One of the best thing about public service is recognizing outstanding citizens. Retired Richmond fire Chief Gerald Tatum and Wiley Smith received KY Colonel certificates.
Let us rejoice today as we celebrate the 90th anniversary of the 19th amendment to the United State Constitution.
Listen to the words of the 19th amendment that was ratified on August 26, 1920. "The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any state on account of sex. Congress shall have power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation."
That’s it. With these few short words, 70 years of struggle for determined women all over the United States ended. These women were part of the Women’s Suffrage movement. In polite company, they were called "Suffragettes." When the mobs taunted them or complacent politicians sneered at their zeal, they were called worse names. But, thank goodness, they persevered!
Women of today owe this right to vote to the legions of women who came before us. We owe this right to women who were willing to withstand public scorn, to women who took their babies and marched in the streets, to women who were sometimes pelted with eggs and hauled away to jail for their conviction that women can vote – and that women should vote!