The League of Women Voters of East Central Mississippi is celebrating a double centennial anniversary and National Women’s Equality Day by honoring 34 women elected to office for Lauderdale County.

The League of Women Voters in the United States was was formed 100 years ago, along with the passage of the 19th Amendment giving women the right to vote. Almost half a century ago in 1971, the U.S. Congress designated Aug. 26 as National Women’s Equality Day.

The League of Women Voters was formed in 1920 by suffragists in the National Woman Suffrage Association and began as a “mighty political experiment” designed to help 20 million women carry out their new responsibilities as voters. Over the last century, the League has fought for election protection, democratic reforms, and equal access to the ballot – all while maintaining a commitment to nonpartisanship and fostering an informed electorate, according to a news release from the League of Women Voters of East Central Mississippi.

A few months later in 1920, the 19th Amendment was made law guaranteeing women the right to vote. Achieving this milestone required a lengthy and difficult struggle; victory took decades of agitation and protest, the news release stated. While decades of struggle to include African Americans and other women of color in the promise of voting rights remained, the face of the American electorate changed forever.

The League of Women Voters of East Central Mississippi is honoring all women, past and present, elected for office for Lauderdale County, co-presidents Debbie Ford and Becky Glover said.

“We appreciate the service of each of these women to our community and we’re expressing our gratitude to them by delivering a resolution to each one or to their family to let them know that we have recorded them in our archives as a celebrated inheritor of this great legacy,” Ford said in a statement. “We’re grateful that these local women have upheld the tradition of our foremothers in persistence and capable leadership.”

Glover added in a statement, “Our pledge of appreciation to each of them is that we will continue to work to build power for and with the next generation of women leaders and voting rights activists.”

For more information, contact Ford or Glover at LWVECM@gmail.com.

The League is honoring these women who have been elected to public office for Lauderdale County:

• Cheri Barry – Mayor of Meridian (past)

• Barbara Henson – Meridian City Council (past)

• Kim Houston – Meridian City Council (current)

• Fannie Johnson – Meridian City Council (current)

• Vivian Valentine – Meridian City Council (past)

• Mary Perry – Meridian City Council (past)

• Donna Jill Johnson – Lauderdale County Circuit Clerk (current)

• Carolyn Mooney – Lauderdale County Chancery Clerk (current)

• Kassie Coleman – District Attorney of 10th Circuit Court (current)

• Judge Veldore Young Graham – Lauderdale County Court Judge and Juvenile Court Judge (current)

• Judge Lisa Howell – Lauderdale County Court Judge and Juvenile Court Judge (current)

• Doris Spidle – Lauderdale County Tax Collector (current)

• Norma Bourdeaux – Mississippi House of Representatives (past)

• Betty Jane Long – Mississippi House of Representatives (past)

• Evelin R. Sollie – Lauderdale County Chancery Clerk (past)

• Ann Wilson Hayes – Lauderdale County Chancery Clerk (past)

• Effie Shirley – Lauderdale County Tax Accessor (past)

• Awana Simmons – Election Commission (Dist. 3) (current)

• Ann Watts – Election Commission (Dist. 1) (past)

• Barbara Clark – Election Commission (Dist. 5) (past)

• Gloria Dancy – Election Commission (Dist. 4) (current)

• Consuella Rue – Election Commission (Dist. 2) (current)

• Evelyn Acklin – Election Commission (Dist. 2) (past)

• Robbie Hales – Lauderdale County School District Board of Education (past)

• Barbara Jones – Lauderdale County School District Board of Education (present)

• Marion, MS – Board of Aldermen:

• Barbara Anthony – Marion Board of Alderman (past)

• Bernice Martin – Marion Board of Alderman (past)

• Rita Rawson – Marion Board of Alderman (current)

• Tammy Young – Marion Board of Alderman (current)

• Lisa Lindley – Marion Board of Alderman (current)

• Charlotte Rasco – Marion Board of Alderman (past)

• Bobbie Sherrod – Marion Board of Alderman (past)

• Patti Hobgood – Marion Board of Alderman (past)

• Stacy McInnis – Marion Board of Alderman (current)