Ballot & Beyond

For all women, the ratification of suffrage did not mark the end of the fight for women’s voting rights. Women needed to stay organized to overcome any obstacles they might face in exercising their new voting rights, so Lavinia Margaret Engle, helped to establish the Maryland League of Women Voters. Engle led the organization for more than a decade, helping defend Maryland women's voting rights. Listen to this episode of Ballot & Beyond to learn more about this dedicated suffragist, state legislative delegate, and civil servant.

After years of planning, Eunice Kennedy Shriver opened the first Special Olympics game in 1968.  Her brother, Robert Kennedy, was assassinated just seven weeks before. Today, by one estimate, more than three million Special Olympic athletes from all 50 states and 181 countries around the world take part in year-round training for the games. Shriver believed in justice for those with different abilities. Join us on this episode of Ballot & Beyond to learn more about the founder of the Special Olympics.

To Sandi Timmins, equality for women includes the right to be free from domestic violence. While defending that right is everyone’s duty, as executive director of House of Ruth Maryland, Timmins has increased outreach and built innovative training programs for communities, professions, employers, and past abusers. Join us on this episode of Ballot & Beyond to hear how Timmins and House of Ruth Maryland lead help prevent domestic violence.

On Maryland's Eastern Shore, the farming village of Still Pond wrote in its charter a guarantee that women taxpayers had the right to vote in all municipal elections. In 1908, 14 women registered to vote including two African American women. On election day, three of the women along with 72 men showed up to vote. Those three women who went down in history as Maryland's first women to vote are: Anna Baker Maxwell, Eliza Lily Deringer Kelly & Mary Jane Clark Howard.

Judge Diana G. Motz was the first Maryland woman appointed to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit. She believes that her experiences as the rare woman in the classroom and in the courtroom later benefitted her as a judge. As a member of The Federal Bench, one of Judge Motz's signature opinions arose in a case that dealt with the outright prohibition of women to the Virginia Military Institute. Listen now to this episode of Ballot & Beyond to hear how Judge Motz works on protecting women's rights.

In her work, poet Lucille Clifton explored the African American experience and exalted the human capacity to persevere. As a result of her aptitude for compelling and relevant writing, Clifton won major awards and widespread appreciation. This included in Clifton's distinguished role as Maryland State Poet Laureate from for over 10 years.  Join us on this episode of Ballot & Beyond to learn more about poet Lucille Clifton.

In 1917, Baltimore-native Lucy Diggs Slowe won the first-ever championship match held by the newly established American Tennis Association and thus became the first African American woman to win a national championship in any sport. After her tennis career, Diggs Slowe went on to be appointed as the first Dean of Women at Howard University in Washington, DC. Join us for this episode of Ballot & Beyond to hear how Lucy Diggs Slowe paved the way for African American women in academics. 

The Honorable Rita C. Davidson accomplished a number of firsts in her civil service career; as the first woman to serve Maryland’s cabinet, the first to serve on the intermediate appellate court, and the first to serve on Maryland's highest court.

Dr. Liebe Sokol Diamond was a pioneer in many ways, and one of the nation's leading pediatric orthopedic surgeons. Liebe was born with congenital ring constriction syndrome which caused the loss of several fingers and toes while in the womb. By the time she was a teenager, she had undergone 25 surgical procedures. As a surgeon, Dr. Sokol Diamond focused on hand and limb deformities, particularly orthopedic aspects of genetic diseases in children similar to her own and a medically underserved group at that time. 

When women finally secured the right to vote in 1920 after a generations-long fight known as the Women's Suffrage movement, women did not receive the responsibility and opportunity for service via jury duty. Sara A. Whitehurst of Baltimore led the Maryland Committee for Jury Service, an umbrella group of 30 women's groups and advocated for the final passage of the law that allowed women on a federal jury in 1947. Join us for this episode of Ballot & Beyond to learn more about the post-Suffrage fight that allowed women to be considered the peers of men in the eyes of the law.