The National Collaborative for Women’s History Sites (NCWHS) and the William G. Pomeroy Foundation are partnering for a historic marker program of U.S. women’s suffrage history in celebration of the centennial of the passing of the 19th Amendment.
A marker will honor suffrage leader Annie E. Jones – a 1901 graduate of Elizabeth City State Colored Normal School, now Elizabeth City State University (ECSU).
It will be dedicated 11 a.m., Oct. 22, at the fellowship hall of Corner Stone Missionary Baptist Church. The marker will be on Corner Stone’s property on Road Street, near Speed Street, a few hundred feet from Jones’s former home.
Jones – a member of the Matrons Social and Literary Club of Elizabeth City, which was part of the National Association of Colored Women’s Club (NACWC) – organized voter education classes for Black women to prepare them to pass a literacy test meant to disfranchise Black male voters. Speakers at the event will include but are not limited to: Elizabeth City Mayor Kirk Rivers; ECSU Chancellor Dr. Karrie Dixon; League of Women Voters Northeastern North Carolina Board Secretary Chris Veale; and North Carolina Federation of Colored Women’s Clubs President Mildred Vanterpool.
Historic markers through the grant program are highlighting sites on the National Votes for Women Trail (NVWT), which is sponsored by the National Collaborative for Women’s History Sites. The trail consists of a database with digital map and a program of historic markers for about 250 women’s suffrage sites across the U.S.
