Anonymous and Named: Stories of Women and God in the Struggle

Seventy-five years ago, the 19th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution was ratified and women won the right to vote, thanks in large part to the efforts of ISU alumna and suffragist Carrie Chapman Catt. Iowa State will honor Catt during a week-long celebration in October that culminates with the dedication of Carrie Chapman Catt Hall and the Plaza of Heroines. The completely renovated Catt Hall, known since 1968 as "Old Botany," is a 19th century building listed on the National Register of Historic Buildings. It will house the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences and several academic programs, including the Carrie Chapman Catt Center for Women and Politics. The Plaza of Heroines at the entrance of the building includes more than 2,500 bricks engraved with the names of women others have chosen to honor. The dedication ceremonies were integrated with Women's Week '95, which brings to campus four keynote speakers and hundreds of other participants. "The Changing Role of Native Women" will be examined Oct. 4 by Wilma Mankiller, the first woman elected chief of the Cherokee Nation. Molly Ivins, nationally syndicated columnist for the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, will give a lecture Oct. 5 titled, "We've Come a Long Way Sister, Now Let's Talk About How Far We've Got to Go." On Oct. 6, Bernice Johnson Reagon will offer a historical perspective of Catt's suffrage contemporaries, including Sojourner Truth and Fannie Lou Hamer. Her lecture is titled "From Harriet and Sojourner to Carrie Chapman Catt and Fannie Lou Hamer: Right to the Tree of Life." Reagon is a distinguished professor of history at American University and curator emeritus of the Smithsonian Institution's National Museum of American History. She also is founder and artistic director of the musical group, Sweet Honey in the Rock, and was a member of the original Freedom Singers during the Civil Rights Movement. A program of African American music and spirituals will follow her lecture. The Catt Hall dedication will begin at 3 p.m. Friday, Oct. 6. Participants include national leaders of the League of Women Voters, the organization Catt founded in 1920; national officers for Pi Beta Phi, the sorority in which Catt was a member; and Iowa political leaders such as Mary Louise Smith, past chair of the National Republican Party, and Lt. Gov. Joy Corning. Tours of Catt Hall will follow the ceremony.