February 2020

As we mark the 100th anniversary of the ratification of the 19th Amendment in 1920, it’s time to look back at the enormous effort it took for women to be granted full citizenship through the right to vote. For decades before the amendment’s passage, women across the United States rallied, protested, picketed, fundraised, and lobbied for enfranchisement at the state level.

Many Western women got the vote long before their Eastern sisters. In fact, Arizona was the tenth state in which women earned the right to vote. That doesn’t mean Arizona suffragists had it easy. If you would like to learn more about the challenges Arizona suffragists faced, attend “Hyenas in Petticoats: How Women Struggled Against Every Trick in the Books to Win the Vote,” by Arizona Humanities speaker Jana Bommersbach on Friday, February 14.  

The program will begin at 1:30 p.m. at the Church of the Nazarene, 55 Rojo Drive in the Village of Oak Creek. Generously funded by Arizona Humanities and Friends of the Sedona Library, this presentation is free and open to the public.  Donations are always welcome.

Jana Bommersbach is an acclaimed Arizona journalist, author, and speaker.  She has won accolades in every facet of her career—investigative reporter, magazine columnist, television commentator, and author of nationally acclaimed books.  She currently writes for True West magazine, digging up the true stories behind popular myths, with an emphasis on Arizona history and women of the Old West. Her insight, knowledge, and wit contribute to her exuberant, riveting presentations, which always garner rave reviews.

Many programs and events are planned nationally, statewide, and locally to commemorate 100 years of women voting. Additional library programs about the 19th Amendment and the suffrage movement will be added during the year; please check for updates in the monthly library newsletter, or view the events calendar online.

Finally, we encourage you to VOTE!  If you are not registered to vote in Arizona, you can register online at https://servicearizona.com. You may also pick up a voter registration form at the Library. Representatives from the League of Women Voters will be at Sedona Public Library and the Village library every month through November to answer questions and to assist with voter registration. Please check the library events calendar for dates and times at the main library. For the schedule at the Village library, call 928-284-1603 or email voc@sedonalibrary.org.  

For more information about programs that we offer at Sedona Public Library, a nonprofit 501(c)(3) organization, please stop by or call the Library at 928-282-7714. You may also access the Library’s website at www.sedonalibrary.org to view the events calendar or to make an online donation.