Women’s suffrage reenactment march held

In an effort to increase female voter registration and remember the journey women took to gain the right to vote, the IU Black Student Union organized a Women’s Suffrage Reenactment March that crossed campus.

The march began Sunday at the Neal-Marshal Black Culture Center and continued to the Sample Gates, ending with a luncheon at Briscoe Quad.

Vivid chants like “Everybody join the fight, women’s rights are human rights,” could be heard across campus.

“Our purpose is to get a large amount of women registered to vote on campus and to empower women on campus,” said Autumm Olivia Gonzalez, Black Student Union political action chair and march coordinator.

When Gonzalez saw there were no events for women being organized, she said she decided to create an event — the Women’s Suffrage Reenactment March.

“I had been researching registered voters on campus, and I noticed women had a very low percentage,” she said. “And I definitely wanted to reach out to women on campus and make sure they’re registered to vote.”

The event was sponsored by the Black Student Union, IU Student Association, Commission on Multicultural Understanding and Office of the Vice President for Diversity, Equity, and Multicultural Affairs.

“I think it’s such an important event because at Indiana University, it’s important for women to come together and unify with one another and uplift one another,” said Camille Harris, vice president of the Black Student Union.

A crowd of about 40 men and women gathered and chanted as they walked down Third Street to the Sample Gates in order to make their cause for women’s equality heard.

“I feel like it’s an important issue to really support,” freshman Chesley Swann said.
“In terms of wages, it’s still very unequal. And in the 21st century, it shouldn’t be an
issue pushed to the back burner. It seems like we’ve become deaf and blind to the cause.”

Half of the marchers were men marching for gender equality.

Freshman Mark Rogers said he decided to march because he believes men need to empower women and show women they support their cause.

“It’s great to see a lot of men here,” said Eric Love, director of the Office of Diversity Education. “We need to step out of our comfort zone and help others that are different than us. We need men talking about women’s issues.”

He said if the world brought different people together in one room to talk, amazing things would happen to change the world for the better.

The movement for women’s suffrage began in 1848 with Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony.

Most of the women who started the movement would not live to see the right for women to vote passed.

At the Sample Gates, Brenda Weber, director of graduate studies in the Department of Gender Studies, addressed the marchers about the history of the suffrage movement and the inequalities women still face today.

“Part of the reason we do an event like this is so we won’t be complacent about those rights we earned and worked so hard to get, and also so we’ll recognize change takes time,” Weber said.

“It takes bringing lots of people on board. It takes vision. It takes visibility, and it takes youth.”

She said many people feel there is no longer an issue of gender inequality, that it is a thing of the past.

But, she said, women still make 77 cents to every dollar a man makes.

In order to close the gap of inequality, she said people need to recognize there is an
issue, become angry and push people to make change.

“Part of this is to recognize you have power, a lot of power — and when you join together, you have even more power,” Weber said. “I think it’s a really important thing to raise visibility and to help people recognize that something important happened.”

Follow reporter Allison Wagner on Twitter @allmwagn.