by Freeda Cathcart
Richmond – There was a mixture of determination, passion and celebration at several International Women’s Day events on Sunday, March 8.
The festivities started at noon outside the Hippodrome where people gathered around a Saxon antique car to meet the Driving The Vote For Equality crew. A group of women are driving across the country as homage to Alice and Nell’s courageous 1916 journey for the 19th amendment to enshrine the women’s right to vote in the U.S. Constitution. Alice and Nell drove a Saxon on their journey.
A hundred years later the new courageous crew are hauling the same type of antique Saxon car across the country. People can read about their journey in the book “Driving The Vote For Women” by Jeryl Schriever. They kicked off their journey driving the Saxon through Central Park in NYC on March 1. Schriever is a member of the crew and owns the Saxon. Their mission is to raise awareness about the Equal Rights Amendment.
Virginia was the final necessary state to ratify the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA) to make it the law of the land. Many constitutional lawyers including the American Bar Association agree that all the metrics have been met to add the Equal Rights Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. Unfortunately Donald Trump’s regime is preventing the archivist from adding it to the constitution.
Similar to the Epstein files, there needs to be an act of Congress to declare the ERA the law of the land with an instruction to the archivist to publish it as required by the U.S. Constitution. While there are hundreds of bi-partisan members of Congress who are sponsoring the resolution, there aren’t enough to pass it yet.
An important difference between the resolution and the Epstein Transparency Act is Congress has the power to pass it and enact it without the president’s signature. Since we’re heading into the midterm campaign season people are encouraged to ask their members of Congress if they support the ERA resolution. If the resolution doesn’t pass before the midterm election then it’s important to make sure that pro-ERA congressional candidates win this November.
People can support the ERA by going to sign4era.org where people can sign the petition for the resolution. People can also donate to the 501(c)(3) to support their journey. Their goal is to collect a million signatures and they’re off to a good start. Be a part of history and support their efforts.
At 1:30 Virginia’s List held their 2026 Signature event in the Speakeasy Grill featuring Roanoke’s Beth Macy, a Congressional candidate. Virginia’s List is an organization that raises money to donate to democratic women candidates to give them a fighting chance. When Virginia’s List began in 2015 there were only 17 women in the General Assembly. In 2026, there are 56 women in the General Assembly!
U.S. Congresswoman Jennifer McClellan spoke at the event. She is the first Black woman to represent Virginia in Congress. McClellan talked about the challenges she has to face in Congress. People are hurting from inflation. Many families live in fear due to ICE and the concentration camps. She talked about how it could be easy in this moment to be hopeless. But then she reminded us that prior generations of women who fought for women’s rights to vote and the Civil Rights Act would be amazed with the progress women have made.
Lt. Gov. Ghazala Hashmi spoke about the leadership roles women have in Virginia. Virginians elected their first woman governor, Abigail Spanberger and the first woman Lt. Governor. A black woman, Louise Lucas, is the President Pro Tempore of the Virginia Senate and the Chair of the powerful Finance and Appropriations Committee. Hashmi talked about the historic legislation being passed in the General Assembly including paid family leave.
A rally for the ERA started at 3:30 at the Bell Tower where McClellan was honored with the Equal Rights Amendment Champion Award. McClellan is the Vice Chair of the Congressional ERA Caucus. Eileen Davis, mother of Gov. Abigail Spanberger, talked about the importance of history to remind us of how far women have come.
Davis had a photograph from over a hundred years ago of suffragists in front of the statue of George Washington in Richmond’s Capitol Square. She asked for attendees to gather at the statue after the rally to have their picture taken and they did.
After the rally people had fun having their photo taken sitting in the Saxon on their way to the Happy Hour ERA celebration. People shared memories of the work they had done that resulted in the ratification of the ERA and spoke about the continuing journey for women’s rights.
