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Library Spotlight: March 2022

The History behind Women's History Month

In 1980, the National Women’s History Project (NWHP) was founded in Santa Rosa, California by Molly Murphy MacGregor, Mary Ruthsdotter, Maria Cuevas, Paula Hammett, and Bette Morgan to broadcast women’s historical achievements. The NWHP started by leading a coalition that successfully lobbied Congress to designate March as National Women’s History Month, now celebrated across the land. The NWHP selects themes each year and this year the theme is:                                                      

 

Billy Dick's History Corner

                

“First” Ladies of American History!

  • July 20th,  1848:  In Seneca Falls, New York, a group of 68 women and 32 men signed the “Declaration of Sentiments”, advocating greater rights for women in America.
  • November 18th, 1872:  Susan B. Anthony was arrested for having voted in a federal election 13 days earlier.  (Fourteen other women had also been arrested.)
  • March 12th, 1912:  Juliette Gordon Low founded the first American troop of “Girl Guides” (today known as the Girl Scouts) in Savannah, Georgia.
  • June 15th, 1921:  Elizabeth “Bessie” Coleman became the first African-American woman (and the first Native American woman) to earn a pilot’s license, after taking flight lessons in France.
  • March 4th, 1933:  Frances Perkins became the U.S. Secretary of Labor, the first woman to hold a cabinet-level post in the American government.
  • August 5th, 1943:  Women’s Airforce Service Pilots (WASP) was formed, recruiting women as pilots to ferry military aircraft around the United States.
  • May 18th, 1953:  Pilot Jacqueline Cochran became the first woman to break the “sound barrier.”
  • January 25th, 1972:  Shirley Chisholm officially announced her candidacy for President of the United States, becoming both the first African-American to seek a major party’s nomination for President, and the first woman to seek the Democratic Party’s nomination for President.
  • September 21st, 1981:  The U.S. Senate unanimously confirmed Sandra Day O’Connor, the first woman to serve as a Justice on the U.S. Supreme Court.
  • January 3rd, 1987:  Aretha Franklin becomes the first woman to be inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
  • January 23rd, 1997:  Madeline Albright is sworn in as U.S. Secretary of State, the first woman to hold that office.
  • November 14th, 2008:  Ann Dunwoody is promoted to four-star general in the U.S. Army, the first woman to achieve four-star rank in the U.S. Armed Forces.
  • December 12th, 2020:  Sarah Fuller kicked an extra point for the Vanderbilt Commodores football team, becoming the first woman to score in a Power Five Conference football game.

ACEC Wax Museum

Anson County Early College Wax Museum

On February 28th, the Anson County Early College (ACEC) students held a wax museum in the Horne Library. The students created presentations, either digital or as a poster, about the life and work of an African-American poet. The students stationed themselves around Horne Library and students from other ACEC classes came in to wander through the exhibit and learn about the artists. There was a wide variety of poets represented, including the musician Jimi Hendrix. The student who researched about the famous guitarists’ life said that he had to work to convince his teacher that Mr. Hendrix is a poet.

Community members The Anson County Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Dreamkeepers Association also attended the museum. They enjoyed speaking with the students and asking them questions about the poets they researched.

One ACEC student selected the North Carolina Poet Laureate Jaki Shelton Greene for the museum. The student emailed Ms. Shelton Greene to gather research information for her project. Ms. Shelton Greene was so interested in this project, she traveled from Raleigh to see the museum and speak with the student in person.

When asked what it was like to speak with the subject of her project, the ACEC student said that she was really nervous, but she was so excited that she was able to meet Ms. Shelton Greene. It was obvious that meeting the NC Poet Laureate in person was very meaningful to the student.

Approximately 148 people participated and attended the Wax Museum Monday.