24, which commemorates the adoption of the 19th Amendment. ![]() Kay noted that preserving voting and reproductive rights was the theme of this year’s Suffrage100MA’s annual Women’s Equality Day event on Aug. Yet we all must all continue to be vigilant during these times when reproductive rights are at such great risk.” “We applaud those efforts and the recent signing of the bill expanding abortion care access. “Thankfully, there’s been an enormous amount of successful work in Massachusetts by a number of organizations and legislators to ensure the protection of women’s reproductive rights and health care in Massachusetts,” she said. She said the group also wants to be part of the fight against the push to roll back reproductive rights in the wake of the Supreme Court’s June 24 decision overturning the 1973 ruling that had established a constitutional right to an abortion. Voting rights are still under attack,” said Kay, who hopes the example of the suffragists will inspire people to try and protect those rights. The organization is continuing with a focus on creating a Massachusetts women’s history center and advocating for increased voter access and other rights, according to Kay, a Needham resident. The primary event - a march on Boston Common - had to be canceled due to COVID-19. SuffrageMA100 was organized in 2010 to plan activities in Massachusetts commemorating the 2020 centennial, including the often-overlooked contributions of women of color to the suffrage movement. So for women in that era to argue that they needed a voice and should have a vote was remarkable,” she said, adding that many suffragists also embraced other social causes, including abolition and education reform. This was a time women were expected to be seen and not heard. “For women in the 1800s, equity was not even a word that was used. Kay hopes the initiative also educates people that achieving voting rights for women took more than 70 years of struggle by thousands of suffragists - and about the long road women have had to travel in seeking overall equality. “The full story of the suffrage movement is largely unknown to the general public and these markers provide an opportunity for people to learn about the people involved, to learn about suffrage events, and hopefully to inspire them to want to learn more,” said Fredie Kay, founder and president of Suffrage 100MA. Set to be installed this fall are markers for Sojourner Truth in Northampton, Maria Baldwin in Cambridge, and Sarah Wall in Worcester, according to Michelle Juralewicz, program coordinator for Suffrage100MA, which is coordinating the marker project in Massachusetts. The Massachusetts markers also include one unveiled June 23 in Salem honoring the Remonds, a prominent free Black family that was active in the suffrage as well as abolitionist movements. An initiative of the National Collaborative for Women’s History Sites, the trail commemorates the centennial in 2020 of the adoption of the 19th Amendment guaranteeing women voting rights, and includes the creation of a digital database of more than 2,000 historical sites associated with the suffrage movement. More than 200 markers - five in Massachusetts - are being installed through the National Votes for Women Trail. ”We really need to show young women what their predecessors went through to ensure them equal rights, and how those rights can easily be lost.” Wade - to ban or sharply limit the right to an abortion. “I think it’s extremely timely,” she said, noting the efforts in many states to restrict voting access and - in the wake of the Supreme Court’s recent decision overturning Roe v. ![]() ![]() Sheila Cooke-Kayser, volunteer chair of educational programming for the Danvers Historical Society, is excited Page - and others who toiled for women’s suffrage - are earning recognition. Largely forgotten today, Page’s contributions to the suffrage movement and women’s equality are being brought to life as a result of an historical marker unveiled in May outside her former home, one of a series of such memorials being installed nationally to commemorate people, places, and events important to women gaining the right to vote.
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