109 HJ 59 IH: Expressing the sense of Congress with respect to the establishment of an appropriate day for the commemoration of the women suffragists who fought for and won the right of women to vote in the United States. U.S. House of Representatives 2005-07-14 text/xml EN Pursuant to Title 17 Section 105 of the United States Code, this file is not subject to copyright protection and is in the public domain.

109th CONGRESS 1st Session

H. J. RES. 59

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

July 14, 2005

Ms. Berkley (for herself, Mrs. Tauscher, Ms. Zoe Lofgren of California, Ms. Matsui, Ms. Woolsey, Ms. Wasserman Schultz, Mrs. Napolitano, Ms. Solis, Ms. Kaptur, Mrs. Davis of California, Ms. Harman, Ms. Linda T. Sánchez of California, Ms. Carson, Ms. Watson, Ms. Eddie Bernice Johnson of Texas, Ms. Corrine Brown of Florida, Ms. Kilpatrick of Michigan, Ms. Millender-McDonald, Mrs. Jones of Ohio, Mrs. McCarthy, Ms. Loretta Sanchez of California, Ms. Schwartz of Pennsylvania, Mrs. Maloney, Ms. Jackson-Lee of Texas, Ms. DeGette, Ms. Hooley, Ms. Baldwin, Ms. Herseth, Ms. Waters, Ms. Bean, Ms. Schakowsky, Ms. Slaughter, Ms. Lee, Ms. Moore of Wisconsin, Mrs. Capps, Mrs. Lowey, Ms. Eshoo, Ms. DeLauro, Ms. Pelosi, Ms. Velázquez, Ms. McCollum of Minnesota, Ms. Ginny Brown-Waite of Florida, Mrs. Johnson of Connecticut, Mrs. Christensen, Ms. Bordallo, Ms. Roybal-Allard, Ms. Norton, Mr. Boehlert, Mr. McDermott, Mr. Israel, and Mr. Conyers) introduced the following joint resolution; which was referred to the Committee on Government Reform

JOINT RESOLUTION

Expressing the sense of Congress with respect to the establishment of an appropriate day for the commemoration of the women suffragists who fought for and won the right of women to vote in the United States.

Whereas one of the first public appeals for women’s suffrage came in 1848 when Lucretia Mott and Elizabeth Cady Stanton called a women’s rights convention in Seneca Falls, New York, on July 19, 1848; Whereas Sojourner Truth gave her famous speech titled Ain’t I a Woman? at the 1851 Women’s Rights Convention in Akron, Ohio; Whereas in 1869, suffragists formed two national organizations to work for the right to vote: the National Woman Suffrage Association and the American Woman Suffrage Association; Whereas these two organizations united in 1890 to form the National American Woman Suffrage Association; Whereas in 1872, Susan B. Anthony and a group of women voted in the presidential election in Rochester, New York; Whereas she was arrested and fined for voting illegally; Whereas at her trial, which attracted nationwide attention, she made a speech that ended with the slogan Resistance to Tyranny Is Obedience to God; Whereas on January 25, 1887, the United States Senate voted on women’s suffrage for the first time; Whereas during the early 1900s, a new generation of leaders joined the women’s suffrage movement, including Carrie Chapman Catt, Maud Wood Park, Lucy Burns, Alice Paul, and Harriot E. Blatch; Whereas women’s suffrage leaders devoted most of their efforts to marches, picketing, and other active forms of protest; Whereas Alice Paul and others chained themselves to the White House fence; Whereas the suffragists were often arrested and sent to jail, where many of them went on hunger strikes; Whereas almost 5,000 people paraded for women’s suffrage up Pennsylvania Avenue in Washington, DC; and Whereas on August 26, 1920, the 19th Amendment to the United States Constitution granted women in the United States the right to vote: Now, therefore, be it

That it is the sense of Congress that an appropriate day should be established for the commemoration of the women suffragists who worked for the right of women to vote in the United States.