Women in Kentucky - Public Service

Our purpose here tonight is to encourage each of you to become active in this registration program. We must be registered to vote before we can exercise that precious right. We must seek out our relatives, friends, and neighbors who are not registered and get them to the convention center immediately.

It is incumbent upon each of us to work more diligently than ever before in this endeavor. It is very disturbing to see the many “Wallace for President” bumper stickers here in Louisville on the cars of many whites who apparently are blue collar workers and those who want to see the country set back a hundred years. Wallace has promised to repeal all the Civil Rights legislation that has been passed in the last decade, the very things we have fought and many have died for, if elected President. Even if he is not elected President, it is very possible that he could get such a great vote that he could throw the election in the House of Representatives, which could mean that you will not be electing a President but he members of the House will. As you and I know, the 90th Congress has been the most conservative Congress we have had in a long time. They specialized in cutting most of the social legislation which affected many of us. We could have an even more conservative congress if we are not prepared to vote for liberal congressman. We cannot afford to be negligent in our duty and allow the next President of the United States or the Congressmen to be conservative or even segregationist. Any one vote is as important as any other one vote. Sometimes we feel that our one vote does not count. But, you can see what could happen if every one felt the same way.

We often wonder what happened to the Black masses since one hundred years ago. At that time, the Black masses in the South were stirred by an unparalleled ferment of political activity. Negroes flocked to huge open-air meetings, registered and organized political groups. Leaders emerged from the masses and demanded political and civil equality. It was believed at first that the Blacks would fall on their face, but they demonstrated a real genius for what one writer called “the lower political arts.” By the apathy and complacency of the Black man our political power has been reduced to political impotence. The political bosses believe today that we are not yet intelligent enough to know the wherefores and therefores of Anglo-Saxon Government.

In closing, I'd like to quote a few/voter registration statistics from a few Southern states, one hundred years ago.

Now, let's take a look at our registration figures in Jefferson County

26,000 registered
28,000 eligible but not registered

Read the second speech here.

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Central / Northern Kentucky
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E. About this Project

Women in Sports:

Minnie Adkins
Elizabeth Barret, Anne Lewis, Mimi Pickering, & Justine Richardson
Jane Burch Cochran
Joan Dance
Enid Yandell

Women in Business:

Nelda Barton-Collings
Julia Dinsmore
Laura Freeman
Mattie Mack
Lena Madesin Phillips
Caroline Burnam Taylor

Women in Education:

Helen Lew Lang
Katherine Pettit
Jane Stephenson
Cora Wilson Stewart

Women in Health/Medicine:

Mary Britton
Linda Neville
Ora Framer Porter
Louise Southgate, M.D.

Women in Journalism:

Linda Boileau
Alice Allison Dunnigan

Women in Law:

Pearl Carter Pace
Lt. Colonel Linda Smith

Women in Literature:

Effie Waller Smith

Women in Military:

Lt. Anna Mac Clarke
Capt. Helen Horlacher Evans
Julia Ann Marcum

Women in Music:

Sarah Ogan Gunning
Helen Humes
Lily May Ledford
Reel World String Band
Jean Ritchie
Mary Wheeler

Women as Pioneers:

Esther Whitley

Women in Public Service:

Governor Martha Layne Collins
Emma Guy Cromwell
Rep. Mary Elliott Flanery
Sen. Georgia Davis Powers
Lt. Gov. Thelma Stovall

Women in Reform:

Madeline McDowell Breckinridge
Laura Clay
Eula Hall
Josephine Henry
Belinda Mason
Lois Morris
Eliza Caroline Calvert Obenchain
Charlotte Richardson
Joan Robinett
Mary Sue Whayne
Corinne Whitehead
Evelyn Williams

Women in Religion:

Eldress Nancy Moore
Rabbi Gaylia Rooks

Women in Science:

Sarah Frances Price
Ellen Churchill Semple

Women in Sports:

Terri Cecil-Ramsey
Geri Grigsby
Audrey Whitlock Peterson
Mary T. Meagher Plant