaic, created by artist Helen Marshall.

Virtual Lunch & Learn

The SD State Bar, Women In Law are hosting a virtual lunch and learn on August 17 at 12:30 CST. The event is centered around the 100th anniversary of Women's Suffrage in South Dakota.

US District Court Judge Karen Schreier and Molly Rozum, Associate Professor of History at USD will be present the history of the women’s' suffrage movement. The discussion will include how we can carry forward the legacy of the suffragists.

Molly Rozum, Associate Professor and Ronald R. Nelson Chair of Great Plains and South Dakota History, presents an overview of the women's suffrage movement in South Dakota with focus on the successful 1918 campaign.

Kelly Kirk, Instructor, Black Hills State University. Topic: Black Hills suffragists and suffrage activities, with a focus on Mabel Rewman.

In The Moment … June 23, 2020 Show 844 Hour 2 During this centennial year of the ratification of the 19th Amendment, which assured that women the United States have a right to vote, SDPB has embarked on a project to tell the history of suffrage in South Dakota. Today we continue our look at that history with a profile of Mabel Rewman of the Black Hills. Here to tell us more about the story is Kelly Kirk, Instructor of History and the Director of the University Honors Program at Black Hills State University.

An interview with Sara Egge author of "Woman Suffrage and Citizenship in the Midwest: 1870-1920."

In The Moment ... June 30, 2020 Show 849 Hour 1 The battle for women's suffrage in the United States was complex, controversial, and sometimes built on division instead of solidarity. Sara Egge joins In The Moment for Images of the Past. Originally from South Dakota, Egge is an Associate Professor of History at Centre College in Kentucky. She's a contributor to the book "Equality at the Ballot Box: Votes for Women on the Northern Great Plains." Egge has also authored "Woman Suffrage and Citizenship in the Midwest: 1870-1920."