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'Sign of the Times: The Historic Fight for Women's Voting Rights' comes to District Theatre on Mass Avenue this weekend

The one-woman play, starring Latrice Young, aims to introduce and educate the public on the path to women's right to vote.

INDIANAPOLIS — Historically, the right to vote didn't come easy for many women, especially African American women.

Even after the ratification of the 19th Amendment, which expanded voting rights, Black women continued to fight for voting rights for all.

This weekend, Freetown Village is putting on a play called, "Sign of the Times: The Historic Fight for Women's Voting Rights" at District Theatre on Mass Ave.

"I wanted to bring ... this story to people who don't know about voting rights in general, and then what it took for women to vote," said Latrice Young, who stars in this one-woman play.

Young's character, Gwendolyn Harris, represents the third generation of Black women in her family in Indiana who fought for the historic moment to vote.

Harris was born free in Indiana.

"Her mother came from southern Indiana around Jefferson County and migrated to Marion County with her husband in the year 1870," said Ophelia Wellington, the play's editor.

"What we do in Freetown Village is research current events and find a historical tie to it and find the documentation that led up to this particular event," said Wellington.

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The play was written by Crystal V. Rhodes and directed by LaKesha Lorene.

"Her (Gwendolyn's) story parallels many free African Americans as well as their interconnections with other people," Wellington said, referencing people like Sojourner Truth, Susan B. Anthony, Madam C.J. Walker and others, during the women's suffrage movement.

"There were so many things about women that men said, 'You know, women have smaller bodies, so they must have smaller brains,' and, 'Women need to stay in the house and make sure dinner is on the table, the kids are clean, the house is clean,'" Wellington said.

Young said she knew this experience would be educational and eye-opening.

"What I found was how men perceived women and what they thought about our roles in society. Reading the play and reading the words and being able to embody it, that's where it struck me. People actually thought that. That's how they viewed women," Young said.

Wellington said women still have a long way to go.

"Even today, women are still fighting for equal pay, for equal work. So there's some things that are still carrying on, so the fight continues," Wellington said.  

It's an eye-opening story of one woman's journey to the ballot box.

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