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Ohio has played a significant role in our country's history, including a significant role in the women's suffrage movement.
As early as the 1850s, there were women's rights conventions here. In Akron, Sojourner Truth gave her "Ain't I a Woman?" speech to the second Ohio Women's Convention. The Ohio Women's Rights Association was founded in 1853.
On June 16, 1919, Ohio ratified the 19th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, "The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged … on account of sex." Because state lawmakers were not then certain the amendment would be ratified and implemented in time, they also passed a bill ensuring Ohio women's right to vote in the presidential election of 1920.
In 2019, creation of the Women's Suffrage Monument Commission in Ohio recognized that. Nationwide fewer than 8% of public statues depict real women. It was time for that to change.
But in 2020, state lawmakers put in place a requirement to wait five years before erecting any new monuments on Statehouse grounds. We are now well past time to start work toward a women's suffrage monument in Ohio.
An event Thursday in Columbus featuring Pulitzer-Prize winning historian and author Doris Kearns Goodwin got the ball rolling on a fundraising campaign for the monument, expected to be completed by 2026. Organized by the Capitol Square Foundation and the Women's Suffrage Monument Commission, the goal is $2 million.
What a wonderful time for such an opportunity to be presented to Ohioans. It is an effort well worth supporting, and one of which Ohio can be proud.