HCMS student named American History essay winner

(Franklin, GA) — Milly Criswell, an eighth grade student at Heard County Middle School, was awarded the American History Essay Medal and Certificate of Award at the recent March meeting of the James Stewart Chapter, NSDAR.

Milly Criswell, Heard County Middle School

The NSDAR sponsors the essay contest that is open to all middle school student in public, private and home school programs each year.

Milly’s essay on the Women’s Suffrage Movement was judged by three individuals and received the highest score for her creativity and knowledge on the subject.

The women’s suffrage movement was a decades-long fight to win the right to vote for women in the United States.

It took activists and reformers nearly 100 years to win that right, and the campaign was not easy: Disagreements over strategy threatened to cripple the movement more than once.

But on August 26, 1920, the 19th Amendment to the Constitution was finally ratified, enfranchising all American women and declaring for the first time that they, like men, deserve all the rights and responsibilities of citizenship.

Susan B. Anthony was perhaps the most discussed and prominent American suffragist and civil rights activist.

She campaigned against slavery and for women to be given the vote. She was the co-founder of the Women’s Temperance movement which campaigned to tighten up laws on alcohol.

She played a significant role in raising the profile of equal rights for women and is credited with playing a significant role in the passing of the nineteenth amendment (1920) which gave women the vote.

Submitted by Pamela Lyle, Regent