Women’s History Month

Today marks the last day of Women’s History Month, and it’s important to remember that there’s been some progress over the past century, but true equality proves ever elusive.

Emma Lazarus, whose poem entitled, “The New Colossus,” which is etched in bronze at the base of The Statue Of Liberty, once said, “Until we are all free, we are none of us free.”

We stand together as Americans to honor the women who have brought us all closer to freedom and equality, without forgetting the struggles that are sure to come.

Radicals of 1913:

Demonstrating for the right to vote. February 1913. (Wiki Commons)

To a movement.

Suffragists parade down Fifth Avenue, October 1917, displaying placards containing the signatures of more than one million New York women demanding the vote.
The New York Times Photo Archives

41 years after Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton drafted and introduced the text for the 19th amendment, Congress submitted the amendment to the states for ratification.

Celebrating the 19th Amendment 1920

World War II saw women recruited to work in factories to anchor the war effort at home, while some got to soar with the eagles, under the radar of history. In 2009, President Obama signed a bill granting the Congressional Gold Medal to the Women Airforce Service Pilots of World War 2.

World War 2 Pilots

African American women served.

Women’s Army Corps World War II. Maj. Charity E. Adams and Capt. Abbie N. Campbell inspect the first contingent of black members of the Women’s Army Corps assigned to overseas service in WWII. Source: National Archives

Post World War II seen some ugliness in America, civil unrest, violent government response, but women carried the civil rights movement just as much as the men.

Women of Montgomery, Alabama Bus Boycott February, 1956.

Bus Boycott 1956

Audience at the First Baptist Church during a standing ovation for leaders of the bus boycott, February 1956.

Amy Goodman interviewed Claudette Colvin over the weekend. Billed as, “The Other Rosa Parks,” Claudette Colvin was the first to refuse giving up her seat on a Montgomery Bus on March 2, 1955– a full nine months before Rosa Parks was arrested. The landmark case of Browder v. Gayle eventually went to the Supreme Court where segregated bus laws were struck down as unconstitutional– something 15 year Claudette Colvin already knew, even saying at the time she was arrested, ”It’s my constitutional right. I paid my fare; it’s my constitutional right.”

Still protesting in the 60′s.