2020 is the 100th year since women gained the right to vote in the United States and the local League of Women Voters got the celebration underway Monday with a proclamation.
Kentucky ratified the 19th amendment giving women the right to vote on January 6, 1920, so the proclamation was read on the 100th anniversary of that signing Monday. County Judge-Executive Steve Tribble and Hopkinsville Mayor Carter Hendricks read the proclamation, with Hendricks saying that as of right now, Sherry Jeffers is the only woman to have been mayor of Hopkinsville, though maybe that will one day change.
Carolyn Self with the League says while women gained the right to vote in 1920, African American men and women wouldn’t gain the right until 1965.
She says they intend to establish Hopkinsville’s first historical marker celebrating a woman—Mary Bronaugh, a Hopkinsville native who would be Kentucky’s first woman attorney.
On Wednesday, a historical review of the Suffrage movement will be presented and upcoming events relating to the Suffrage Centennial Celebration will be shared at the “Midday at the Gallery”, held at 12 p.m. at the Hopkinsville Art Guild. There will be even more events through the year until August.