Bill Text: OR SCR204 | 2012 | Regular Session | Enrolled

Oregon Senate Concurrent Resolution 204 (Prior Session Legislation)

Bill Title: Commemorating centennial of woman suffrage in Oregon.

Sponsorship: Broadly Bipartisan Bill

Status: (Passed) 2012-02-27 - Filed With Secretary of State. [SCR204 Detail]

Download: Oregon-2012-SCR204-Enrolled.html



     76th OREGON LEGISLATIVE ASSEMBLY--2012 Regular Session

                            Enrolled

                Senate Concurrent Resolution 204

Sponsored by Senators ROSENBAUM, FERRIOLI; Senators ATKINSON,
  BATES, BEYER, BOQUIST, BURDICK, COURTNEY, DEVLIN, DINGFELDER,
  EDWARDS, GEORGE, GIROD, HASS, JOHNSON, KRUSE, MONNES ANDERSON,
  MONROE, MORSE, OLSEN, PROZANSKI, SHIELDS, STARR, STEINER
  HAYWARD, TELFER, VERGER, WINTERS, Representatives KOTEK, TOMEI
  (at the request of Oregon Women's History Consortium and Center
  for Women, Politics and Policy) (Presession filed.)

  Whereas the centennial of woman suffrage in Oregon will occur
in 2012; and
  Whereas the movement for woman suffrage began in Salem and
Albany in 1870; and
  Whereas organizers established the Oregon State Equal Suffrage
Association in 1873; and
  Whereas Oregon citizens voted six times on whether women should
have the right to vote, more than the citizens of any other
state; and
  Whereas beginning in 1870 Abigail Scott Duniway took the lead
in Oregon's campaign for woman suffrage, continuing her efforts
for the next 42 years through constant public engagement, through
the publication of  { - The New Northwest - } newspaper and by
serving as honorary chair of the Oregon State Equal Suffrage
Association in 1912, the same year during which women secured the
right to vote; and
  Whereas the final woman suffrage campaign in 1912 was led by
many great women and men, including Viola M. Coe of the Oregon
State Equal Suffrage Association, Hattie Redmond of the Colored
Women's Equal Suffrage Association, Josephine Mayer Hirsch of the
Portland Equal Suffrage League, Mrs. S.K. Chan of the Chinese
American Equal Suffrage Society, Dr. Marie Equi of the College
Equal Suffrage League, William M. 'Pike' Davis of the Men's Equal
Suffrage Club of Multnomah County, Dr. Esther Pohl Lovejoy of the
Everybody's Equal Suffrage League, Mrs. E. O. Gardner of the
Stenographers' Equal Suffrage League and Grace Watt Ross, Sarah
A. Evans and Elizabeth Avery Eggert of the Portland Woman's Club
Campaign Committee; and
  Whereas woman suffrage advocates organized dozens of local
suffrage associations throughout the state in 1912, including the
Astoria Women's Equal Suffrage Society, the Ashland Woman's
Suffrage Club, the Bend Equal Suffrage League, the Eugene Equal
Suffrage League, the Medford Equal Suffrage Club, the Salem Equal
Suffrage Club and the Pendleton Woman Suffrage League and Men's
Auxiliary; and
  Whereas the members of the Oregon State Grange and the Oregon
State Federation of Labor endorsed woman suffrage in 1912; and
  Whereas Oregon voters, on November 5, 1912, approved amending
section 2, Article II of the Oregon Constitution, to read '
citizen' instead of 'white male citizen' when describing the
right to vote; and
  Whereas not all Oregon women were considered citizens in 1912,
leaving the voting status of some Native American women and
first-generation Asian American women unchanged by the 1912

Enrolled Senate Concurrent Resolution 204 (SCR 204-INTRO)  Page 1

amendment and leaving the right to vote for those women to be
secured by federal legislation in 1924 and 1952; and
  Whereas woman suffrage was one of the earliest uses of Oregon's
initiative and referendum process; and
  Whereas the 1912 amendment immediately took effect after
November 5, 1912, and Oregon women voted as early as December
1912, in city elections; and
  Whereas Oregon women campaigned to be elected in some of these
same city elections in December 1912, and in statewide offices in
the next statewide election in 1914; and
  Whereas Marian B. Towne, a Democrat in Jackson County, and
Kathryn Clarke, a Republican in Douglas County, won their
respective campaigns to be elected to the 1915 Oregon Legislative
Assembly, the first Legislative Assembly in which women legally
could hold such office; and
  Whereas Oregon women have continued to claim civic equality by
holding office, serving as jurors and performing other aspects of
full citizenship during the years following 1912; and
  Whereas Oregon women participated in the national effort to
amend the United States Constitution to secure voting rights for
women; and
  Whereas such efforts resulted in the ratification of the
Nineteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution in August
1920; and
  Whereas the 42-year campaign to achieve woman suffrage in
Oregon is a vital part of the history of this state; now,
therefore,

Be It Resolved by the Legislative Assembly of the State of
  Oregon:

  That we, the members of the Seventy-sixth Legislative Assembly,
commemorate the centennial of woman suffrage in Oregon and the
efforts of the many great women and men who led the woman
suffrage campaign of 1912.
                         ----------

                                  Adopted by Senate February 7,
                                              2012

                               ----------------------------------
                                   Robert Taylor, Secretary of
                                             Senate

                               ----------------------------------
                                  Peter Courtney, President of
                                             Senate

                                  Adopted by House February 20,
                                              2012

                               ----------------------------------
                                  Bruce Hanna, Speaker of House

                               ----------------------------------
                                 Arnie Roblan, Speaker of House

Enrolled Senate Concurrent Resolution 204 (SCR 204-INTRO)  Page 2