Long may she wave

Flags in downtown celebrate the 103rd anniversary of women's right to vote

The suffragist flag celebrates the passing of the 19th Amendment to the Constitution, which recognized women’s right to vote. (Photo by Dale Dougherty)

Wondering what the purple and gold flags lining the street in downtown Sebastopol are all about? They are being flown in celebration of the 103rd anniversary of the 19th Amendment, which gave women the right to vote.

The local boy scout troop put up the flags, interspersed with American flags, this morning, and the West Sonoma County Historical Society did a little pop-up with suffragist posters in front of the West County Museum.

“The flags were modeled after the suffragist flag,” said Mary Dodgion of the West County Museum. “It’s not an exact copy, but it’s a replica.”

The colors of the flag reflect the colors of the National Woman’s Party in the United States, a suffragist party. The organization described the meaning of these colors in a newsletter published Dec. 6, 1913: “Purple is the color of loyalty, constancy to purpose, unswerving steadfastness to a cause. White, the emblem of purity, symbolizes the quality of our purpose; and gold, the color of light and life, is as the torch that guides our purpose, pure and unswerving.”

The flag has 36 stars, symbolizing the number of state ratifications required for the amendment to become law.

Michael Carnacchi—bootmaker, former councilmember and amateur historian—collects suffragist memorabilia, and he is the person responsible for getting the flags made in the first place. Three years ago, for the 100th anniversary of women’s right to vote, he got the city to fork over the money for the flags and some handsome street banners. When the centennial year was over, the city donated the banners to the West County Museum.

There was a fair bit of confusion in town today about what the flags represented.

Dodgion said a local police officer stopped by to inquire what the flags represented because she was getting so many questions from people.

“They are not Ukrainian flags,” Carnacchi joked earlier this week.

Here, suffragist Alice Paul evokes the memory of Revolutionary flag makers, such as Betsy Ross, as she sews a National Woman’s Party (NWP) suffrage flag.  (Courtesy of the Museum of the American Revolution)