Today is Alice Paul Day

Today, January 11, is Alice Paul Day in Ridgefield, Connecticut to celebrate her date of birth.

Alice Paul lived on Branchville Road for the last thirty years of her life. We are so proud to be able to claim her as part of Ridgefield's history.

For those of us who are not familiar with her accomplishments, here is a paragraph from the Alice Paul Institute. The banner on the homepage says it all:  "You have a voice. Thank Alice."

As a national leader of the effort to gain women's suffrage with an amendment to the United States Constitution, and as founder of the National Women's Party, Alice Paul dedicated her life's work to one issue: equality for women. Even after passage of the Nineteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution, Paul continued her relentless advocacy for women's rights. A Connecticut resident near the end of her life, Paul fought valiantly for women's suffrage and her vision of full equality under the law."

She was also one of the authors of the original Equal Rights Amendment which passed Congress in 1972, although it failed to win ratification. Ridgefield is proud to claim her as one of our own.

Alice Paul was inducted into the Connecticut Women's Hall of Fame in 1994. In January 2011, First Selectman Rudy Marconi dedicated January 11 as Alice Paul Day here in Ridgefield in her honor.

To learn more about her and her contributions to women gaining the right to vote and her work on the original Equal Rights Amendment, check out the Alice Paul Institute and the Connecticut Women's Hall of Fame athttp://www.alicepaul.org/ and http://www.cwhf.org/inductees/reformers/alice-paul.

Join us and celebrate her life and accomplishments today.  Thank you Alice Paul! We salute you!