A Pittsburgh-area advocate joined a road trip to honor Women’s History Month dubbed the “Driving the Vote for Equality Tour,” which kicked off earlier this month with a stylish automotive flourish.
Hope and Joy have been hard to come by since 2016.
But I recently found both during my travels with the “Driving the Vote for Equality” national tour, which raised awareness and advocacy for the Equal Rights Amendment.
The tour is sponsored by ERA NOW, the organization created by former Democratic New York Rep. Carolyn Maloney and her students at the Roosevelt House Public Policy Institute at Hunter College. These amazing scholars researched both the history of the Equal Rights Amendment and the legal requirements to amend the Constitution.
That’s where hope comes in.
Based on their research with the best legal minds in the nation, there is only ONE MORE STEP needed to have the ERA added as the 28th Amendment: Congress needs to pass a Joint Resolution that affirms that all legal requirements have been met.
That means that no one – not the Supreme Court or even the current president – can destroy women’s rights to equal pay, reproductive justice, and much more.
Making change often takes a serendipitous confluence of people and actions. Enter Jeryl Schriever, author of “Driving the Vote for Women – And American Journey of Suffrage,” who detailed a similar national tour by suffragists in 1916.
She and her husband also own a vintage Saxon roadster. That inspired indomitable organizer and women in media champion Kathy Bonk to celebrate Women’s History Month by traveling the journey of the Golden Saxon in the restored Golden Saxon II, honoring Alice Snitjer Burke and Nell Richardson, the OG suffrage travelers, and gaining one million signatures for Congress to act.
That’s the joy.
I happily left my home in Pittsburgh and joined the all-volunteer band of organizers on the trip, where I met wonderful women and men, young and old, in cities big and small, all eager to take action and spread the word.
On March 1, at the New York Historical Society on the edge of Central Park, we had a glorious launch despite piles of snow and bitter winds. People dumped their brunch plans to cheer on driver Susan Nourse and Jeryl Schriever, dressed as suffragists, as they drove through the park.
Passersby stood in line to #Sign4ERA and to take selfies with the antique car, flooding their social media feeds. With that joyous party atmosphere, I realized we were not just following our foremothers but also Jesse Jackson’s proclamation to “Keep Hope Alive.”
We then went to New Jersey, where one of our stops was at “Paulsdale,” the family home of Alice Paul – so-called “militant” suffragist and author of the ERA. Her home is now the Alice Paul Institute for Gender Justice, called “a base camp for ongoing work.”
Being inside that home was incredibly inspiring, as we witnessed elected officials and women’s rights leaders sign the petition calling on Congress to do its job. Outside the Golden Flyer II was met with excitement. Before we left, someone leaned over and said, “Alice would have loved this car.”
In Wilmington, Delaware, Annapolis, Maryland, and Washington, DC, and throughout the trip, we visited great independent bookstores where democracy thrives.
In Washington, we parked the car in front of the AFL-CIO, while inside, Liz Shuler, the first woman president of the AFL-CIO, endorsed the campaign. We also attended a reception for current members of Congress who support the ERA. And the “pit crew” for the Golden Saxon II performed some repairs.
In Virginia, we visited the Turning Point Suffragist Memorial, which sits on the grounds of the old Occoquan Workhouse. That’s where Alice Paul, Lucy Burns, and many others were incarcerated for the crime of standing silently outside the White House holding banners that asked for democracy. They were humiliated, kept in filthy and inhumane conditions, denied contact with family and lawyers, thrown into solitary confinement, and severely beaten.
Throughout the trip, mayors joined our events, signed the petition to Congress, and talked movingly about the importance of equality of rights under the law.
The Golden Saxon II continues its travels on to Georgia, Tennessee, Louisiana, and across the vast southwest to Arizona for Women’s History Month.
You can travel with them by visiting www.DrivingtheVote.org
I guarantee you’ll also feel Hope and Joy.
