Cindy LeVasseur and friends have been celebrating and educating others about the passing of the 19th Amendment for about three or four years now, at least as a group.
They’ve been especially looking forward to this year. That's because 2020 marks the 100th anniversary of the passing of the amendment, which guaranteed women the right to vote.
It was Aug. 26, 1920 when three quarters of the states ratified the 19th Amendment.
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"This was going to be the big year. And then COVID-19 cancelled so many events," says LeVasseur, a resident of Pinconning and one of the organizers of the Mid-Michigan Suffrage 2020 Facebook group.
"The week of August 26th is the actual week of the amendment being ratified. I couldn’t let it go by without doing something. I impulsively got up and created an event in the middle of the night."
On Aug. 25, LeVasseur and about a dozen of her suffragist friends will gather outside the Bay County Building in downtown Bay City. There they’ll dress in clothing popular in 1920 and hold signs and wave to passers-by.
The event takes place from 10 to 11 a.m.
LeVasseur stresses that the event is non-partisan. The Suffrage 2020 group isn’t there to push an agenda, she says, but rather remind people of their history and urge them to vote, no matter the candidate or issue.
LeVasseur is passionate about sharing the importance of voting and participating in our democracy. She says that regardless of whether she agreed or didn’t agree with the protesters on the State Capitol this past May, she was happy to see them exercising their right to do so.
The Suffrage 2020 event will celebrate her right to do so, too.
"Standing on a corner with your sign – that’s democracy. We need more of that," LeVasseur says.
"And it’s not just voting every four years. It’s about citizenship."
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