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Heritage Square Museum”™s latest exhibit Their Rights and Nothing Less: A Celebration of Women”™s Suffrage runs through Sunday, September 26th.
This is the last week to see this exhibition!
Complete with original, rarely-seen ephemera from the early years of the suffrage movement, a special section of the exhibit will be dedicated entirely to the efforts of women in Los Angeles who led the fight for equality NINE years before its ratification at the National level.
This year marks the 90th anniversary of the passage of the 19th Amendment to the Constitution giving women the right for women to vote. More accurately, the language does not reference women in the affirmative; what it does is not deny the right to vote based upon gender.
The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of sex. Congress shall have power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation.
The 19th Amendment was proposed on June 4. 1919. Ratification was completed on August 18, 1920 by Tennessee, by a one-vote margin. It was certified on August 26, 1920.
Of course, the fight for women”™s rights began much, much earlier. In 1792, A Vindication of the Rights of Woman: With Strictures on Political and Moral Subjects was published by Mary Wollstonecraft, which responded to an issue even more basic and immediate than voting rights””the right””indeed the necessity for women to receive an education. Although almost inconceivable to think of now, this was considered a radical position which provoked a dramatic, although not necessarily negative, response. Starting with this simple idea, women have been fighting for equal rights ever since.
Curated by Mitzi March Mogul, Their Rights and Nothing Less takes a critical look at the incredible effort it took to gain that right and includes original artifacts from the early years of the struggle. In addition, the exhibit continues after the vote was won to look at critical issues fought and won by the women’s rights movement after. Including ephemera and artifacts from a never-before-seen private collection, the exhibit is a must for every woman…and man. The exhibit is made possible thanks to sponsors Planned Parenthood of Pasadena, 9 to 5-the National Association of Working Women, Bob Taylor Properties and the Glendale Printing Center.
Celebrating 41 years preserving and interpreting the history of Southern California, Heritage Square is a living history museum whose eight historic structures to tell the story of the development of Los Angeles like no place else.
Heritage Square Museum is open for regular tours Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays, from 12:00 PM to 4:30 PM. The exhibit is included in the museum”™s admission fee: $10/adults, $8/seniors, $5/children ages 6-12.
The Heritage Square Museum
3800 Homer Street, off the 110 Pasadena Freeway at Avenue 43, just north of downtown Los Angeles.
For further information, visit their website or their museum blog.
Report by Pauline Adamek