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Aug 21, 2020
The Rehoboth Beach commissioners approved a resolution recognizing the significance of the women’s suffragist movement at their August 21 meeting. The resolution celebrates the 100th anniversary of the passage and ratification of the 19th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution guaranteeing women the right to vote.
Commissioner Susan Gay authored the resolution that says thanks to the hard work and sacrifices of many brave women and celebrates a milestone of democracy.
The City supports local and regional organizations in their desire to celebrate the 100th anniversary of women winning the right to vote: Village Improvement Association, Fund for Women of Sussex County, Colonel David Hall Chapter of National Society Daughters of the American Revolution, Sussex County League of Women Voters, Women’s March Sussex, Sussex County Alumnae Chapter Delta Sigma Theta Society, Inc., and the Sunshine Circle Club.
The Suffrage Victory Flag commemorates the ratification of the 19th Amendment. It recognizes and honors the determination and dedication displayed by the National Woman’s Party towards granting women the right to vote. This year, we celebrate the centennial of the 19th Amendment, ratified August 18, 1920. The Amendment officially became part of the U.S. Constitution on August 26, 1920.
In honor of the centennial of the 19th Amendment, the Suffrage Victory Flag will fly at City Hall from August 26 to September 9. The flag was created by Alice Paul, founder of the National Woman’s Party, a pivotal force in the passage and ratification in 1920 of the 19th Amendment. In 1919, Paul began sewing stars on a giant purple, white, and gold flag. Each time a state ratified the 19th Amendment, a new star would be sewn on the flag. The group described the meaning of its colors in a 1913 newsletter. “Purple is the color of loyalty, constancy to purpose, unswerving steadfastness to a cause. White, the emblem of purity, symbolizes the quality of our purpose; and gold, the color of light and life, is as the torch that guides our purpose, pure, and unswerving.”
For more information on how the 19th Amendment came to be and how the text of the Amendment was drafted, see the Drafting Table tool on the Interactive Constitution: https://draftingtable.constitutioncenter.org/item/19th-amendment
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