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House Honors Martha Coffin Wright

On October 9, the House approved a resolution (H. Res. 588) recognizing the accomplishments of Martha Coffin Wright in pursuing equal rights for women while recognizing her 200th birthday and induction into the National Women’s Hall of Fame.

Sponsored by Rep. Michael Arcuri (D-NY), the resolution contains a number of findings, including:

  • Martha Coffin Wright, sister of Lucretia Coffin Mott, was one of five organizers of the First Woman’s Rights Convention in Seneca Falls, New York, in 1848;
  • from this convention came the ‘Declaration of Sentiments,’ an appeal for basic rights for women, modeled on the Declaration of Independence;
  • when Martha Wright helped to plan the Seneca Falls Convention, she was six months pregnant with her seventh child, epitomizing the personal strength and dedication of the participants of the women’s rights movement;
  • after the Seneca Falls Convention, Martha Wright participated in many state and national women’s rights conventions in various capacities, often serving as president; and
  • during the antebellum years, Martha Wright was active in the abolition movement, attended the founding meeting of the American Anti-Slavery Society in Philadelphia in 1833, and later presided over numerous anti-slavery meetings.Rep. Arcuri said of Martha Coffin Wright, “After the Civil War, Martha was also instrumental in the formation of the American Equal Rights Association, which attempted to merge the issues of black suffrage and women’s suffrage; and in early 1874 she was elected president of the National Woman Suffrage Association.”

    Rep. Tom Davis (R-VA) added, “After the Seneca Falls Convention, Mrs. Wright served as president and in other leadership positions in many other women’s rights conventions. Martha Wright was also a fervent abolitionist, and her home in Auburn, New York, was a station on the Underground Railroad. She often allowed fugitive slaves to sleep in her kitchen.”