Women's Issues

Women’s Equality Day Commemoration At The Official Justice Bell

- by Denise Kovalevich
Justice Bell Womens Equality DaySeated Front Left To Right:  Alison LaLond Wyant, Secretary, League of Women Voters of PA; Elizabeth Watkins, Vice President General, NSDAR, Honorary State Regent, Pennsylvania State Society Regent, Pennsylvania State Society Daughters of the American Revolution; Zabeth Teelucksingh, President and Executive Director, Global Philadelphia; Katie Galbraith, Executive Director, Lankenau Medical Center. Standing Back Left to Right: Susan Jablokov, Daughters of the British Empire; Pat Jordan, League of Women Voters of Pennsylvania; Pat Nogar, Rector’s Warden, Washington Memorial Chapel; Madeleine Dean, U. S. Representative, PA - 4th District; Wendy Greenfield, Executive Director, Main Line School Night; Gillian Norris-Szanto, League of Women Voters of Radnor; Colleen Holt-McCauley, The Colonial Dames of America; Molly Duffy, Executive Director, Valley Forge Park Alliance. /Submitted Image

VALLEY FORGE, PA — The Washington Memorial Heritage hosted several distinguished women, including PA U.S. Representative Madeleine Dean and Alison LaLond Wyant, Secretary, League of Women Voters of PA, at the official Justice Bell at the Washington Memorial Chapel in Valley Forge to commemorate Women’s Equality Day.

The Justice Bell, also known as the “Women’s Liberty Bell,” is prominently displayed in the atrium of the National Patriots Bell Tower of the Chapel and was the brainchild and gift of Katherine Wentworth Ruschenberger of Strafford, Chester County, PA to call attention to the fight for women’s suffrage.

Modeled after the Liberty Bell without the crack, the Justice Bell was used to support the movement for an amendment to the U.S. Constitution. It initially toured Pennsylvania in June 1915, covering more than 5,000 miles by November 2 of that year and then traveled to Chicago and Washington, DC, as well as other localities. The 19th Amendment was proposed on June 5, 1919. Ratification took place on August 18 and was certified on Women’s Equality Day, August 26, 1920. On September 25, 1920, the clapper of the Bell was unchained at a celebration held in Independence Square in Philadelphia.

This magnificent piece of history and symbol for women’s equality is open to visitors daily at the Chapel.

For the latest news on everything happening in Chester County and the surrounding area, be sure to follow MyChesCo on Google News and MSN.