Jamie Capuzza Talks about Ohio’s Contributions to Women’s Suffrage

Learn how Ohio’s women influenced the national women’s suffrage movement at the Massillon Museum’s Brown Bag Lunch on Tuesday, September 26, beginning at 12:10 p.m. Author Jamie C. Capuzza, a scholar and award-winning teacher, will discuss her book, The Fifth Star: Ohio’s Fight for Women’s Right to Vote. The event will conclude about 12:50 p.m. to accommodate guests on their lunch hours.

Capuzza will explain how influential Ohio women were from 1850 through 1920, as the first to petition a government for women’s enfranchisement. They helped build infrastructure for the movement by forming the nation’s first state women’s rights organization and by hosting two of the earliest national women’s rights conventions.

Many of the movement’s early leaders were Ohioans. Frances Barker Gage became a movement leader in the 1850s. Victoria Claflin Woodhull, who briefly lived in Massillon, was the first woman to run for the US presidency (in 1872). Harriet Taylor Upton, president of the Ohio Women’s Suffrage Association. Also among the national leadership were African Americans with Ohio connections.

Capuzza references on suffrage convention proceedings, state congressional reports, local media, and personal letters and diaries of Ohio reformers, creating a vivid portrait of perseverance and determination. The Fifth Star will be available for purchase and signing at the Brown Bag Lunch.

The Brown Bag Lunch series is free and open to everyone.  Guests may bring lunch or purchase sandwiches, salad, and smoothies at Greatness Cafe in the Museum lobby.  MassMu provides complimentary cookies and coffee for attendees. Galleries will be open before and after the Brown Bag Lunch. Visitors can see John W. Carlson: Set the Twilight Reeling; Local History, Photography, and Decorative and Fine Arts Galleries; the Immel Circus; Innovators of Massillon; First Peoples of North America; Abyssinian Expedition of 1903; the Paul Brown/Massillon Tiger Football History Timeline; A Way to Win: Paul Brown’s Innovations; and Artists of Group Ten: Ten Point Perspective.  

The Brown Bag Lunch series is free and open to everyone.  Guests may bring lunch or purchase sandwiches, salad, and smoothies at Greatness Cafe in the Museum lobby.  MassMu provides complimentary cookies and coffee to all attendees.
 
The Massillon Museum is grateful for operating support from the Ohio Arts Council, ArtsinStark, and the citizens of Massillon, as well as marketing support from Visit Canton. The Brown Bag Lunch series is funded in part by the National Endowment for the Arts.
 
MassMu is located at 121 Lincoln Way East in downtown Massillon. A visit is always free and everyone is welcome. Free parking is available on adjacent streets and in nearby city lots. For more information, call 330-833-4061 or visit massillonmuseum.org.