FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
July 18, 2023

ADVISORY: Equal Rights Amendment Centennial Commemoration this Friday

On Friday, July 21, 2023 at noon, supporters of a federal Equal Rights Amendment (ERA) will gather to commemorate the centennial of the first introduction of the ERA by Alice Paul in 1923. The event will take place in Augusta by the Suffrage Centennial Marker between the State House and the Cultural Building.

Congress passed the ERA in the early 1970s, but with a deadline for states to ratify in 1979. While the necessary 38 states have now ratified the ERA, it has not been added to the U.S. Constitution, and women do not have a constitutional right to equality in the United States.

This year, State Representative Lois Reckitt, D-South Portland, introduced a state ERA, LD 1412, “RESOLUTION, Proposing an Amendment to the Constitution of Maine Establishing That All Maine Residents Have Equal Rights Under the Law” which would have prohibited the denial of equal rights to those persons covered by the statutory Maine Human Rights Act (Title 5, Part 12, Chapter 337). The bill did not receive the required 2/3 vote in the Maine House to advance to Maine voters for approval.

To raise awareness of, and advocate for, adding ERA provisions to the U.S. and Maine Constitutions, ERA supporters will gather at the State House on the 100th anniversary of the initial ERA introduction. The event will include a partially staged reading of a New York Times article from July 1923, including the words of Alice Paul and others by Barbara Cray, a volunteer organizer with Maine Women’s Lobby, the singing of the women’s rights standard “Votes for Women” and a tribute to early women’s rights advocate Elizabeth Cady Stanton with a banner of her “Declaration of Principles” unfurled. Remarks will be given by Rep. Reckitt, Rep. Holly Stover, D-Boothbay, and Emily Cook of the Department of the Secretary of State. Light refreshments will be served.

Weather pending, state records held by the Maine State Archives on related topics will be available for viewing.

WHO: Rep. Lois Reckitt, D-South Portland; Rep. Holly Stover, D-Boothbay; Barbara Cray, a volunteer organizer with Maine Women’s Lobby; Emily Cook, Department of the Secretary of State
WHAT: Commemoration of the centennial of the first introduction of the Equal Rights Amendment
WHEN: Noon, Friday, July 21, 2023
WHERE: By the Suffrage Centennial Marker between the State House and the Cultural Building

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