SENATE MEMORIAL 7

54th legislature - STATE OF NEW MEXICO - second session, 2020

INTRODUCED BY

Elizabeth "Liz” Stefanics

 

 

 

 

 

A MEMORIAL

RECOGNIZING AND CELEBRATING THE WOMEN'S SUFFRAGE MOVEMENT AND CENTENNIAL OF THE ADOPTION OF THE NINETEENTH AMENDMENT TO THE UNITED STATES CONSTITUTION.

 

     WHEREAS, organized and sustained efforts to win the vote for women in the United States began in 1848 in Seneca Falls, New York; and

     WHEREAS, Susan B. Anthony, Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Carrie Chapman Catt of the national American woman suffrage association advocated for women's voting rights nationally; and

     WHEREAS, a New Mexico campaign for women's suffrage began in the 1890s in Santa Fe and Albuquerque; and

     WHEREAS, the initial New Mexico women's suffrage efforts were further organized in Las Cruces in 1910 and became a structured effort by women in seventeen communities; and

     WHEREAS, many New Mexican women, including Laura E. Frenger, Nina Otero Warren, Deane Lindsey, Ina Sizer Cassidy, Aurora Lucero and Julia Asplund, fought tirelessly for women's right to vote in local, state and national elections; and

     WHEREAS, the nineteenth amendment to the United States constitution, prohibiting exclusion of women from voting, stalled in congress for forty-one years before passing in 1919; and

     WHEREAS, Governor Octaviano A. Larrazolo called a special session of the legislature, and on February 21, 1920, New Mexico became the thirty-second state to ratify the nineteenth amendment; and

     WHEREAS, on August 18, 1920, Tennessee became the thirty-sixth state to ratify the nineteenth amendment, at which point three-fourths of the states had ratified the amendment; and

     WHEREAS, on August 26, 1920, the nineteenth amendment was certified by the United States secretary of state and became a part of the United States constitution; and

     WHEREAS, through the nineteenth amendment, millions of women have made and continue to make enormous contributions to the civic and political life of the United States through their vote; and

     WHEREAS, honoring the strides of the suffrage movement serves as a reminder of the power that all yield through voting;

     NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED BY THE SENATE OF THE STATE OF NEW MEXICO that the suffrage movement and the centennial anniversary of the adoption of the nineteenth amendment to the United States constitution be recognized and celebrated; and

     BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that a copy of this memorial be transmitted to Hannah Burling, president of the league of women voters of New Mexico.

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