News from New JerseyDear Readers,
This just came in from the state president of New Jersey. I've posted it here to illustrate that there are so many terrific things happening all around the country bringing women and girls together. For those of you who have seen the movie "Iron Jawed Angels" which chronicles those days before women won the right to vote, this re-affirms that whatever divides us, together we are strong and can accomplish great things. Enjoy this story. Shirley, Webmaster Subject: Mary Walton's Alice Paul lecture & an enlightening surprise from the Deltas TO: Carol Cohen, President, AAUW of New Jersey FROM: Janice Harris Jackson, AAUW NJ Member, Garden State (Virtual) Branch SUBJECT: Lecture by Author, Mary Walton, A Woman's Crusade: Alice Paul and the Battle for the Ballot Dear Carol, Sincerest thanks for inviting AAUW-NJ Members to attend the lecture by author Mary Walton, on her biography A Woman's Crusade: Alice Paul and the Battle for the Ballot, at the Scotch Plains Library on September 8, 2016. I attended and the lecture was informative and inspiring with a surprise that I hope you will share with our membership. Also, the Director and her staff at the Scotch Plains Library were extraordinarily welcoming, in addition to being enthusiastic and very well informed about women's advocacy issues. Mary Walton announced to her audience that the lecture would have a sort of coda during which the African American women in Delta Sigma Theta Sorority would tell their side of the story about New Jersey born suffragette, Alice Paul, and the 1913 Woman Suffrage Procession or Parade in Washington, D.C. the day before President Wilson's inauguration. Rev. Deborah Stapleton, Associate Pastor at First Baptist Church of Lincoln Gardens and a Delta Soror, gave an eloquent presentation about her Sorority, which is the largest African-American Greek-lettered organization. Rev. Stapleton described how the founding Deltas with their advisor, long-time suffragist, Mary Church Terrell, marched in the procession despite the fact that Alice Paul did not want African American women to participate. In 1913, Washington was a segregated Southern town. On March 3, 1913, the Founding Deltas from Howard University were forced to march at the very end of the procession. When violence erupted, the 22 Founders of Delta Sigma Theta were treated badly by both the bigoted suffragettes and the antagonized men in the crowd of 250, 000 that had gathered for the procession. Rev. Stapleton went on to genuinely connect with many audience members as she shared the knowledge that Delta Sigma Theta is the sorority of such women as Congresswoman Shirley Chisholm, Congresswoman Barbara Jordan, Dorothy Irene Height, Hon. Patricia Roberts Harris, Hon. Alexis Herman, Congresswoman Marcia Fudge, Attorney General Loretta Lynch and many other famous and distinguished American women. I commend Mary Walton for the way she structured and encouraged the telling of this difficult story. Handling this controversy in another way may have resulted in many women departing from the library quickly and engulfed in their own uncomfortable silences. Instead, the all-American spirit of "telling it like it is" took over and the women were so engaged with each other that they were still talking when the library closed. Many of the discussions continued into the parking lot and, hopefully, into the future. Indeed, we are stronger together! This story about the earliest political action of the 22 Delta Founders has tremendous significance for AAUW because Mary Church Terrell, revered advisor to these young women, is also the African American woman who integrated AAUW in 1949 with the courageous support of then AAUW National President, Dr. Althea Kratz Hottel, also a pioneering woman in Pennsylvania higher education. All in all, it was an exciting evening with abundant learning for many women's rights advocates. Thank you for making me aware of this event. Janice Harris Jackson AAUW NJ; NANBPWC, Inc.; Newark and New Brunswick NAACP Branches Cc. Selected Fellow Women's Rights Advocates https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/the-day-the-deltas-marched-into-history/2013/03/01/eabbf130-811d-11e2-b99e-6baf4ebe42df_story.html?utm_term=.15990a830ef5 The Washington Post Op/Ed, March 1, 2013, "The day the Deltas marched into history" By Mary Walton the author of A Woman's Crusade: Alice Paul and the Battle for the Ballot http://www.aauw.org/2014/02/28/opening-membership/ "Opening Membership and Minds" (It begins with Mary Church Terrell), February 28, 2014, By Susan Gould, AAUW's archivist and records manager http://www.aauw.org/2014/03/21/althea-kratz-hottel/"A One-Woman Crusade for Justice" (The Story of Dr. Althea Kratz Hottel), March 21, 2014,By Susan Gould, AAUW's archivist and records manager Carol Cohen, President AAUW of New Jersey [email protected] 732-995-4044 Visit the AAUW-NJ Website #aauw-nj [email protected] #aauwnj www.aauw.org Barbara Bailey Honored in New YorkAAUW West Branch and Phoenix Branch member, Dr. Barbara Bailey, was among the honorees at The Gordon Parks Foundation Awards Dinner and Auction, Celebrating the Arts, at the Cipriani Wall Street in New York City. Gordon Parks, world-renown photographer, author, movie director, and musician established the Foundation to both recognize others who have made significant contributions to the arts and to award scholarships to promising young people in “the search for a better life and a better world.” Barbara was recognized for being in a picture Parks took of her as a young child playing the piano with her mother sitting at her side. Barbara’s mother, Margaret, was a classmate of Parks. This picture, which also appears in the January 2015 issue of The Smithsonian Magazine, is one of 42 that comprises the new exhibition, Back To Fort Scott that is currently at the Boston Museum of Fine Arts. In the photo of Barbara and her mother, Parks was recording for posterity a family that was enjoying success in life that many sought but often did not achieve as part of the Great Migration. Though Barbara was born in Chicago, her parents moved there from Ft. Scott, Kansas to be involved in opportunities that were scarce in that segregated southern state. Barbara went forward to make her mark in education, consulting, and writing. She is the author of two young adult novels with another in progress that will complete the coming-of age trilogy. Her wish is to help many more succeed in their search for a better life and world. SOMETHING TO CONSIDER - See what is happening in the other 13 AAUW Branches across the stateSun Newsletter for Fall 2016
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Name Badges
If any of you would like a name badge ordered, please contact Shirley at [email protected]. These badges are white with blue lettering. An order will be placed when we have your request.