As part of the national commemoration of the August 8 passage of the Voting Rights Act in 1965, and the August 26 passage of the 19th Amendment giving women the right to vote in 1920, Leagues of Women Voters throughout the nation have been asked to schedule special programs for the public this August.
The League of Women Voters of the Hamptons, Shelter Island & North Fork is offering a free screening of the 2022 Carnegie Hall premiere of Dr. Andrea Ramsey’s “Suffrage Cantata” on Sunday, August 23, 1 p.m. at the Westhampton Free Library, 7 Library Avenue, Westhampton Beach.
The “Suffrage Cantata”—both written and composed by Dr. Ramsey-–is a unique, nearly one-hour concert in five movements that tells in choral song, piano, strings, percussion and narration, plus historical images projected on a screen above the chorus, of the hard road women traveled to win equal rights.
Featured prominently are Elizabeth Cady Stanton, who introduced the Declaration of Rights and Sentiments at the 1848 Women’s Rights Convention in Seneca Falls, N.Y.; Susan B. Anthony’s trial for trying to vote, based on the rights of citizens given in the 14th Amendment; Ida B. Wells’ long struggle to bring the vote to black women; the March 1913 parade of 8,000 women in Washington D.C., led by Inez Milholland on a white horse; Harriot Stanton Blatch, Alice Paul and Lucy Burns picketing the White House gates in 1917; the final passage of the Susan B. Anthony Amendment by both houses of Congress in 1919; and the final ratification of the 19th Amendment by 36 states in August 1920.
The Suffrage Cantata also explains how for some—Native Americans, Chinese and Blacks—the struggle for the vote took longer.
Refreshments and a discussion about the 1965 Voting Rights Act and the impact of recent Supreme Court decisions will follow the screening.
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LWV Presents Screening of “Suffrage Cantata” at Westhampton Free Library
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