By Morgan Taylor, Bridget Kinross, and Stephanie Caron – Advocate Editors

Jonathan Law senior Amelia Mower read an excerpt from “The Constitutional Rights Of The Women Of the United States” by suffrage leader Isabella Beecher Hooker of Connecticut at the Suffrage Centennial Kickoff Event at Milford City Hall on January 28. This year marks the 100th anniversary of women’s suffrage and this event was very important to continuing this movement into the present. Advocate editors Morgan Taylor, Bridget Kinross, and Stephanie Caron sat down with Mower to talk about her experience.

Advocate Editors: How did you get involved with the Suffrage Centennial Kickoff Event?

Amelia Mower: After getting involved with the Daughters of the American Revolution through their essay contest and scholarship program, (Law principal) Mr. Thompson asked me to read this excerpt as it pertains to women and how they influence society.

AE: How did this impact your views of the women’s suffrage movement?

AM: I think it is very important that people know that the women only got the right to vote 100 years ago and that we are still working towards having constitutionally equal rights in the future.

AE: What was the most memorable part of the event for you?

AM: When Denise Merrill, the Secretary of State of Connecticut, spoke, I was really inspired. When she, as a person of high authority in Connecticut, is recognizing the importance of this movement in Milford especially, it makes me feel hopeful for the future. She wouldn’t have been elected to office if it wasn’t for this movement.

AE: What was the significance of everyone wearing white and why?

AM: We all wore white because that is what the women who were marching to have voting rights wore in order to protest. In pictures of the march, all the women are wearing white while the men are wearing black on the side, showing a truly symbolic comparison of the genders.

AE: What goals do you have for the future of the women’s suffrage movement?

AM: I definitely cannot wait to vote when I turn 18. I think it’s extremely important to use my 19th Amendment right. Women struggled for so long to get this right that I feel like that not taking part in voting is a waste of their struggle.