“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.”
Long Beach is a robust diverse city; home, residence and workplace of women of all races, ethnicities, and identities. It is the commitment of the LB Suffrage 100 (Suffrage Circle of Women) to interpret this year of celebration to include the lives of women and women’s organizations which have worked to advance and uplift their community.
MISSION STATEMENT
The mission of the Long Beach Suffrage Circle of Women is to lift up the City
of Long Beach in a yearlong celebration acknowledging the work of all women’s
struggles for the right to vote.
VISION:
Throughout the Suffrage Centennial Celebration and long after, it is our vision that Long Beach residents will come to know their vote is precious. While researching, sharing, educating and having fun, women and girls, will discover how the vote was earned, sustained, withheld, eschewed, denied and practiced. Using the many assets and talents of Long Beach the 19th Amendment, enfranchising women, will be documented, honored and memorialized in our diverse and dynamic city. In addition, the LB Suffrage Centennial will be joining with 50 states, hundreds of cities, and the national party for the 100th Birthday of the 19th Amendment.
VALUE STATEMENT
The LB Suffrage 100, will mark the 100th Anniversary of the Ratification of the 19th Amendment and educate, memorialize and celebrate the women of Long Beach. Through events, art, panels, speakers, performances, and civic participation, the American story of race, class, citizenship, gender, immigration, political identity will be told.
This history will include the inspiration of Native American women. It will include the city’s founding families and their daughters who took roots here in Long Beach. It will reveal the important role of women’s clubs meeting in Long Beach which led to California Suffrage in 1911.
The LB Suffrage 100 embraces the Centennial of the Ratification of the 19th Amendment as an opportunity to expand the narrative of women’s suffrage; challenge preconceptions and definitions about history; and engage with the proud, conflicted, and complex realities of our shared history.
Importantly, the LB Suffrage 100 is committed to the whole story which includes the evolution of the VOTE well before and beyond August 26, 1920. Votes for Women were rolled out piecemeal over decades and continues to be withheld today. The whole story includes voting rights, civil rights, and women’s rights.
The primary principle of LB Suffrage 100 is to recognize women over the last 100 years, not only in regards to the VOTE and politics but in education, the arts, leadership and community building. This is a wide interpretation of the National Suffrage Centennial and great inspiration to the Women of the Suffrage Circle. This is the excavation of WOMEN and WOMEN’s contribution to the City of Long Beach.
100 Long Beach Women will be made visible from history, in the present and for the future.
LBSuffrage100 