A CENTURY LATER, STILL SINGING FOR
SUFFRAGE BY BAILEY VANDIVER | PHOTOS BY ARDEN BARNES We’re coming, free America Ten million women strong, We simply ask for liberty, For that we’ve labor’d long The women’s voices echoed off the walls of the Kentucky Capitol rotunda. And their voices echoed down through history, continuing to sing what millions of women sung in the years leading up to 1920, when the 19th amendment to the United States Constitution finally gave women the right to vote.
Behold our grand amendment For your ears we have a quote: We’re marching to our vote! The voices belong to the Women’s Suffrage Centennial Chorus, who began singing together in 2018 in anticipation of the 100th anniversary of the ratification of the 19th amendment. The chorus sang at the Capitol on Feb. 13 as part of a joint celebration for the 100th anniversary of the League of Women Voters and the 19th amendment. The civic organization began on Feb. 14, 1920, six months before the Constitution officially promised that “the right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged… on account of sex.” The League of Women Voters event is just one of many performances that the chorus has done in recent months; their January schedule was packed. “Until August, it’s going to be really, really busy,” said Sylvia Coffey, founder and coordinator of the Women’s Suffrage Centennial Chorus. Just the day before, the chorus had sung at the Old
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State Capitol for the “Her Flag” event. “Her Flag” is a collaborative, nationwide art project that celebrates each of the 36 states that ratified the 19th amendment. “There’s singers again,” one woman remarked to another as they entered the rotunda before the League of Women Voters event. The chorus is hard to miss: Each woman is in full early 20th century suffragist costume, which constitutes a white dress and a purple, yellow and white sash. “And of course you have to have your white hat,” Coffey said. Coffey said this look did not grow popular with suffragists until the 1910s, when they began marching. “What can women wear that everybody would, you know, stand out, would look alike?” she said. “White.” Some people think they can’t be part of the chorus because they can’t sing, but “it hasn’t stopped us,” Coffey said. There is just one requirement to be in the chorus: You must own a white dress.
