Mercer Law exhibit details the history behind the 19th Amendment, voting rights for women

Mercer University’s law school and the American Bar Association are commemorating the centennial of the 19th Amendment granting women the right to vote.

The public can join the celebration by going to see a 19th Amendment traveling exhibit in Robert Steed Lobby at the law school and by attending a panel discussion.

The panel discussion celebrating 100 years of women at the Mercer law school will be held at 5:30 p.m. Nov. 21 at Macon’s Douglass Theatre, 355 Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd.

The exhibit “chronicles the history of the women’s suffrage movement, the legacy of post-1920 efforts to expand voting rights and the obstacles of disenfranchisement and voter suppression today,” according to a press release from Mercer.

Cathy Cox, dean of Mercer law school, said the university is the first place in Georgia to display the exhibit.

Cox said there’s a lot of interesting history about the adoption of the 19th Amendment, including some not-so-positive history about Georgia.

“Georgia, I’m sad to say, was the first state to reject ratification of the 19th Amendment,” she said. “So we had to leave it other states to come around to see the light that women deserved the right to vote. Sufficient number of states adopted and ratified the Amendment in 1920 giving women the right to vote in America for the very first time.”

Organized by the ABA’s Standing Committee on the Law Library of Congress, the six-banner exhibit, according to the press release, features “ historic photos and artifacts, details the story of the battle for ratification and outlines the challenges that remain.”

It is on display at the Mercer law school through Nov. 23.

This story was originally published November 14, 2019 at 12:26 PM.