Today is a challenge for many of us. A day that was originally set aside to celebrate Freedom and Independence from dictatorial rule. Yet, here we are in the midst of what many feel is the biggest roll back of women’s rights in our nation's history.
Given the state of things, we thought today would be a good day for us to remember and celebrate the contributions of the courageous women on whose shoulders we stand.
Remembering the Women
The women of the budding Nation that becomes the United States of America played significant roles in the fight for Independence.
Abigail Adams, and others became “daughters of liberty” and made strong political statements with their actions. These actions not only included running their households while the men fought, but also boycotting goods (and tea) made in Britain, protesting policies, raising funds for soldier’s needs and even contributing their own funds to the cause.
Read more about these amazing women in the FULL Washington Post article HERE.
Letters from an American
Historian, "letter" writer, and powerful woman, Heather Cox Richardson, writes daily and brings her knowledge of history to the events of the present and provides a link to past struggles and triumphs regarding our freedoms, rights, and responsibilities as Americans.
Here is an excerpt of what Heather wrote in her July 3rd email.
The men who signed the Declaration of Independence on July 4,1776 pledged their “Lives, [their] Fortunes and [their] sacred Honor” to defend the idea of human equality. Ever since then, Americans have sacrificed their own fortunes, honor, and even their lives, for that principle. Lincoln reminded Civil War Americans of those sacrifices when he urged the people of his era to “take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion—that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain—that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom—and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.”
Moments in history that resonate today.
If you would like to check out Letters from an American and/or subscribe, click HERE
BONUS
We thought we would share a list of past events that happened in July AND highlight Women's History. Going forward, in the first email of each month, we will share that month's list of Women’s History Events or the list of Birthdays from the National Women’s History Alliance site. In the future, might we see some of our own names on these very lists?
July Women’s History Events
July 2, 1979 – The Susan B. Anthony dollar is released
July 2, 1937 – Amelia Earhart’s plane is lost in the Pacific Ocean near Howland Island
July 2, 1964 – President Lyndon Johnson signs the Civil Rights Act; Title VII prohibits sex discrimination in employment
July 4, 1876 – Suffragists crash the Centennial Celebration in Independence Hall to present the Vice President with the “Declaration of the Rights of Women” written by Matilda Joselyn Gage
July 6, 1957 – Althea Gibson is the first African American woman player to win a Wimbledon title in women’s tennis singles
July 7, 1981 – President Reagan nominates Sandra Day O’Connor as the first woman Supreme Court Justice?
July 12, 1984 – Representative Geraldine Ferraro (D-New York) is chosen as the first female to run for Vice President of the United States on the Democratic Party ticket with Walter Mondale (D-Minnesota)
July 14, 1917 – 16 women from the National Women’s Party were arrested while picketing the White House demanding universal women’s suffrage; they were charged with obstructing traffic
July 19-20, 1848 – The Seneca Falls Convention, the country’s first women’s rights convention, is held in Seneca Falls, New York Women’s Rights Movement
July 20, 1942 – The first class of Women’s Auxiliary Army Corps (WAAC) begins at Fort Des Moines, IA
July 29, 1974 – “Philadelphia Eleven” deacons (Merrill Bittner, Alla Bozarth-Campbell, Alison Cheek, Emily Hewitt, Carter Heyward, Suzanne Hiatt, Marie Moorefield, Jeannette Piccard, Betty Schiess, Katrina Swanson, and Nancy Wittig) ordained as the first women Episcopal priests.
