A Small City with a Big Welcome: South Lyon, Michigan

As the Driving the Vote for Equality Tour made its way from Lansing to Detroit, we took a short but meaningful detour to South Lyon — a town that describes itself simply but accurately: a place where people look out for one another and show up for each other.

South Lyon was not a stop on Alice Burke and Nell Richardson’s original 1916 cross-country journey for women’s suffrage. But more than a century later, the Golden Flyer II found a warm welcome at the South Lyon Area Historical Society, a beautifully preserved Victorian railroad depot that no longer sees trains but still draws its community together. On a bright Michigan morning, with the old depot at their backs and the golden Saxon roadster gleaming in the sun, South Lyon showed exactly the kind of spirit that has powered this Tour across 25 states.

Gail Johnson — District 15 Governor of Zonta International and one of the Tour’s indispensable Michigan organizers, who also hosted the Lansing stop — spoke to the gathering about the ERA’s history and its urgency. She connected the suffragists’ cross-country drive to the work that still lies ahead, reminding the crowd that Zonta has been one of the earliest and most consistent institutional voices for the ERA since Alice Paul introduced it in 1923. Her presence in South Lyon was a testament to what sustained, organized advocacy looks like across a career.

Mayor Stephen Kennedy welcomed the Tour with the warmth that defines South Lyon itself. He framed the gathering not as a political event but as a community conversation — the kind that reaches back through the nation’s history and forward into its future.

“Here, we don’t shy away from important conversations. We approach them the way we approach everything else: with respect, with curiosity, and with a commitment to listening to one another. Whether you’ve come out this morning to support the amendment, to understand it better, or simply to be part of our community, you belong here.” — Mayor Stephen Kennedy

He spoke about the ERA as a proposal rooted in a simple but powerful idea — that equality under the law should not be denied on the basis of sex — and invited everyone present to reflect on what equality, fairness, and constitutional rights mean to them personally. It was the kind of civic leadership that reminds you why mayors matter: they are closest to the people, closest to the kitchen table, and closest to the real consequences of the laws made far away in Washington.

Our stop in South Lyon may have been brief, but it was exactly the kind of stop this Tour was designed to make. Not every community on the road to equality is a major city. Not every gathering draws hundreds of people. But every community has a role to play — and every mayor who steps forward, every name signed on that petition, every neighbor who shows up because they believe in something larger than themselves, moves the country closer to the finish line.

South Lyon understood that. Mayor Kennedy understood that. And the Driving the Vote for Equality Tour was grateful for the welcome.

Then it was time to return to the road and continue east toward Detroit — carrying with us, as always, the signatures, the stories, and the determination of every stop along the way.