Government has been on everyone's
mind as we brave the Presidential primary processes for the major political
parties. It is quite fitting that the 2016 National Women's History
Month theme is "Working to Form a More Perfect Union: Honoring Women in
Public Service and Government."
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| (Courtesy of National Archives) |
Securing the right to vote for
American women was a long and arduous process. After almost 100 years of
advocacy and strife, Congress passed the 19th Amendment to the United States in 1919 and
submitted it to the states for ratification. On August 20, 1920, Tennessee
became the 36th state to ratify the amendment and it became the law of the
land. While on paper, every American female citizen was eligible to vote, the
states set the voter registration rules and procedures. In many parts of the
country, exercising one's right to vote was abridged by these rules. Even with
the reforms of the Civil Rights Acts of 1957 and 1964 in place, another decade
passed before women began to secure elective office here in Beaufort
County.
(This is at best a rudimentary list
of women serving in local governments since 1974. Please help me by letting me
know who I may have left out, their position, and the period in which they
served in that position.)
In 1974 Harriet Keyserling (1922 - 2010) became the first
female elected to serve on Beaufort County Council. She served in the State
House from 1977 - 1993 and helped found the SC Legislative Women's caucus. Read
her memoir Against the Tide: One Woman's Political Struggle. It is available
in our Research Room or check out a copy from a branch library's Local History
sections. We have a BDC.BCL List of Links and Materials about her posted on our Wordpress blog.
The very first archive we processed
with a SC State Historical Records Advisory Board (SHRAB) grant was the Nancy Ciehanski Papers. She was appointed to the
Beaufort County Joint Planning Commission, Island Commission in 1979 and was
elected to serve on the Town of Hilton Head Island’s first municipal council
becoming Mayor pro tempore in 1983. She was actively involved with
environmental groups and the Hilton Head Island Member-at-Large Unit of the League of Women Voters.
(Contact me for the Finding Aid to this archival collection.)
Juanita White, an African-American
woman, represented parts of Beaufort and Jasper Counties in the State House of
Representatives from 1980 - 1995. Holly Cork won the state representative seat
left vacant by her father's death in 1989 and was elected to James Waddell's
long-held State Senatorial seat in 1992. JoAnne Gilham, Edie Rodgers, and
Catherine Ceips also were elected to the State Legislature. Margie Bright
Matthews represents District 45 in the SC Senate, filling the vacancy caused by
the murder of Sen. Clementa Pinckney, one of the Emmanuel 9.
Laura Von Harten, Dot Gnann, Beth
Grace, Alice G. Howard, Cynthia M. Bensch, Starletta Hairston, Margaret
Griffin, Eva M. Smalls, Gloria G. Williams, and Victoria Mullen are among
former or sitting female Beaufort County Council members. Jerri Ann Roseneau is
current Beaufort County Clerk of Court while Maria Walls is current Beaufort
County Treasurer. Joy Logan was County Treasurer for 20 years. Other women
elected to County level positions were Bernice Wright, Sharon P. Burris, Mary
Ann Gray, and Elizabeth Smith.
The City of Port Royal has a number
of women on its governing board and commissions. Mary
Beth Gray-Heyward sits on the Port Royal City Council.
Kimberly Likins sits on the Town of
Hilton Head Island Council. There may well indeed be women on some of Hilton
Head's boards and commissions but I found no online list of current board and
commission members.
Lisa Sulka was elected to the
Bluffton City Council in 2004 and first won the mayorship that she holds today
in 2007.
Among the African-American women to
hold elective office since 1960 were Freida Mitchell, Agnes Sherman, Ann Perry
on the Beaufort County Board of Education, Alice G. Wright on the
Beaufort City Council, Bluette H. Jones and Annette Drake Smith on the Port
Royal City Council. A number of Black women have served on County Boards &
Commissions. Among them were Jessie M. Jenkins, Mary Davis, Mary Mack, Renell
Brown, Jennie Green, and Rosalyn Thompson.
The 11 member Beaufort County School
Board has five women currently serving: Evva Anderson, Laura Bush, Mary
Cordray, Geri Kinton, and JoAnn Orischak.
JSYK: The National Archives has a
script based on documents from their holdings for a 4 reader play, "Failure is Impossible," about the struggle
for a women's right to vote in America that could be used in schools.
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