LOUISVILLE, Ky. — The 19th Amendment, granting women the right to vote, was ratified one hundred years ago this week in 1920. To commemorate this historic event, the Frazier History Museum is offering an exhibit titled, "What Is a Vote Worth?," which connects the national suffrage movement to Kentucky.
The exhibit is open to the public, and the curator, Amanda Briede, expects it to be available until at least next spring.
Briede stated that the exhibit provides an opportunity to learn about both national and state leaders of the suffrage movement while using technology effectively to teach visitors about some of the lesser-known heroines of the movement.
Briede described a special technology feature of the exhibit.
“We have a touch screen computer that will teach you about 100 additional women that played an important part in suffrage," Briede explained. "So when you come to the exhibit you’ll start at the screen and then you can touch one of these groups and you can scroll through and learn about all these other women who were important to the movement who might not have heard of."
African American women played a significant role in the suffrage movement, but their right to vote was not legally secure until the passage of the Voting Rights Act in 1965. The exhibit highlights their contributions.
"You will see artifacts related to two different women that actually helped women and African Americans register to vote, so we have the boots here that belonged to Evelyn Glass who just turned 102. She wore these boots when she went out to protest and when she went to register African Americans to vote," Briede said.
The exhibit covers the scope of women's progress, struggle for equality, and political participation since the 19th amendment.
"When you come to the exhibit, you’ll come to this room and it has a picture of the Women’s March in Washington from 2017, and you’ll also learn about the Equal Rights Amendment. We also have another glass ceiling broken with Kamala Harris, the first woman of color vice-presidential nomination for a major party," Briede said.
The exhibit runs through 2021, and the museum is open Thursday through Saturday from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. and on Sunday from 12 p.m. to 5 p.m.
There are two virtual events hosted by author Tina Cassidy, author of "Mr. President, How Long Must We Wait?," a book that focuses on suffragette Alice Paul. The first event will occur Friday, Aug. 21 from 7 p.m. until 8 p.m. The second one will take place Saturday, Aug. 22, and celebrates the centennial of the 19th amendment.