In honor of the 94th anniversary of the ratification of the 19th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, the Commissioners for St. Mary’s County held a ceremony celebrating Women’s Equality Day. Members of the St. Mary’s County Commission for Women were on hand to receive the proclamation.
On August 26, 1920 the Woman Suffrage Amendment was ratified, securing full voting rights for women in the United States. Women’s Equality Day was first celebrated in 1971 after New York Congresswoman Bella Abzug got a Congressional Resolution passed designating August 26 as the day to recognize the passage of the Constitutional Amendment.
In the proclamation commissioners urged all St. Mary’s County citizens to “observe this day through appropriate ceremonies and activities to commemorate that day in 1920 in which women of America were first given the right to vote.”