- April 23, 2024
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from: American Association of University Women Flagler County Branch
Kim Medley, a long-serving member of American Association of University Women Flagler County Branch, stopped by the main branch of the Flagler County Public Library on Oct. 28 to present Holly Albanese, director, with two books which add to the history of woman’s suffrage.
The first, "A Vote for Women: Celebrating the Women’s Suffrage Movement and the 19th Amendment," is a tribute compiled by the 2020 Women’s Vote Centennial Initiative and the National Women’s History Alliance. The second book, "Suffrage, Women & Untold Stories," is the culmination of research which began more than three years ago and is Medley’s first published book.
In August 2018, Medley presented a simple idea to the AAUW Flagler Board, one which she believed would garner publicity for the branch. She wanted to identify the first woman from Flagler County to register and vote in the Nov. 2, 1920, General Election. The search for that woman led to revamping a skit, originally written by Muriel Levy who died this month, performing the skit throughout 2019 and 2020, meeting with and filming interviews with the descendants of many of Flagler’s women listed by The Flagler Tribune as qualified and registered to vote for the 1920 General Election, obtaining a grant from AAUW to film "Echoes of Suffrage," and achieving local, state and national recognition for Alice Scott Abbott, a local Suffragist from Bunnell.
Medley's book chronicles how she approached finding answers to many questions, how the branch organized to promote 100 years of women voting, and how a long-forgotten Bunnell church from 1916 will offer many in Flagler County the chance to explore the Women Suffrage Movement as it marched across the country, came to Florida, and wound its way to Flagler. "Suffrage, Women & Untold Stories" is available in print and Kindle format through Amazon, and at the library.
