NYS Lieutenant Governor visits Fayetteville to signify milestone
By Hayleigh Gowans
Staff Writer
On Election Day, Nov. 7, New York State Lieutenant Governor Kathy Hochul visited the grave of Women’s Rights advocate Matilda Joslyn Gage in Fayetteville to signify 100 years of women gaining the right to vote in New York. Along with Hochul at the gravesite were Dare Thompson, president of the League Of Women Voters of New York State, and Sally Rosech Wagner, founder and executive director of the Matilda Joslyn Gage Center. They each placed a commemorative women’s suffrage centennial “I voted” sticker on Gage’s grave.
Earlier in the day, Hochul visited both Mary Burnett Talbert’s grave in Buffalo, and Susan B. Anthony’s grave in Rochester.
“This is an opportunity for us to teach fellow New Yorkers about the legacy they have inherited,” said Hochul. “All over the state there are gravesites, homes and tributes to women who help women gain the right to vote. I use this moment on the 100th anniversary of that event to honor them. Each of us has a moral responsibility to vote, particularly women, because we didn’t have that 100 years ago but we have it today.”
By the early 1800s, women in the United States and its territories were not permitted to vote. In 1848, the Women’s Rights Convention was held in Seneca Falls, New York, and throughout several decades many different figures worked to gain women’s suffrage. In 1917, women in New York State were given the right to vote, three years before women throughout the nation gained the right to vote when the 19th Amendment to the United States Constitution was ratified.
“I think when we get to know their [activist’s] story, they give us a shot in the arm. We’re not just grateful, we really need to be inspired by them because of the amount of work they put into it. Their persistence was just amazing,” said Thompson.
After the visit to the grave, a celebration at the Matilda Joslyn Gage center in Fayetteville was held in partnership with the New York State Women’s Suffrage Commission, the League of Women Voters and the YWCA of Syracuse and Onondaga County.
At the event, Hochul announced that in New York City’s Central Park, a statue commemorating women’s suffrage will be constructed, and there are plans in the works to build statues to remember women’s rights advocates in parks throughout the state. Though women now have the right to vote, Hochul discussed the need for women to continue to be involved in politics and work to continue the path towards women’s equality.
“Winning the right to vote in 1917 did not mean we [women] were equal. It’s still not that way,” said Hochul. “We have a lot of catching up to do. And what’s different between us and them [women’s rights activists] is that we have so much more at our disposal.”
Roesch Wagner spoke at the event and pointed it is often forgotten women from the local Native American Haudenosaunee Confederacy had rights within their group long before 1917. She also said some of the history to the Women’s Right movement are tied to racism, and some women’s rights advocates were only advocating for white women in politics. Going forward, she encourages this to be remembered and changed in order to empower all women in the United States.
“We have the opportunity to tell a deeper story,” said Roesch Wagner. “There’s a legacy of racism within the Women’s Rights movement and it’s a legacy we need to claim now because the healing has never taken place.”
Hochul announced the New York State Women’s Suffrage Commission will continue past this year to bring about awareness to continuing women’s rights. To learn more about the commission, go to ny.gov/programs/new-york-state-womens-suffrage-commission.
