Where the Journey Comes Full Circle: New York City

On September 30, 1916, a mud-caked Saxon roadster crossed into New York City at Broadway and 263rd Street. Its paint was nearly invisible beneath the accumulated grit of at least 29 states. Strapped to the exterior: a deer’s antler from the West, a massive wooden key to San Jose, a carved lucky dog, and a kitten’s sleeping basket with a bullet hole from a Mexican border skirmish. Fifteen automobiles packed with cheering suffragists formed a motorcade to escort the travelers downtown. Four female buglers led the way. Alice Burke and Nell Richardson had done it — 10,700 miles, six months, a continent crossed to demand the vote.

They left the Golden Flyer deliberately unwashed. The mud on its tires was the argument. No speech could say what that car said.

One hundred and ten years later, the Golden Flyer II returned and proudly parked in front of New York City Hall.

There could not be a more fitting place to conclude this journey than New York City — where it began on March 1, and where the story of women’s equality has been written, fought for, and carried forward by generations of leaders who refused to accept that democracy was complete without full and equal rights for women.

Over the past month, the Driving the Vote for Equality Tour has traveled 25 states and more than 10,000 miles. We met mayors and legislators, students and seniors, historians and first-time activists. We collected signatures, shared stories, and reminded communities across America that the Equal Rights Amendment is not a relic of the past — it is unfinished business for right now.

New York City is where this story began. It is home to generations of women who transformed America — from Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony to Shirley Chisholm, Bella Abzug, Gloria Steinem, and ERA NOW’s own Carolyn Maloney, along with countless others who insisted that equality was not a special interest but an American promise.

At City Hall, it was Carolyn’s daughter, NYC Council Member Virginia Maloney, who set the terms of the day. And the moment she stepped to the microphone, the full weight of what this Tour is about came into focus.

Council Member Virginia Maloney

NYC Council Member, Daughter of ERA NOW Founder Carolyn Maloney

Virginia Maloney paid tribute to her mother, ERA NOW founder and former Member of Congress Carolyn Maloney, then made the stakes of this fight personal:

“Only an equal rights amendment will ensure that women’s rights to health care, to financial security, to safety, and to equal legal protection are not temporary but permanent constitutional guarantees.”

“This fight has spanned generations. Many of you know that the ERA was first authored by my ancestor Alice Paul. That was in 1923. Here we are, still championing it, thanks to the work of another great New Yorker, former Congresswoman Carolyn Maloney. When people ask what my mom is up to — it was fun to say, oh, she’s in a 1914 car driving state to state.”

“As we prepare to celebrate our country’s 250th anniversary — what message do we send to future generations if women’s rights remain vulnerable to political winds? We owe it to everyone who came before us, and everyone who comes after us, to finish the work they began.”

Carolyn B. Maloney

Founder & CEO, ERA NOW, Former Member of Congress

Carolyn Maloney took the stage — in the city that has been her home and her life’s work — and delivered the remarks that have anchored this Tour from its very first stop:

“Throughout my Congressional service, I was the lead sponsor of the ERA. It remains my primary goal. After leaving the House, I founded ERA NOW to raise awareness and to activate supporters around the need to pass an ERA Congressional Resolution that recognizes the Equal Rights Amendment as the 28th Amendment to the Constitution. And we are doing just that today.”

Then she named what this Tour has really been about — the sentence that stopped rooms in Los Angeles and Cleveland and Seneca Falls, and stopped this one too:

“I never thought my daughters would have fewer rights than I had at their age.”

She continued: “I never thought they would roll back Roe v. Wade. But they did. If they can roll back a woman’s right to choose, they can roll back any other hard-earned right. The only way to protect women is to place them in the Constitution where they rightfully belong. Our rights should not depend on who is in office or on the Supreme Court.”

She laid out the three-part strategy that has driven every mile of this Tour: Sign4ERA.org — the national petition born at Hunter College’s Roosevelt House, now carrying over 165,000 signatures from every congressional district in the country; Driving the Vote for Equality, which began March 1 and has now completed 25 states and 10,000 miles; and Mayors4ERA, building elected official support from the ground up. The goal: one million signatures. The deadline: Election Day 2026. The target: a pro-ERA Congress voting on the Joint Resolution in 2027.

The rally on the steps of City Hall brought together an extraordinary assembly of New York’s leaders — elected officials, advocates, students, and organizers who added their voices to the final chapter of the Driving the Vote’s first phase. A sampling:

Councilmember Elsie Encarnacion

NYC Council

Councilmember Encarnacion captured the mother-daughter theme that ran through the entire day: “What was really moving for me, Carolyn, was when I heard you say, ‘I never imagined that my daughter would have to fight for the rights that I fought for, and that she would have less rights than I had.’ That is what we’re fighting for here today — to make sure we leave a legacy and don’t have to go back.”

