The Suffragists: The Fight for the Vote in Sullivan County

This talk is rescheduled for Spring 2022

Although not much has been recorded about any 19th century Sullivan County women who might have been involved in the suffrage battle, there were a number of local women who became very involved in the movement in the early 20th century, when virtually every community in the county from Bloomingburg to Roscoe had an active Women’s Suffrage Club. Here’s a look at the struggle on the local as well as the national level that led to women gaining the right to vote in New York State in 1917 and to the eventual ratification of the 19th Amendment on August 18, 1920.

This hybrid event will be live at the HPAC Cinema and streamed live online.  Tickets are $10

*In an effort to maintain Covid-19 Safety Standards advanced tickets are required. Limited seating is available and masks required.  Members of a pod can sit together and will adjusted onsite.*

We require all people entering the building to wear a mask unless an individual’s condition meets the definition of a “disability” pursuant to the ADA in which case reasonable accommodations will be made.  Most events are also offered virtually.

John Conway has been the Sullivan County, NY Historian since 1993. He is a founder and president of The Delaware Company, a not-for-profit organization whose mission is to promote and support the history and historic landmarks of the Upper Delaware River Valley and beyond.  He is the author of nine books (the most recent being In Further Retrospect, released in 2020), dozens of magazine articles, and has written nearly 1,700 weekly newspaper columns on local history since 1987.

Mr. Conway has discussed the history of the Catskills in a number of documentary films, including The Sullivan County Catskills: The Next Act; Seasons at the Lake; and Woodstock: Three Days That Defined a Generation. He appeared on an episode of the Fox Television Network series, Million Dollar Mysteries in 2000, discussing bootlegger Dutch Schultz’s lost Catskills treasure, and recently appeared in the Travel Channel series, Code of the Wild, helping the show’s stars, the Keefer brothers, in their quest to find the Schultz treasure. Other television appearances include two shows on the BBC.

From 1980 to 1994 he hosted a popular call-in radio talk show, and more recently hosted a monthly radio show about local history called The Black Dog Tavern, on WJFF. He is regularly asked to provide a historical context for Sullivan County news events by the New York Times, among others. From 1998 to 2016 he taught a three credit class on Sullivan County history at SUNY-Sullivan. He has since devised a six-week long curriculum on Sullivan County history and typically offers the course twice each year.

Among other things, John is currently Editor-in-Chief of the recently revived Hurleyville Sentinel newspaper.