MARCH MARKS Women’s History Month, and the League of Women Voters of Coastal Georgia has a full roster of events to celebrate the occasion.
As president Cuffy Sullivan explains, the LWVCGA jumped on opportunities to collaborate with other organizations and their existing programming, creating a strong support system.
One event that LWVCGA created especially for this month was the Creative Writing Contest. In partnership with the Owens-Thomas House and Slave Quarters and the Savannah Chatham County Public School system, LWVCGA invited middle school students to contribute to a writing contest. The students were asked to explore the lives of the free and enslaved women and girls who lived in the Owens-Thomas House.
“When President Carter designated Women’s History Week—it was only a week then—in 1980, he created it to honor overlooked women in history, and who has been more overlooked than African-American women?” asks Sullivan. “I’m really impressed with the turnout.”
Through the month, LWVCGA is the designated beneficiary of “Lush: A Celebration in Pink,” an exhibition at Location Gallery that features 35 artists’ take on the color pink.
A pair of lectures rounds out the month. The first, “Women’s Suffrage Comes to Georgia,” is Mar. 19 at City Hall with Luciana Spracher, the City of Savannah’s Municipal Archivist, and Roger Smith of the Learning Center.
The lecture is free and open to the public, but space is limited, so make sure to register.
The second lecture, “A Man’s Work: Anti-Suffrage in Georgia,” is on Mar. 27 at noon at the First Presbyterian Church. Smith returns to discuss the division between supporters of women’s suffrage and universal suffrage.
That lecture is $7 for members of the Learning Center or the LWVCGA and $14 for guests.
The Georgia Historical Society also got involved in the festivities with their Marker Mondays. The social media program features historical markers through the state of Georgia and for March will feature women who have impacted Georgia history.
The League of Women Voters was formed in 1920 in response to women’s suffrage, explains Sullivan.
“It was created to help women be informed voters, to help read ballots and understand how to vote,” she says.
Today, the LWVCGA is unique in that it is completely non-partisan.
“We focus on issues which can sometimes be viewed as partisan,” explains Sullivan, “but it’s ultimately all about issues and how they affect us.”
