“Your vote is your voice” New marker honors legacy of women’s suffrage movement pioneer

WLOS — A local pioneer in the women’s suffrage movement is now honored with a new heritage marker.

On May 22, the League of Women Voters of Asheville-Buncombe County celebrated the installation of a heritage marker honoring Helen Morris Lewis.

In Asheville, Lewis organized the first Woman’s Rights Association in North Carolina in 1894.

In commemoration of the 19th Amendment’s 100th year, markers are honoring people and events connected to women’s suffrage.

The marker is now on display inside the Patton Parker house.

And members of the League of Women Voters say it’s a great reminder of how important it is to get out and vote.

“Our main slogan is, ‘your vote is your voice,’ and if you don’t get out there and vote, you don’t have your voice,” Suzanne Fisher, president of League of Women Voters of Asheville-Buncombe County, said. “And I don’t think you have a right to complain either if you don’t vote.”

People at the event were treated with Girl Scout cookies from the Peaks to Piedmont Council.

The organization has a partnership with the Girl Scouts that goes back to the early 1900s, when scouts would watch women’s children while they went inside to vote.

The scouts recently approved a Helen Morris Lewis patch that can be awarded to girls who learn about her.

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