{"id":70,"date":"2020-04-20T03:38:22","date_gmt":"2020-04-20T03:38:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/dev.montgomerymag.com\/?p=70"},"modified":"2020-05-24T22:42:46","modified_gmt":"2020-05-24T22:42:46","slug":"league-of-women-voters-of-montgomery-county-100-years","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.montgomerymag.com\/league-of-women-voters-of-montgomery-county-100-years\/","title":{"rendered":"League of Women Voters of Montgomery County Celebrates 100 Years"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"100
The Woman Suffrage Procession in D.C. on March 3, 1913, attracted 5,000 suffragists and a crowd estimated at 500,000. (Credit: Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

We\u2019re here for the 100th time,\u201d says Marcia Kingman, calling to order in early January a meeting of the League of Women Voters of Montgomery County<\/a> (LWVMC). More than two dozen members are gathered in a small chapel at Cedar Lane Unitarian Universalist Church in Bethesda to set the agenda for LWVMC\u2019s centennial year.<\/p>\n

Founded in 1920, at the same time as the League of Women Voters of the United States and the League of Women Voters of Maryland, LWVMC\u2019s original mission was to protect voting rights and elections. Now, 100 years later, it has grown to promote voter access, fight voter suppression, confront money in politics and educate the public on issues such as the environment, immigration, gerrymandering and health care reform.<\/p>\n

LWVMC also shares a birthday year with the 19th Amendment, which gave women the right to vote, although the suffrage movement in Montgomery County began decades earlier. In the late 1800s, as suffragists were arrested for civil disobedience, went on hunger strikes and picketed in front of the White House, women in Montgomery County were organizing domestic clubs, explains Claire McDonald, curator of the Montgomery County Historical Society\u2019s new online exhibit, \u201cThe Path to Leadership: Montgomery County Women, Women\u2019s Clubs and Suffrage.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cBy the 1910s, these groups had spread into nearly every community in the county, and conversation among many of these women began to shift to social reform and issues of social justice, like the right to vote,\u201d McDonald says.<\/p>\n

Silver Spring Suffragist<\/strong><\/h4>\n
\"Maryland
Maryland suffragist and lifelong Montgomery County activist Lavinia Margaret Engle (Credit: Montgomery History)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

On Valentine\u2019s Day 1920, six months before the 19th Amendment was ratified, the League of Women Voters was established at the final convention of the National American Woman Suffrage Association (NAWSA). Lavinia Margaret Engle, a suffragist from Silver Spring, was a founding member.<\/p>\n

Engle was born into the movement. The daughter of a suffragist, she called Susan B. Anthony, the women\u2019s rights activist and co-founder of NAWSA, \u201cAunt Susan.\u201d After graduating from Antioch College in 1912, Engle was recruited by another leader in the women\u2019s movement, Anna Howard Shaw, to join NAWSA, where she quickly rose through the ranks. Following ratification, Engle became the director of the League of Women Voters of Maryland.<\/p>\n

In her oral history, Engle explains that what drew her to the League of Women Voters, and what kept her engaged, was \u201ca combination of very brilliant and educated women\u201d that \u201cwas non-segregated from the beginning.\u201d She remained active in LWVMC, her local League, for nearly 60 years.<\/p>\n

Half a Century of Service<\/strong><\/h4>\n

Judy Morenoff never met Engle, but she has certainly followed in her footsteps\u2014even winning the Lavinia Engle Award in 2013 for civic engagement. \u201cI\u2019ve done just about everything at some point,\u201d says Morenoff, who joined LWCMV in 1970. \u201cFor me, it has been primarily an opportunity to learn a lot about complex issues, how local and state government really works.\u201d<\/p>\n

Over the years, Morenoff\u2019s worked on dozens of studies, chaired committees and served as vice president for programming and president of both the Montgomery County and Maryland State Leagues. Currently, as education chair, her committee pressed the Maryland General Assembly to pass a comprehensive school reform bill that, after considerable debate, was adopted before the recent session was cut short by the coronavirus. She also remains tireless in urging members to call or write public officials, which is how League advocacy works to advance its priorities.<\/p>\n

What makes the League of Women Voters different from other civic-minded organizations is its multi-issue focus and grassroots activism, explains Morenoff. \u201cIt is the members who are involved in creating the positions on which we base testimony on the local, state and national level. It is the members who do the leg work locally on registering voters, putting out the Voters\u2019 Guide and creating candidate and issue forums,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n

Looking Ahead <\/strong><\/h4>\n

LWVMC co-President Kathy McGuire has seen an uptick in local membership since the 2016 election, when Hillary Clinton won the popular vote and lost the election.<\/p>\n

\"Kathy
Kathy McGuire, co-president of the League of Women Voters of Montgomery County (Photo by Roseanne Skirble)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

One of the largest Leagues in the country, LWVMC is \u201cat 500 members and growing,\u201d says McGuire. \u201cNewer members are joining to make democracy work. They are volunteering to register voters, produce the Voters\u2019 Guide, organize candidate forums and keep an eye on what\u2019s going on locally, whether it\u2019s the widening of I-270, affordable housing, education or health care,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n

Starting in January with planning meetings at Cedar Lane Unitarian Universalist Church, LWVMC is using 2020 as a year for reflection and renewed commitment. \u201cWe\u2019re going to be looking at things like mail-in voting,\u201d says McGuire. \u201cWe\u2019re also putting out our Voters\u2019 Guide in Spanish for the first time, gifting League membership to all students and promoting vote411.org for complete voter\u2019s information.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat we are reaping today is the result of our predecessors who came doing the work being non-partisan, being effective, being articulate,\u201d says Diane Hibino, co-president of LWVMC. The League is so trusted for being non-partisan that the Montgomery County Board of Elections regularly contracts LWVMC members to monitor all the county\u2019s 232 polling places on Election Day.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey fought for what they believed in, and continued over the years and helped define what the League is today,\u201d Hibino says.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

LWVMC also shares a birthday year with the 19th Amendment, which gave women the right to vote.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":72,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[43,13],"tags":[19,20,29],"yoast_head":"\nLeague of Women Voters of Montgomery County Celebrates 100 Years - Montgomery Magazine<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"The League of Women Voters of Montgomery County also shares a birthday year with the 19th Amendment, which gave women the right to vote.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.montgomerymag.com\/league-of-women-voters-of-montgomery-county-100-years\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"League of Women Voters of Montgomery County Celebrates 100 Years - 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