WATCH THE VIDEO: Answer the Clarion Call to Celebrate New York State’s 2017 Suffrage Centennial on Vimeo.
NYS Senate bill 2388 to establish a state women’s suffrage centennial commission for 2017 passed and is on its way to the New York State Assembly. Next steps: If you’re a New York State resident, contact your state Assembly representative and track the progress of the bill in the NYS Assembly where the bill is sponsored by Democratic Assemblywoman Aileen Gunther and others. If passed by both chambers the legislation will create a thirteen-person commission consisting of appointees to coordinate the state’s commemorations. See details of bill in above link. Women voters: this is about how your voting rights were won.
The Senate bill was sponsored by NYS Senators Little, Hoylman, Kennedy, Parker, and Valesky. The bill calls the upcoming 2017 state centennial “a milestone moment for the state… Equal opportunity is as important a topic today as it was when Susan B. Anthony was arrested in Rochester for attempting to vote.”
The 13 appointed members in the NYS Senate bill are designated as the commissioner of parks, recreation and historic preservation, the commissioner of education, the commissioner of economic development, the president of the League of Women Voters of New York State, the superintendent of the Women’s Rights National Historical Park, the president of the Susan B. Anthony Museum and House, the director of the Matilda Joslyn Gage Foundation, 1a member of the board of the New York Council for the Humanities as a non-voting member, one member appointed by the governor, one member appointed by the temporary president of the senate, one member appointed by the speaker of the assembly, one member appointed by the minority leader of the senate, and one member appointed by the minority leader of the assembly.
The commission’s terms go from 2017 to 2020, the nation’s national suffrage observance. The bill’s primary focus is to “… plan and execute an organized series of statewide conversations and programs that celebrate the accomplishment of women’s suffrage.” The commission may be funded, although the appropriations have not yet been approved.
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