Utah Women Are Kind

February 1, 2021

 

For February, we’re featuring women who made Utah a better place through kindness. We’ll highlight women on our social media who helped others feel welcome and reach their full potential.

February is also Black History Month, so we’re excited to feature Anna Belle Weakley on our calendar page! Anna Belle ran the Porters and Waiters Club in Ogden, known as the finest Jazz club in the west. At the club, she created a space where everyone felt welcome to break down barriers of racial segregation. Anna Belle later earned a college degree and ran programs treating alcoholism.

We’ll highlight Black history all month on social media. Learn more here about Black women’s work for voting rights in Utah and the U.S. We’ll also feature other women who shaped Utah with kindness throughout the month: Sister Augusta, Lucy Heppler, and Violet Bear Allen.

Click here to download the February calendar!

Some important dates in Utah women’s history:

• February 7 – Amy Brown Lyman was born on this day in 1872. She brought social work to Utah and worked to reduce maternal and child mortality.
• February 10 – On this day in 1870, Utah’s territorial legislature unanimously passed a bill allowing women citizens to vote.
• February 12 – Utah’s acting territorial governor signed the suffrage bill into law.
• February 14 – Two days after that, Seraph Young and 24 other women voted in Salt Lake City’s election. They were the first women in the U.S. to cast ballots under an equal suffrage law.
• February 22 – Zitkála-Šá, a Dakota Sioux activist, was born today in 1876. While living in Utah, she composed the first opera based on Indigenous music and ritual. She later fought for Native citizenship rights in DC.
• February 27 – The U.S. Supreme Court upheld voting rights for women citizens on this day in 1922 after challengers filed a lawsuit to overturn the 19th Amendment. Of course, this did not remove all barriers to voting, especially for women of color. Read more about that here.