In celebration of the 100th anniversary of the ratification of the 19th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, the next Our Stories speaker series on Saturday, March 21, 2020, will look back at the enormous effort it took for Arizona women to be granted full citizenship and the vote. The free public presentation will be from 10:30 a.m. to noon at Chandler’s Sunset Library, 4930 W. Ray Road.
Jana Bommersbach, one of the state’s most honored and respected journalists, will talk about how Arizona women struggled over many decades to win the right to vote. History has downplayed suffrage, as if it were just a footnote in American history, when in fact, it was the nation’s largest civil rights movement. Women in the western United States got the vote long before their sisters in the east, but that doesn’t mean Arizona suffragette had it easy. The movement in Arizona faced opposition and dirty tricks, too.
Bommersbach 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 the popular myths, with an emphasis on Arizona’s real history and women of the Old West.
Our Stories is a free speaker series open to the public, with each session sharing first-hand accounts and expert insights into the history of Chandler, the Valley, and Arizona. It is produced and hosted by the Chandler Public Library and the Chandler Museum, with support from the Friends of the Chandler Public Library and the Chandler Historical Society. This particular presentation is made possible in part through the support of the Arizona Humanities.