Councilmember Harvey Epstein

NYC Council

Epstein connected his own family story to the fight: “When I was a little kid, my mom ran for office, advocated for the ERA, joined the League of Women Voters, and inspired me to do this work. Decades later, it’s really sad that we still haven’t moved this issue forward. Women still get paid 79 cents on the dollar. In this moment, when we see the federal government attacking women’s lives every single day, we need to stand strong. We need to see something happening on the national level. ERA now. We need it more than ever.”

Jeryl Schriever

Author, Driving the Vote for Women

Jeryl brought Alice and Nell back to the city where they lived and where they launched: “These two women lived in Manhattan. They had their soapboxes and they would stand on corners telling people why women deserve the right to vote. And they said, ‘We need to get out of Manhattan — we’ve already talked to everybody in New York.’” She paused. “So if those ladies could do it 110 years ago — with no GPS, no air conditioning, horrible roads and terrible maps — we can too.”

Liz Abzug

Founder, Bella Abzug Leadership Institute

Liz Abzug — daughter of the inimitable Bella — placed the fight in generational terms: “Isn’t it insane that 100 years later we still do not have constitutional equality? But you young people — young women and young men — you really have to help us push this campaign seriously. Everything is a fight. Change requires constant vigilance.”

Albert Ivory

Student, Roosevelt House Public Policy Institute at Hunter College

Albert Ivory, one of the Hunter College students who are helping to build Sign4ERA.org, offered the sharpest strategic insight of the afternoon: “How do we fight? We fight by educating everyone — our sisters, our brothers, our mentors, our neighbors, and even those who oppose us. That’s the only way we truly win.”

Melissa Mark-Viverito

First Latina Speaker of the New York City Council

Melissa Mark-Viverito grew up in Puerto Rico in the 1970s, where her mother was a feminist activist. “On my mother’s bathroom mirror was a little pin that said ERA NOW. I have less rights than my mother had when she was fighting. And that’s pathetic. It is frustrating. It is anger-inducing every single day. The ERA has to be affirmed as part of the Constitution.”

Jessica Neuwirth

Co-Founder, ERA Coalition

Jessica Neuwirth — who Carolyn Maloney personally convinced to start the ERA Coalition — kept it in perspective: “I thought it would be easy. Twenty-four words. No discrimination on the basis of sex. And here we are — closer than ever. I can’t think of a better way to celebrate the 250th anniversary of this country than recognizing the ERA as the 28th Amendment.”

Carol Jenkins

Board Member, ERA Coalition & former Chair

Carol Jenkins — Jessica Neuwirth was the one who convinced me to spend a decade, 10 years, fighting for the ERA. Then we had Congresswoman Carolyn Maloney who held hearings, testified and worked for two successful House votes and now we have Councilwoman Virginia Maloney. I am so glad we now have the next generation working for the ERA.

Judi Polson

Chair, NOW-NYS and NOW-NYC

Judi Polson closed with the Pledge of Allegiance — recalling the little girl who took it every morning and believed it. “It’s now time for our country to fulfill that pledge. The Equal Rights Amendment simply recognizes women as full citizens, full human beings. How is this controversial? That little girl doesn’t understand. But the woman standing here today joined the National Organization for Women and is fighting for equal rights to be permanently enshrined in the Constitution. Every one of you is more than the obstacles in your way. You are the force that overcomes them.”

As we conclude Phase One of Driving the Vote for Equality, we celebrate how far the nation has come — but we also recognize how far we still must go. Women vote in greater numbers than men, lead businesses, serve in Congress, command military units, argue before the Supreme Court that now has four women justices, and run for the presidency. Yet Congress has not yet affirmed and recognized the ERA as the 28th Amendment to the United States Constitution.

That is why this journey mattered. Every mile traveled, every petition signed, every conversation held, and every new supporter who joined us is another reminder that history is never truly finished. The road begun by the suffragists in 1916 did not end with the 19th Amendment until four years later. But that road continues today in our collective efforts to see the Equal Rights Amendment fully recognized as part of the Constitution.

The Golden Flyer II has returned to New York. Phase One is complete. But a movement demanding that a pro-ERA Congress vote on the ERA Joint Resolution affirming the ERA as the 28th Amendment in its first 100 Days of 2027 has just begun.