The City of Tenafly, New York celebrates sister city status for women’s suffrage

TENAFLY — Borough officials celebrated approval of sister city status for Seneca Falls, New York, honoring longtime resident and women’s activist Elizabeth Cady Stanton on Sunday with the reading of proclamations approved by their governing bodies last month.

Councilwoman Julie O’Connor joined Kathy Jans-Duffy, judge of the town of Tire, near Seneca Falls, to read the resolutions during a women’s suffrage celebration at Borough Hall.

“Stanton, formerly of Tenafly, was a pioneering force in the women’s suffrage movement and worked closely with Susan B. Anthony to advocate for the adoption of the 19th Amendment to the United States Constitution, granting women the right to vote,” O’ Connor read during the ceremony.

Stanton’s great-great-granddaughter, Coline Jenkins, co-founder and president of the Elizabeth Cady Stanton Trust, was in attendance.

“Elizabeth was interested in the law,” Jenkins told an audience of about 200 in the council chamber. “The most fundamental right for her was women’s right to vote.”

The proclamations do not include any specific duties or obligations beyond “the opportunity to honor and promote the legacy of Elizabeth Cady Stanton.” Jenkins encouraged a “new vision for Tenafly becoming part of Women’s Rights National Park,” which is now located in Seneca Falls.

Stanton was living in Seneca Falls when she introduced the Declaration of Rights and Sentiments for Women at a two-day convention there in 1848. The most controversial resolution was the “sacred right of suffrage”, which the convention hesitated to approve until the abolition of the death penalty. Frederick Douglass expressed his support.

Three years later, Stanton met Anthony, beginning a collaboration on women’s rights that would last 51 years. As Stanton put it: “I forged lightning bolts. She shot them.”

From then on, Anthony spent much of her time living with Stanton, including from 1868 to 1887 at her home at 135 Highwood Ave., designated a national monument in 1975. In May, the Tenafly Train Station was renamed in Stanton’s honor.

The 19th Amendment to the United States Constitution, granting women the right to vote, was not ratified until August 1920, 18 years after Stanton’s death.

Also featured on Sunday as speakers were Denise Baskerville, who read Sojourner Truth’s poem “Ain’t I a Woman?” Tomasina Schwarz, president of the League of Women Voters of the North Valley, praised Stanton for her “courage and boldness.” Assemblymember Shama Haider credited Stanton’s efforts for her election as a “Pakistani woman of color.”

Former state senator Loretta Weinberg praised Stanton for raising issues that are “still relevant to us today.”

This article originally appeared on NorthJersey.com: Tenafly NJ, Seneca Falls Celebrate Sister Cities Collaboration on Women’s Rights