A “Celebration of a Century, 1920 to 2020” on Friday at the Logan Tabernacle will commemorate the victory of early 20th Century suffragettes like these in winning women’s voting rights.
LOGAN – A “Celebration of a Century, 1920-2020” will be held Friday evening at the Logan Tabernacle.
The event, sponsored by the Cache Celebration of Women’s Suffrage 2020 committee, is one of numerous ongoing statewide Year of the Woman observances of the 100th anniversary of the ratification of the 19th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution in 1920.
Committee co-chair Karina Brown said that the local “Celebration of a Century” will commemorate that momentous milestone in the struggle for women’s rights with an educational exhibit, a video presentation, music, poetry and storytelling.
The storytelling portion of the hour-long program will feature Jan C. Smith, Janine Nishiguchi and Cassie Ashton portraying women’s rights pioneers Susan B. Anthony, Emmeline B. Wells and Martha Hughes Cannon respectively.
Smith, Nishiguchi and Ashton are accomplished public speakers and familiar faces at Utah storytelling festivals.
Susan B. Anthony was a prominent American social reformer born into a liberal Quaker family in 1820. She was active in the abolitionist movement prior to the U.S. Civil War and campaigned for women’s rights later in the 19th Century. In 1878, Anthony drafted the text of what would eventually be ratified as the 19th Amendment in 1920.
Emmeline B. Wells was a journalist, editor, poet and women’s rights advocate. She represented Utah at numerous 19th Century national conventions that publicized women’s rights issues, including property ownership, marriage reform and suffrage. She was also president of the Utah Woman’s Suffrage Association and editor of the influential Utah newspaper Women’s Exponent for 37 years.
Martha Hughes Cannon was a physician, politician and women’s rights activist in the late 19th Century. She played an influential role in ensuring that the state constitution adopted by Utah in 1896 guaranteed women the right to vote. She became the first American woman elected to a state senate seat that same year and later founded the Utah Board of Health.
The “Celebration of a Century” is open to the public. Admission is free. The event will begin at 7 p.m. on Friday.
Barbara Tidwell, co-chair of the Cache Celebration of Women’s Suffrage 2020, explains that this and other upcoming commemorative events are being jointly supported by the City of Logan, Cache County, the Cache Valley Bank and Utah Public Radio.
Those upcoming events highlighting the evolution of women’s rights 1920 to 2020 will include a Northern Utah Writing Contest for elementary and secondary school students, supported by video presentations and educational displays that will circulate in coming weeks; academic discussions of women’s issues under the auspices of the Tanner Symposium at Utah State University on Mar. 19 and 20; and a preview of a series of Public Broadcasting Service documentary videos entitled “Unladylike 2020” and a panel discussion at the Utah Theatre on Mar. 20.
Tidwell added that the Cache Celebration committee is also planning an event set for Aug. 26. That date, which is being observed as National Women’s Equality Day, is the 100th anniversary of the ratification of the 19th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.