Norton Major Speaker at Two Events on 90th Anniversary of the Women's Suffrage Amendment
Norton Major Speaker at Two Events on 90th Anniversary of the Women's Suffrage Amendment
August 25, 2010
WASHINGTON, DC -- Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC), a leading feminist in Congress and a former chair of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, will be the lead speaker on Thursday, August 26, at two Women's Equality Day events and will emphasize that D.C. residents are trying to achieve the vote women won 90 years ago. She will draw historic and present day analogies between the D.C. voting rights, women's suffrage, and trade union movements first at the kickoff event for the International Brotherhood of Teamsters' National Black Caucus 35th Annual Conference at the Hyatt Regency Washington on Capitol Hill at 9:00 a.m., and at 11:00 a.m. during the D.C. League of Women Voters day-long Women's Equality rally in front of the White House. Norton will speak about how far women have come in 90 years and the distance they still have to travel. She will use the long fight of women for their right to vote to encourage the resolve of D.C. residents in the wake of the National Rifle Association (NRA) blocking passage of the D.C. voting rights bill with a dangerous gun amendment, despite majorities for the bill in both houses.
"We are grateful that the National and D.C. League of Women Voters, who have long been on the frontlines of the struggle for the vote here, are embracing D.C. voting rights as they celebrate their own triumphant victory 90 years ago," said Norton. "Women did not give up then, nor will we, especially not now, when the vote is within our grasp. As different as the origin of the League and Teamsters is, it is no happenstance that both events are occurring on the 90th anniversary of the 19th amendment. D.C. voting rights and home-rule have always met formidable challenges, and have pushed them aside as rocks that must and can be moved away on the road to equal rights and freedom. Women in the labor movement, which was primarily organized by men, faced the same struggles as women who fought for their right to vote, but union women, like suffragettes, gained immensely from these struggles and are exemplars for D.C. residents still seeking what women have achieved in the nation and in trade unions."
Norton's voting rights bill has more than enough votes for passage, but she delayed the bill when the NRA attempted to attach a new and radically dangerous gun amendment to the bill. The Congresswoman is now in the midst of a fight to stop the NRA's amendment from passing Congress as a stand-alone gun bill. She also is hosting weekly "Norton in Your Neighborhood Community Conversations" to discuss with District residents the next steps for attaining D.C.'s voting rights and statehood.
A number of organizations will be represented at Thursday's rally in front of the White House including the League of Women Voters of Maryland, the League of Women Voters of Virginia, Young Suffragettes, and the Association of the Oldest Inhabitants of D.C.