Sun, Oct 15, 3pm at Historic Richmond Town’s Courthouse, 441 Clarke Ave, SINY 10306.

Staten Island OutLOUD presents this special event in collaboration with the Association of American University Women, its President Claire Regan, its past President Edwina Martin, and historian Patricia Salmon.

Join us as we honor the 100th anniversary of women’s suffrage in New York State. The right to vote was hard won by a coalition of courageous women who endured injury, economic hardship and personal loss. This event takes place in the second-floor courthouse at Historic Richmond Town.

True Grit, Charles Portis’ compelling novel, is a story of female empowerment, courage, perseverance and discovering one’s personal resources.  Mattie Ross, the 14 year-old heroine of the story, undertakes an almost-impossible task: she sets off from her family’s farm in Arkansas in the 1870s, to seek her father’s killer in Oklahoma Territory.  Though True Grit does not specifically place the adult Mattie in the women’s suffrage movement, we know that she becomes an enterprising, thoroughly independent person – a model for the “new woman” of the early 20th century.  We think that Mattie is an example of the spirit of many suffragists, women of courage who lent their strength, intelligence and their “true grit” to a civil rights revolution that won the vote for women.  2017 is the centennial of women’s suffrage in New York State, so we created this event as one way of reflecting on the meaning of “true grit”.

Free & open to the public. Good for all ages.  Book giveaway.

Please note: This is a neighborly, non-partisan event.