Ordinary Equality: The 100th Anniversary of Women's Voting Rights

After more than two years of planning here at DAR, it’s finally here—the centennial anniversary of women’s suffrage. Although we wrote a book, designed and installed an exhibit, and made many speeches and presentations, none of our work compares to the efforts of the women who came before us. DAR members and non-members alike, thousands of women worked tirelessly for the franchise.

DAR members have celebrated this centennial throughout the past year in their communities across the country and I am sure have helped educate those around them. Today, President General Denise VanBuren will attend a ceremonial unchaining of the Justice Bell in Philadelphia in honor of the centennial. At DAR Headquarters this week we will be participating in the nationwide Forward into Light celebration coordinated by the U.S. Women's Suffrage Centennial Commission and Memorial Continental Hall facade facing 17th Street will be lit up in the historic colors of the suffrage movement: purple, white and gold.

All that hard work was just the beginning. When attention turned in earnest to the demand for voting rights many American women, led by DAR member Alice Paul, put their safety and freedom on the line and endured harrowing prison conditions. Miss Paul was inspired by the memory of her hero, DAR member Susan B. Anthony, who was arrested and charged for the crime of casting a ballot. Think of their sacrifices.

After all was said and done and women’s suffrage was safely a permanent part of the US Constitution, President General Anne Minor wrote in October 1920: “Daughters of the American Revolution … will not neglect the duty of exercising the franchise. … Herein lies a great responsibility, for use it we must; otherwise we shall fail in this the first duty of a good citizen, man or woman.”