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There are many events scheduled from now through 2020, the suffrage centennial of the 19th Amendment to the US Constitution. These are two examples. Follow SuffrageCentennials.com

NOW is the time to firm up plans for 2020, the 100th anniversary of the 19th Amendment to the US Constitution. The word is out that late August is when many individuals, organizations, and institutions are scheduling their special events and programming. The entire year of 2020, however, is filling up now. And to many, the centennial observance started in August of this year. Don’t forget March, Women’s History Month. Or July when festivities include events in Seneca Falls, New York. Or any date that coincides with calendars for a wide variety of organizations.

You can count on SuffrageCentennials.com to highlight developments and trends.

The National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) has announced $29 million dollars in awards for 215 humanities projects across the nation. The grants include funding to produce a television series, South by Somewhere, on the foodways, history, and culture of the American South, an archaeological analysis of the overseer’s quarters at James Madison’s Montpelier plantation, and support for the creation of a new permanent gallery at the Please Touch Museum to teach children about the 1876 Centennial Fair in Philadelphia where women activists appealed for voting rights.

This round of funding, NEH’s third and last for fiscal year 2019, supports research, education, preservation, and public programs in the humanities. These peer-reviewed grants were awarded in addition to $48 million in annual operating support provided to the national network of state and territorial humanities councils during fiscal year 2019.

This funding cycle includes grants for several longstanding NEH-supported scholarly editions projects that illuminate foundational texts and the lives of influential individuals. New grants will enable continued work on the papers of presidents George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, and Abraham Lincoln, as well as publication of the complete speeches, correspondence, and writings of Martin Luther King Jr. and Eleanor Roosevelt, plus a new scholarly edition and translation of the Dead Sea Scrolls.

Several others will provide for community-based public programs around significant milestones in national and regional U.S. history, such as grants for statewide reading and discussion programs in Maine tied to the state’s bicentennial in 2020, funding for a three-part documentary on the history and identity of Alaska by filmmaker Ric Burns.

NEH will also support Unladylike 2020, a series of animated films about female trailblazers of the Progressive Era.

NEH Public Scholar grants, which support popular nonfiction books in the humanities, will enable publication of a biography of Sacagawea as a window into the experiences of Northern Plains, Rockies, and Pacific Northwest Native American tribes; an examination of the mythos of Alexander the Great across multiple cultures and eras; and a book on the portrayal of returning WW II veterans in the blockbuster 1946 film The Best Years of Our Lives.

Great news about this Ida B. Wells program. It will be featured at the International Black Women’s Congress and its 35th annual gathering. Carry on, Safiya.

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It was big news when a statue of Sojourner Truth was unveiled in Ulster County of the Hudson Valley during 2013. Since then the State of New York has announced plans to erect a statue of Truth on state land in Ulster County, NY. And the statue planned for unveiling in New York City in Central Park in August 2020 will have three women—Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Susan B. Anthony, and Sojourner Truth featured. Adding Truth to the Central Park statue design was announced in August 2019.

Sojourner Truth Statue in Hudson Valley: VIDEO! on Vimeo.

CHANGE IN STATUE DESIGN FOR CENTRAL PARK

The NYC Public Design Commission will review the amended design of the statue, which will be unveiled on The Mall in Central Park on August 26, 2020, the 100th anniversary of the ratification of the 19th amendment. The 200th anniversary of Susan B. Anthony’s birth will also be observed during 2020.

“Our goal has always been to honor the diverse women in history who fought for equality and justice and who dedicated their lives to the fight for women’s rights. We want to tell their stories and help create a full and fair historical record of their vast and varied contributions. The Public Design Commission required that a scroll with names and quotes of 22 diverse women’s suffrage leaders be removed. It is fitting that Anthony, Stanton, and Truth stand together in this statue as they often did in life,” said Pam Elam, President of Monumental Women.

Monumental Women’s Statue Fund was organized as a not-for-profit group in 2014 with the initial goal of breaking the bronze ceiling and creating the first statue of real women in Central Park with other statues planned throughout New York City. To find out more about Monumental Women, or to get involved, visit: monumentalwomen.org

SUFFRAGE EVENTS IN THE UK

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Let’s get busy planning for August 26th and 2020!

Plan for August 26th, the women’s 4th of July! on Vimeo.

August 26th, or Women’s Equality Day, may be over for 2019. But it’s a reminder to get prepared now for August 2020, when the nation is geared up to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the 19th Amendment to the US Constitution. This is a reminder to get going now!

During 2020 there will be events, conferences, exhibits, theatre, books, movies, and much more to honor the 100 years women have been voting in the US. And 2020 is also a national election year. Many consider August 26th in 2019 as when the gate opens for special events and celebrations launching the 2020 centennial. So it’s happening now. Be inspired by the momentum.

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