Minnesota Swedes Raising Cane
Marilyn McGriff
Saturday, January 25, 2020 - 10:00am to 12:00pm
Washburn Library, 5244 Lyndale Ave S, Minneapolis, MN 55419
In the early years of the 20th century, a Swedish-American doctor invested in a large tract of land in eastern Cuba. Using his doctor's office on Nicollet Avenue in Minneapolis as a headquarters, he promoted the sale of land parcels to his fellow Swedish-Americans. In his promotional pamphlets, written in Swedish, Dr. Lind promised cheap land, a warm healthful climate and the opportunity to harvest crops year round.
At 6 a.m. on the morning of August 27, 1920, the City of South St. Paul held the very first election conducted on the day following ratification of the 19th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution granting women the right to vote. The identity of the first woman to cast a ballot will be discussed as will the history of suffrage across the nation and in Minnesota for the seventy-plus years leading up to passage of the 19th Amendment. Lois Glewwe is from South St. Paul and believes that her own grandmother and three aunts voted on that important day. 
On the 100th Anniversary of Women’s Right to Vote, another 100-year struggle to gain constitutional equality through ratification of the Equal Rights Amendment for women is one state away from passage. Modern-day suffragists around the country have united to make equal legal in 2020. We’ll explore efforts both here in Minnesota and around the U.S., finally, to amend an ERA into our state and federal constitutions.