American women got the right to vote 100 years ago. Now Fresno hosts centennial events

What a year 2020 is going to be! No, I’m not talking about the presidential election, which promises to bring contention, confrontation and confusion. I’m talking about the Suffrage Centennial celebration of women in the United States because in August, 1920 after a 72-year campaign, the female half of our population got the right to vote.

Celebrations of this historic, once-in-a-lifetime event are starting to break out all over the country. We’re lucky that in Fresno a committee of dedicated people from the League of Women Voters has been planning a year-long series of events for several years. The kick off is an exhibit of large oil portraits of the first ladies, from Martha Washington through Melania Trump. The exhibit can be viewed all during the month of January at Fresno City Hall, where the paintings occupy wall space on the first and second floors as part of a special ArtHop through the Fresno Arts Council. The league has prepared a free printed guide for visitors to help navigate the show, available in the exhibit space.

Best of all, at 5 p.m. on Thursday, Jan. 9, the public is invited to a reception, which includes a program and refreshments hosted by the league and co-sponsored by the Office of the Superintendent of Fresno County Schools, our community partner. The program includes a presentation by Diane Blair, a league member and Fresno State professor, who is an expert on the first ladies and has fascinating and sometimes humorous stories to tell about them. We hope you will join us for the reception, which will also give you plenty of time to marvel at the portraits.

The unusual collection of portraits is a gift to Fresno from Joseph Levy, president of Gottschalks, who passed away five years ago. He purchased them, as well as a similar series of all of the presidents, from renown portrait artist Lawrence Williams.

Coming up next in February is a program about the role of African American women in Suffrage, hosted by Black Women Organized for Political Action. Their presentation is planned for February 10 at the MOR Wisdom Room, 4974 East Clinton in Fresno. Further details will be announced.

In March the Clovis Veterans Memorial District has planned an exhibit and presentation about the history of women in the military. Their new building features a wrap-around mural about military history in the United States and will be used for this event.

The Madden Library at Fresno State will host an exhibit on the history of suffrage in the United States in April as well as several programs, including one by members of the Fresno State Women’s Studies Department and the School of Social Sciences. Another speaker will be league member Angelica Carpenter, an author of biographies of literary and historic figures, who will speak about Matilda Joslyn Gage, an important figure in suffrage history. Parts of the exhibit will then travel to other local libraries during the summer months such as Woodward Park, the Downtown Library, and the Betty Rodriguez Library.

Aug. 26 is the actual date that Congress signed suffrage into law with the 19th Amendment to the Constitution. During that month a public dinner is planned with a prominent speaker.

The festivities will continue in October when several performances of a play called “Elizabeth Started All the Trouble” will be produced by the Fresno State Theater Department. A daytime performance will be available for school groups while several evening performances will be available for the general public without charge. “Elizabeth” refers to Elizabeth Cady Stanton, a leading proponent of suffrage. Arrangements are being made to have the author of the book from which the play is derived appear in Fresno to speak about her research.

All these events are being put on with the collaboration of many community partners. Other local and national groups have provided funding as major sponsors, including the Central Valley Foundation, Chevron, Clovis Veterans Memorial District, Educational Employees Credit Union, Fresno County Office of Education, Fresno State, Fresno Unified School District, Bitwise, Fresno City Council members Paul Caprioglio, Migual Arias, Luis Chavez and Esmeralda Soria, and Clovis City Council member Lynne Ashbeck. Media sponsors include The Fresno Bee, PBS and KVPR. Interested sponsors can request a list of major donor categories or send donations to League of Women Voters of Fresno, 1345 Bulldog Lane, Fresno, CA 93710.

This story was originally published January 3, 2020 at 11:00 AM with the headline "American women got the right to vote 100 years ago. Now Fresno hosts centennial events."