Washington, DC – Yesterday, Congresswoman Liz Cheney (R-WY) issued and submitted the following statement into the Congressional Record after the House voted to pass S. 2126, a bill to designate the Federal Office Building located at 308 W. 21st Street in Cheyenne as the “Louisa Swain Federal Office Building”:
“Madam Speaker, I rise today in support of S. 2126 which will rename our federal building in Cheyenne, Wyoming to honor one of our state’s most distinguished heroines: Louisa Swain.
“On September 6, 1870, Louisa Swain became the first woman to cast a ballot in a general election in the United States. She cast her historic vote just a few blocks from the federal building that will now bear her name. Louisa’s action that day represented the very best of what Wyoming represents: independence, leadership, grit, integrity, and equality.
“In 1869, Wyoming became the first place in America where women had the right to vote. Our state constitution included suffrage for women. When we applied for statehood in 1890, Congress responded that we would not be admitted to the union so long as we provided women with the right to vote. In response, Wyoming’s state legislators said, “If we can’t come in with our women, we aren’t coming in.”
“Wyoming became a state in 1890, the first state in the union where women could vote.
“The track record of female leaders in Wyoming is long and extensive. It runs through who we are as a state, whether that’s Esther Hobart Morris service as the first female justice of the peace in Sweetwater County in 1870, Susan Johnson serving as a postmaster in Cheyenne in 1880, Mary Bellamy being elected to the Wyoming House of Representatives in 1911, or my own grandmother, Edna Vincent, who was the first female Deputy Sheriff in Natrona County.
“It’s appropriate that we acknowledge Wyoming’s historic leadership when it comes to advancing rights and opportunities for women. Renaming our Cheyenne federal building after Louisa Swain will serve as an important reminder and honor for all the trailblazing women who have come before us, and will put Wyoming’s proud history and heritage on display as an example for the entire nation.”
Original source can be found here.
