ERA Centennial Convention in Seneca Falls: Intergenerational, Diverse and Determined

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ERA Centennial Convention in Seneca Falls: Intergenerational, Diverse and Determined
7/26/2023 by Carrie N. Baker

(Courtesy of ERA Centennial Convention)


Organizers re-created the historic photo of ERA supporters in front of the First Presbyterian Church of Seneca Falls in New York. (Annette Dragon)

On July 21, 1923, the National Women’s Party unveiled the Equal Rights Amendment at the First Presbyterian Church of Seneca Falls in New York. Precisely 100 years later, contemporary ERA advocates gathered to mark this important historic milestone and plan for the final push for recognition of the ERA as the 28th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. At the exact same podium where ERA co-author Alice Paul first introduced the sex equality amendment, Nevada state Senator Pat Spearman led hundreds of attendees in chanting, “Watch us get it done. We’re not gonna quit until it’s done o’clock!”


Nevada state Senator Pat Spearman sponsored legislation in 2017 to ratify the national ERA. She is also the first openly lesbian member in the Nevada legislature. (Annette Dragon)

The ERA Centennial Convention on July 21 and 22 in Seneca Falls, was sponsored by Equal Rights Action, Columbia Law School’s ERA Project and Generation Ratify, a youth-led organization supporting the ERA and gender equality. The convention attracted participants from states across the U.S. Of the nearly 300 who registered for the convention, over half were young people under 25. The youngest participant was nine years old.


Rep. Cori Bush (D-Mo.) helped launch the first-ever Congressional Caucus for the Equal Rights Amendment. (Annette Dragon)

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“The consequences of inaction, indifference and inequality are too real to ignore: health disparities, economic gaps, discrimination to many women who are dying each and every day from the lack of healthcare,” said New York Attorney General Letitia James. (Annette Dragon)

The gathering was held 175 years after the original Seneca Falls Women’s Rights Convention convened in 1848 by Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Lucretia Mott and several others. “I feel like we are on sacred ground,” said former U.S. Rep. Carolyn Maloney. The convention opened Friday night with an “interfaith ERA revival.” Saturday morning had an intergenerational panel on the ERA; Saturday evening had an ERA march and rally. The conference had breakout sessions on organizing for equality, intergenerational and cross movement coalition building, state and local ERA organizing and faith organizing. Sessions also addressed how the ERA will strengthen abortion rights, LGBTQ+ rights, gender justice and voting rights.


The ERA march on Saturday, July 22, 2023. (Annette Dragon)
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In front row holding sign: AG James; New York Governor Kathy Hochul; Susan Scheuerman, chair of the Women March in Seneca Falls; and former Rep. Carolyn Maloney. (Annette Dragon)
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Twenty-five percent of attendees were under the age of 25. (Annette Dragon)

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Eleanor Smeal, Feminist Majority president and publisher of Ms., has played a key role in the fight for the ERA. (Carrie Baker)
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“The contemporary movement for the Equal Rights Amendment truly is inclusive, expansive and intersectional, and centers the people that stand to gain the most from the ERA.”

(Becca Damante)
Ms. reporter and contributing editor Carrie Baker signs the Vote Equality bus. (Becca Damante)
(Becca Damante)




https://msmagazine.com/2023/07/26/seneca-falls-equal-rights-amendment/