JCC professor Traci Langworthy (left) and Dr. Shannon Risk of Niagara University

BEMUS POINT – The Chautauqua County Historical Society, in partnership with the Bemus Point Historical Society, will present a special lecture on the 100th anniversary of Women’s Suffrage in New York State on Saturday, Sept. 23 at 10 a.m. at Bemus Point United Methodist Church (4954 Bemus – Ellery Rd, Bemus Point, NY).

Traci Langworthy, Historian and Jamestown Community College Professor, will join Dr. Shannon Risk, Niagara University History Professor, in a joint presentation outlining the women’s suffrage movement in New York State, which began in the mid-19th century and continued until women in the state were finally given the right to vote in 1917. Risk and Langworthy will also spend time focusing on notable suffragists and organizations that took root here in Western New York and Chautauqua County.

In addition to the presentation by Risk and Langworthy, a special reenactment will also take place featuring actual remarks that were made at the time by notable anti-suffragists, as presented by local actor Robert Terreberry, with a rebuttal that was originally prepared by suffragist Ophelia Griffith of the Fluvanna Political Equality Club, as portrayed by reenactor Kimberly Peterson Bentley.

Another highlight of the day’s event will be opening remarks from New York State Senator Catherine Young, whose 57th Senate District includes Chautauqua County. Chautauqua County Historical Society President and former editor of the Jamestown Post-Journal Cristie Herbst will host the event and welcome attendees.

“With 2017 serving as the 100th anniversary of women gaining the right to vote in New York State, we thought it fitting to have an event to focus on this important anniversary,” explains Jason Sample, Chautauqua County Historical Society trustee and programming committee chair. “Our county played a prominent role in the women’s suffrage movement and we look forward to sharing some of those details with attendees during this very special event.”

The American Association of University Women (AAUW) will also be on hand as a “friends of the event” to provide literature and details on its organization.

The event is free and open to the public.

For more information, call the Historical Society at (716) 326-2977 or email CCHS@McClurgMuseum.org.

Suffragette tracks the history of the early feminist movement in Great Britain. The film is rated PG-13 and is 106 minutes long. Admission is $5.

Members of The American Association of University Women (AAUW) will be in the lobby to promote their programs and will have information available about women’s suffrage in New York State and nationally. A discussion about women’s suffrage will also take place in the lobby following the showing of the film.

For more information about events at the Reg, visit reglenna.com or call 716.484.7070.

City Historian B. Dolores Thompson and Mayor Samuel Teresi

JAMESTOWN – Another historical marker has been erected in Jamestown.

On Friday afternoon, The Jamestown Historical Marker Committee dedicated the City’s 67th historical marker next to the Lucille Ball Little Theatre building at 18 East Second Street.

The latest marker honors the Chautauqua County Political Equality Club. The organization promoted women’s right to vote during the suffrage movement, marking the 125th anniversary of its organization.

The late 1800s marked a surge in the efforts to secure the right to vote for women. Since the inception of the United States and its Constitution, women were considered citizens and were required to pay taxes. However, they had no vote in the government to which they paid those taxes and no voice in any of the laws enacted that they were expected to honor.

Efforts to secure the right to vote began in June 1848 at the celebrated Seneca Falls, NY, Convention. By the 1880s, efforts were in full swing throughout the country. Small groups sprang up in many small local communities, including in all of Chautauqua County.

On October 31, 1888, the Jamestown group hosted a meeting of all the various County groups at Allen’s Opera House (now Little Theatre). They decided to organize as a county organization, which was a first in New York State. With over 1,000 members by 1891, it was the largest county suffrage organization in the United States.

Women were finally formally granted the right to vote on August 26, 1920, through the 19th Amendment to the Constitution.  Congress had passed the Amendment in June 1919, but the required state ratifications were not reached until the following August.  In November, women voted for the President of the United States for the first time in the country’s 144-year history.

Committee members assisting in securing funding and getting the marker posted were City Historian B. Deloris Thompson, Clair Carlson, Traci Langworthy, Karen Livsey, and Arthur Osterdahl.