{"id":35873,"date":"2023-09-18T18:53:32","date_gmt":"2023-09-18T22:53:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/?p=35873"},"modified":"2023-09-18T18:53:37","modified_gmt":"2023-09-18T22:53:37","slug":"womens-suffrage-exhibit-to-include-black-sororitys-efforts","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/2023\/09\/18\/womens-suffrage-exhibit-to-include-black-sororitys-efforts\/","title":{"rendered":"Women’s suffrage exhibit to include Black sorority’s efforts"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Long before getting the right to vote through the 19th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution on Aug. 18, 1920, women across the United States had worked hard toward that goal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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As a way to share that important mission and the women who helped accomplish it, the\u00a0Polk County History Center<\/a>\u00a02020 installed an exhibit called\u00a0\u201cThe 19th\u00a0Amendment at 100 Years: A Milestone of Democracy for Women\u2019s Suffrage.\u201d\u00a0The exhibit highlighted the influential women involved in the voting rights campaign.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As part of that exhibit and the center\u2019s \u201cLiving Constitution\u201d series, the \u201cWomen’s Suffrage Movement\u201d exhibit commemorating the signing of the 19th Amendment will broaden. The History Center plans to expand the current exhibit to feature Delta Sigma Theta Sorority’s<\/a> involvement in the suffrage movement and will capture some of the sorority\u2019s Lakeland Alumnae Chapter<\/a> social action since its charter was formed on April 2, 1977.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Founded Jan. 13, 1913, by 22 women at\u00a0Howard University<\/a>\u00a0for scholarships, service, and social action, there are now about 350,000 initiated women in more than 1,000 Delta Sigma Theta chapters worldwide.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

From 4 to 6 p.m. on Wednesday, a soft opening of the exhibit will take place. The event was originally scheduled for Aug. 29 but was rescheduled because of Hurricane Idalia.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Amanda Green, journalist for the Lakeland chapter, said one of the sorority’s its first social justice acts was participation in the Women\u2019s Suffrage Parade in Washington, D.C., March 3, 1913.<\/p>\n\n\n

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Green, who lives in Haines City, has been with the sorority chapter since 2022. She said the Women\u2019s Suffrage Movement has three display cases, each representing social activism by Delta Sigma Theta at the state, regional, and national levels.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The exhibit features former sorority members and their work with the suffrage cause, such as Dorothy Height, past national president; and Mary McLeod, who founded Bethune-Cookman College<\/a>\u00a0in Daytona Beach. McCleod also founded the\u00a0National Council of Negro Women<\/a>, which was the first national coalition of African American women’s organizations.\u00a0She was instrumental in the educational development focus of the sorority’s five-point programming initiative.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Height was the 10th Delta Sigma Theta national president and was the longest serving, in office from 1946 to 1957. She also founded the Women in Community Service<\/a> of the sorority.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There are currently 117 members of the Lakeland Alumnae Chapter of the Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, and many are scheduled to attend the Sept. 20 ceremony, including Delta Sigma Theta LAC President Mary Pearson of Mulberry.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Green said the public should take time to visit the \u201cWoman\u2019s Suffrage Movement\u201d display to see how women of color made an impact on the right-to-vote movement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIn addition, to highlight our Delta Sigma Theta sorority women because we were at the forefront of the Women\u2019s Suffrage Parade on March 03, 1913. Even at a time when racism was high, we made history. Members of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority Inc. have a long history of social action in this country, and we continue to move forward,\u201d Green said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Myrtice Young, historic preservation manager for the Polk County History Center, said the Delta Theta Sorority\u2019s contributions to the Women\u2019s Suffrage Movement will enhance its educational impact. She said the sorority\u2019s displays are part of the center\u2019s overall \u201cLiving Constitution Exhibit,\u201d which will be changed and enhanced through 2026, the 250th anniversary of the United States\u2019 founding. The sorority exhibit will be up for at least a year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI think it\u2019s really important we pause and reflect on how we have grown to a place where the right to vote is so essential \u2014 to go back to reflect on how that happened when not everybody in the county was allowed to vote,\u201d she said. \u201cI think it\u2019s important, as we approach the 250th anniversary as a nation, to go back to reflect on how we\u2019ve gained those important rights.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Long before getting the right to vote through the 19th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution on Aug. 18, 1920, women across the United States had worked hard toward that goal. As… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":35875,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_seopress_robots_follow":"","_seopress_robots_imageindex":"","_seopress_robots_snippet":"","_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"0","_seopress_robots_breadcrumbs":"","_seopress_robots_freeze_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_custom_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_canonical":"","_seopress_social_fb_title":"","_seopress_social_fb_desc":"","_seopress_social_fb_img":"","_seopress_social_fb_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_height":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_title":"","_seopress_social_twitter_desc":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_height":0,"_seopress_redirections_value":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled_regex":"","_seopress_redirections_logged_status":"","_seopress_redirections_param":"","_seopress_redirections_type":0,"_seopress_analysis_target_kw":"","inline_featured_image":false,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"wpai_generated_summary":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"dois","default_image_id":71799,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"_wpas_customize_per_network":false},"categories":[14],"tags":[5994],"class_list":["post-35873","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-womens-suffrage-exhibit-to-include-black-sororitys-efforts"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35873","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=35873"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35873\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/35875"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=35873"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=35873"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=35873"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}