Editor’s note: This essay is part of the AJC’s America at 250 series leading up to and celebrating the United States of America’s 250th anniversary of independence on July 4.
The noted Pulitzer Prize-winning historian Jill Lepore has encouraged folks in our nation to give some thought to how they might celebrate the semiquincentennial, Congress’ name for the celebration of our 250th birthday.
As we thought about this celebration, we were reminded of the feisty presidential wife, Abigail Adams, who boldly wrote to her husband, John, in 1776, that he be sure to “remember the ladies” in his work with others to construct the laws for the new country.
She even said, if he did not pay attention to this request, that she and her associates might “foment a Rebelion [sic].”
We’ve especially been thinking about the great women in Georgia’s history. A good starting place was to take a look at the work of the Georgia Women of Achievement. Most of these dynamic “ladies” were not included in our high school and college textbooks, yet their contributions were indeed grand and transformative in the shaping of Georgia’s life and culture.
These Georgians are worth remembering
Credit: Handout
Credit: Handout
Credit: Handout
Credit: Handout
Here are just a few examples of women well worth remembering: Leila Denmark, Mary Musgrove, Jeannette Rankin, Lois Ellison and Juliette Gordon Low.
Dr. Leila Alice Daughtry Denmark, at 103, was the oldest practicing physician in the United States.
She began her medical practice in 1928 and continued until 2001, even treating the grandchildren and great-grandchildren of her early patients. A co-developer of the whooping cough vaccine, Dr. Denmark was awarded the Fisher Prize in 1935.
Mary Musgrove, the daughter of an English father and a Creek mother, was an intermediary between the Muscogee Creeks and the early colonists, was instrumental in establishing trading posts and served as an interpreter for James Oglethorpe, the British founder of the colony of Georgia.
Jeannette Rankin was the first woman elected to the U.S. House of Representatives in 1916 and again in 1940.
One of the leading members of the women’s suffrage movement, Rankin also worked tirelessly to improve working conditions and to prohibit child labor.
She relocated to Georgia in 1924, where she continued to push for peace and was famously the only member of Congress to vote against the war on Japan and World War II.
Lois Taylor Ellison was the first female provost of the Medical College of Georgia and one of the college’s longest-serving faculty members. She enrolled as a student at MCG at 19, but tuberculosis forced her to take a leave of absence. She was also the first female president of the Georgia Thoracic Society.
Juliette Gordon Low was born in Savannah in 1860. Raised in a wealthy family and in an atmosphere of racism, she traveled to England, and she met Lord Robert Baden-Powell, who had founded the Boy Scouts. She became committed to bringing scouting to girls in the U.S. and established the Girl Scouts in 1913. Gordon Low famously sold her wedding pearls and expanded Girl Scouts to include troops for African American, Indigenous, and Mexican American girls. After World War I, Low expanded the scouting program internationally. Today, the Girl Scouts of the USA continues to empower women, breaking racial and gender barriers and extending the promise of the Declaration of Independence for life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness to all people.
We don’t intend to rebel, but rather to revel in history
Credit: Handout
Credit: Handout
Credit: Handout
Credit: Handout
There are hundreds more we seek to remember and celebrate, like Gwendolyn Payton, an acclaimed artist whose art degree was denied her in 1972 because of racial discrimination.
She graduated with a degree in biology but was not allowed to participate in the senior art exhibit because her artwork was deemed “too controversial.”
Preliminary research on celebrations in Georgia has shown that in a few places, ladies are being remembered, but there is much more that can be done.
In March, the Historic Athens Welcome Center offered an exhibit focusing on “The Women Who Changed Athens.”
Four new women were recently inducted into the listing of Georgia Women of Achievement: Emma Morel Adler, an advocate for historical preservation and a champion of Savannah and Georgia “for all of her 90 years”; Beverly Buchanan, an African American artist; Mary Ethel Creswell, the first woman to earn a baccalaureate from University of Georgia; and Adelaide Wallace Ponder, editor of Morgan County’s The Madisonian for 40 years.
We four have no plans to foment a Rebelion [sic], but many things can be done to celebrate our founding.
Focusing on Georgia women who have contributed to the shaping of our state and nation should be an important part of our celebrations.
Margaret E. Holt of Watkinsville, Suzanne M. Minarcine of Macon, Madeline Van Dyck of Athens and Marilyn Vickers of Athens authored this guest opinion essay. Their backgrounds include education, entrepreneurship, mental health and community advocacy. Holt is one of five founders of the Jeannette Rankin Foundation, and Van Dyck is a board member at the foundation.
The AJC is inviting readers to answer this question: “What are your hopes, concerns and reflection on the United States turning 250 this July 4?” Email letters of 250 words or fewer with your name and city/town to david.plazas@ajc.com. Use the subject line “America at 250.”
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