Richmond — Where History Was Made, and Where It's Being Made Again

There is something fitting — almost cinematic — about arriving in Richmond, Virginia on International Women's Day. This is the capital of the last state to ratify the Equal Rights Amendment. The state whose ratification in 2020 finally pushed the ERA across the constitutional finish line — 38 states, three-quarters of the nation, exactly what Article V requires. And still Congress has not acted. Richmond knows what it means to be on the right side of history and still have to fight for recognition. The Golden Flyer II felt right at home.

The day began in the historic Jackson Ward neighborhood — one of Richmond's most storied communities, just steps from the Maggie L. Walker Historic Site. Walker was no ordinary trailblazer. She was the first woman in the United States to charter and serve as president of a bank — an African American woman who built economic power for her community in the teeth of Jim Crow, at a time when both her race and her gender were deployed as arguments against her right to participate in American life. Parking the Golden Flyer II down the street from her historic site on International Women's Day was not an accident. It was a salute.

The occasion was a Virginia's List event at the Hippodrome Theatre — supporting pro-choice women running for office in non-federal races. The Golden Flyer II parked outside and did what it always does: stopped people in their tracks. Very few passersby passed up the opportunity to sign the Sign4ERA.org petition. The car has a way of making the abstract immediate — you see it, you want to know what it is, and five minutes later you're signing your name to a constitutional cause.

Before we get to the Bell Tower, it's worth a moment with the original Alice and Nell, who pulled into Richmond on the evening of April 12, 1916 — arriving just before 6:00 p.m. and going immediately to work.

Alice Burke set up at the corner of Broad and Sixth Streets and held a street meeting. The crowd included rough men, a heckler fueled by Three Feathers whiskey, and at least one "boozer" from a nearby saloon who stopped to scoff. Alice kept them spellbound for over an hour. When a particularly offensive heckler sneered at her reference to her "little darling" — the car — someone shoved him into the background. By the end of the evening, that same man was seen stroking his chin and muttering: "Well, I'll vote the entire bunch ding-donged if I don't."

When it was time to go, Alice got out to crank the engine herself. Half a dozen of her most vocal critics stepped forward wanting to do it for her. Every one of them was overcome by bashfulness and simply watched. Before driving away, she began a sentence with "When I was a young woman..." — and left it deliberately unfinished. The crowd laughed and cheered. Alice flashed a winning smile, and the Golden Flyer shot off into the night.

One hundred and ten years later, Susan Nourse and Jeryl Schriever drove the Golden Flyer II through those same downtown streets. The crowds are friendlier now. The fight is the same.

Mid-afternoon, the Golden Flyer II rolled through downtown Richmond to the Bell Tower on the Capitol grounds — and a crowd was waiting.

Virginia NOW President Kobby Hoffman opened the rally and introduced Virginia Delegate Amy Laufer, who served as master of ceremonies with grace and energy throughout. Jeryl Schriever spoke about Alice and Nell's 1916 journey, about the Saxon, about the book, and about why 2026 is the year this movement closes the distance between ratification and recognition.

Then came Eileen Davis.

Davis is a registered nurse, a feminist, a lifelong social justice activist, and the mother of Virginia's Governor, Abigail Spanberger. But titles don't capture her. She co-founded Women Matter, which became VA Ratify ERA, and spent years in the trenches of the ERA ratification fight before Virginia finally crossed the line. She worked alongside Kobby Hoffman on the Three-State Solution for the ERA at the National NOW conference in Chicago back in 2013. She has been at this — steadily, strategically, and with total conviction — for decades.

At the Bell Tower, she held up a photograph. It was taken in the early 1900s — seventeen suffragists of the Equal Suffrage League of Virginia, standing together in front of the George Washington Statue in Capitol Square, just steps away.

She called on everyone gathered to walk up to that statue and recreate the photo. To stand where those women stood. To make visible, in 2026, the line that runs unbroken from their fight to ours.

They did. And it was extraordinary.

Kathy Bonk, board member of ERA NOW spoke next about the Driving the Vote for Equality campaign — the 25 states, the petition, the million signatures, the Joint Resolution, and the window of time that is narrowing even as the movement is growing. And then Representative Jennifer McClellan took the podium.

McClellan is the first African American woman to represent Virginia in Congress. She currently serves as Co-Chair of the Congressional Caucus on the Equal Rights Amendment and Chair of the Reproductive Freedom Caucus's Abortion Rights and Access Task Force. Kathy Bonk presented her with an ERA Champion Certificate — recognizing her leadership on the Joint Resolution — and McClellan accepted it with the authority of someone who knows exactly what she's been given and exactly what she intends to do with it.

Jeanne Clark, a long-time activist for the ERA and part of our road team closed the program with a call to action on the Sign4ERA.org petition — because all of this, the history, the speeches, the photographs, the tears, the laughter, the drive — comes down to one million signatures and a Congress that finally acts.

The rally ended with an invitation: come to the Commonwealth Hotel for a happy hour, get a signed copy of Driving the Vote for Women, and keep the conversation going. Many did.

Richmond gave us everything today. History. Courage. A photograph recreated across a century. And a crowd that left knowing exactly what they need to do next.

On to the next stop. The road doesn't end here. It never has.