Editor:

As co-producers of “Strong Sisters,” the new documentary film that tells the extraordinary story of elected women in Colorado, we are delighted that the Sewell-Belmont House in Washington, D.C. is being designated as a National Monument. This new designation for what will now be called the Belmont-Paul Women’s Equality National Monument, honors the history of women winning the right to vote in our country.

The Sewell-Belmont House was the home of the National Woman’s Party, where Alice Paul and many other women organized the marches, hunger strikes, speaking tours and other tactics that resulted in the 19th Amendment – guaranteeing women the right to vote – to be passed in 1919 and ratified in 2020. This site has rich historic, cultural, political, economic and educational significance.

Coloradans take pride in the fact that women here gained full suffrage in 1893 – 27 years before national suffrage! In making the Strong Sisters film, we searched high and low for photos and documents to tell Colorado’s story of elected women in Colorado, including our notable status as the first place where women were elected to a state legislative body in the nation, in 1894. So we know how priceless it is to have a central archive for items of historical significance.

The Belmont-Paul Monument contains the most complete collection of national women’s suffrage and equal rights movement artifacts like letters, banners, sashes, newsletters, lobbying cards and more. These are American treasures that help tell the story of women in America. This story deserves to be told by some of the best storytellers in the business—the National Park Service.

Strong Sisters has had the support of women from all walks of life. We believe that we can all come together to support the effort to create the Belmont-Paul Women’s Equality National Monument so that this uniquely American story can be properly preserved and retold for many generations to come.

Meg Froelich and Laura HoeppnerStrong Sisters Producers