Here at MN CAFE, we love all of our wonderful Coalition members. But forgive us if we seem unusually ecstatic about joining forces with the League of Women Voters-Minnesota. The national League was founded by Carrie Chapman Catt, the second leader of the National American Woman Suffrage Association (Susan B. Anthony was the first). Wrote Catt in 1919:
Every suffragist will hope for a memorial dedicated to the memory of our brave departed leaders, to the sacrifices they made for our cause, to the scores of victories won…I venture to propose one whose benefits will bless our entire nation and bring happiness to the humblest of our citizens–the most natural, the most appropriate, and the most patriotic memorial that could be suggested–a League of Women Voters to “finish the fight” and to aid in the reconstruction of the nation.
Catt’s fellow suffragist Alice Paul was the author of the federal Equal Rights Amendment, first proposed in Congress in 1923. We of the MN CAFE Coalition are acutely aware that our work is just one part of an historic campaign to win legal equality for all of America’s citizens.
Together we will FINISH THE FIGHT!
