Pasadena 2020 Commemorates Anniversary of Women’s Right to Vote and the Girls Who Helped

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There is a special sense of satisfaction for Carol Robbins, the project manager on the committee Pasadena Celebrates 2020.

Her group’s Rose Parade float — the one with the giant Statue of Liberty — commemorates the 100-year anniversary of the passage of the 19th Amendment which gave women the right to vote.

“Our whole focus is to celebrate the 100th year since the passage of the 19th Amendment when women won the right to vote,” Robbins said. “So we’re kicking off the year to tell the world that 100 years keep moving forward, we’re passing the torch to never give up, failure is impossible.”

Robbins said the Statue of Liberty has an immense presence physically as well as historically for the women’s movement.

“The Statue of Liberty is the icon,” she said. “She’s the icon saying “Continue, continue, continue.”

In addition to constructing the float, Pasadena 2020 hosted descendants of famous American suffragettes and civil rights leaders to ride it and gathered walkers that included representatives of organizations supporting the 72-year fight.

“We have 100 women and some men walking behind the float dressed in the suffrage dresses,” she said.

Sylvia Acevedo CEO of the Girl Scouts of the USA said her organization played a big role in helping women to vote.

“The float was created here in Pasadena and the committee was gracious to invite us,” Acevedo said. “Girl Scouts played a big part. When women first got the right to vote many of them brought their children to the polling places and they weren’t allowed to vote because they had children. So the Girl Scouts mobilized across the country and provided free babysitting so women could go vote.”

The colors on the float are significant, Robbins said.

“Back when they were doing the 19th Amendment passage if they wore red they did not agree and women should not get the vote,” Robbins said. “If they wore yellow it meant they agreed women should have the right to vote. So yellow roses are very significant. Yellow purple and white were the suffrage colors in the 1920s and before then.”

For more information about the “Years of Hope, Years of Courage” float visit www.pasadenacelebrates2020.org.