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HUNTINGTON -- What happened in 1920, didn't stay in 1920, which was exactly what the League of Women Voters were planning for Tuesday evening.

The league teamed up with the Marshall University Women Studies program in Pullman Square to prompt a full-on celebration of the 90th anniversary of the ratification of the 19th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution giving women the right to vote.

"We all have had this great power given to us, but women had to struggle for that power," said Leah Tolliver, coordinator of the women's center at Marshall University. "As women we don't tend to celebrate, but we're more supportive. Here we're taking the chance to celebrate our right and what those women did ninety years ago."

That celebration kicked off with a performance by the River Music Chapter of The Sweet Adelines, which is a worldwide organization of women singers, who were followed by a rallying speech by Kat Williams, president of the West Virginia Women's Commission.

Williams stirred the crowd, young and old, before the whole event took off in the form of a march to the Cabell County Courthouse where a Sojourner Truth reenactor capped off the evening.

"We're still fighting today...we need to step up and talk about it. We owe it to the women who fought for it, and we owe it to ourselves," Kat Williams said. "You have a voice. You have the right to use it, and you have the responsibility to use it."

The event served as a tribute to the past and an inspiration for the future, Wendy Williams, director of women's studies at Marshall, said.

"We're hoping everyone gets engaged. There's a long list of women who have come before us," Wendy Williams said. "We hope everyone of every age leaves with a sense of appreciation for what the women who came before them did along with hope and inspiration for what they can do for the future."

Delegate Carol Miller said this event is something she hoped wouldn't be lost on the youngest generation. A celebration of this caliber for an event of constitutional caliber was a long time in the making.

"It's very important that children learn history in a hands-on way, and this offers that," Miller said. "When we expose them to things like this it helps them better understand their history and where they come from."

Tolliver said it's easy for people to write off celebrating historical events like this one because they seem like they are so far gone and in the past. That notion is what she said makes this event so important.

"It wasn't that long ago. Women's right to vote is something that has happened within the lifetime of people who are still around today, even though those people might not have been qualified to use the right at that time," Tolliver said. "We want to encourage everyone to have a voice and to use their voice. We all have the right to speak out."

Toril Lavender/ For The Herald-Dispatch

The League of Women Voters in collaboration with Marshall UniversityÕs WomenÕs Studies and the WomenÕs Center hosted a celebration of the 90th Anniversary of women's right to vote Tuesday with events at Pullman Square followed by a Women's Equality Day Parade to the Courthouse.

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