More than a century after suffragists Nell Richardson and Alice Burke launched their 1916 cross-country campaign for women’s voting rights in the original “Golden Flyer,” the modern Driving the Vote for Equality tour continues carrying the fight for constitutional equality across the country—this time through communities confronting attacks on voting rights, bodily autonomy and democracy itself.
As the Golden Flyer II traveled through Arizona and California, organizers, activists and local leaders reflected on what it means to fight for equality in places shaped by migration, labor struggles, border politics, climate pressures and widening political divides.
From Phoenix and Tucson to Yuma, San Diego, Los Angeles and Modesto, each stop revealed a different front in the ongoing struggle for the Equal Rights Amendment and a more inclusive democracy.
What follows are edited excerpts and reflections from the road; read full versions of the ERA road trip daily diary here.
April 30
Phoenix and Tucson, Arizona: “We Rise”
In Phoenix and Tucson, the message was clear: We rise together, or not at all.
Arizona has become one of the country’s defining political battlegrounds—not only because of close elections, but because grassroots organizers have spent years building durable networks across Indigenous, Latino and youth communities. The tour’s arrival in the desert Southwest highlighted the deep connections between voting rights, reproductive freedom, immigration justice and constitutional equality.
Under the intense desert heat, organizers gathered with students, local advocates and longtime movement leaders who described Arizona not simply as a swing state, but as a proving ground for what modern democracy organizing can look like. The conversations stretched from tribal sovereignty to abortion access to the barriers many voters still face in exercising their most basic rights.
Again and again, participants returned to the same idea: Progress here has never come easily. It has been built through years of local organizing, coalition-building and persistence in the face of backlash.
The stop in Tucson carried particular emotional resonance because of the city’s long history of activism, student organizing and resistance politics. Speakers reflected on the generations of women—especially women of color—whose labor has often gone unrecognized even as they sustained movements for justice.
The ERA fight, organizers emphasized, is not an abstract constitutional debate disconnected from everyday life. It is about whether women and marginalized communities can rely on equal protection under the law at a moment when hard-fought rights increasingly feel precarious.
And yet, despite exhaustion, fear and political uncertainty, the dominant mood throughout Arizona was determination. The message repeated across events and conversations was simple: We rise.
May 1
Yuma, Arizona: “At the Edge of Everything”
Yuma feels like the edge of everything: the edge of the country, the edge of the desert, the edge of political narratives that too often flatten border communities into caricature.
For organizers traveling through the region, the stop offered a reminder that democracy is shaped not only in capitals and courtrooms, but in communities living with the daily realities of immigration policy, economic instability, agricultural labor and extreme climate conditions.
The vast desert landscape surrounding Yuma became its own metaphor for the isolation many communities feel in national political conversations. Yet local advocates spoke about the extraordinary resilience that emerges in places too often overlooked by the rest of the country.
Discussions throughout the stop focused on the interconnected nature of equality struggles: Voting rights cannot be separated from economic justice; reproductive freedom cannot be separated from healthcare access; constitutional equality cannot be separated from the lived realities of migrant families and working women.
Participants also reflected on the long history of women organizing in border communities—often without recognition, resources or national attention. Even in places described as politically marginal, women have continued building networks of care, resistance and civic participation.
The ERA campaign, speakers argued, belongs to these communities too. Constitutional equality is not reserved for urban centers or political elites. It matters just as urgently in agricultural towns, border regions and rural communities where women frequently shoulder the burdens of economic and social instability most directly.
At the edge of everything, organizers said, people are still fighting to be seen.
May 2
San Diego: The Golden Flyer Returns
When the Golden Flyer arrived in San Diego, the moment felt both historical and deeply personal.
More than a century after suffragists traveled across the country demanding political equality for women, the recreated Golden Flyer II returned to a city that once helped shape the national suffrage movement itself. The stop served as both celebration and reckoning: a reminder of how much has changed—and how much remains unfinished.
Organizers reflected on the symbolism of bringing the vehicle back into public view at a time when many Americans feel democratic rights are increasingly fragile. The original suffragists used visibility as a political strategy, understanding that public spectacle could force the nation to confront demands it preferred to ignore.
That strategy still resonates today.
Throughout the San Diego events, participants discussed the importance of preserving movement history while also refusing nostalgia that obscures ongoing inequality. The suffrage movement opened political doors for many women, but it also excluded countless others, particularly Black women and women of color whose political organizing was often sidelined or erased.
The modern Driving the Vote for Equality tour seeks to tell a broader story—one that connects voting rights to reproductive justice, LGBTQ+ rights, economic equality and racial justice.
For many attendees, seeing the Golden Flyer again felt like proof that movements do not disappear simply because headlines move on. The work continues across generations, carried forward by people who refuse to abandon the promise of equality even when progress feels painfully slow.
The question once asked—“Where are they now?”—has an answer. They are still here. And they are still organizing.
Los Angeles: Hollywood Can Wait. The ERA Cannot.
When Alice Burke and Nell Richardson arrived in Los Angeles on June 5, 1916, they were escorted to City Hall by a delegation of local suffrage workers and received an official welcome from the Mayor. They spent two full days in the city engaged in what they called “earnest hustling about” to spread the gospel of “Votes for Women.”
They arrived looking a bit worn out—heavily sunburned and blistered from their grueling desert crossing—but remained full of enthusiasm. Nell proudly displayed a diamondback rattlesnake skin featuring nine rattles, a trophy of their journey. They attended the meeting of the Women’s City Club at Blanchard Hall, loaded up the Golden Flyer with their massive amount of luggage — everything from evening gowns and fourteen day dresses to a sewing machine, typewriter, and heavy replacement car parts — and departed for Bakersfield on the morning of June 7.
One hundred and ten years later, feminist activists met the Golden Flyer II as its ERA leaders were cheered on by the mayor, elected officials, and reporters. If history repeats itself—as it often does—the ERA will indeed be the 28th Amendment, just as the 19th Amendment passed in 1920 soon after visiting California and 24 other states.
Sunday, May 3
Ms. Magazine and the Long Battle
I’m optimistic. Why? Because America is like a donkey: You have to hit it with a two-by-four to get its attention. But when you do get its attention, big things can change quickly.
Jay Leno
On Sunday, the Driving the Vote for Equality Tour rolled into Los Angeles—a city built on reinvention, storytelling, and stars bold enough to change the culture. But this stop was about more than Hollywood glamour. Parked outside the offices of Ms. magazine sat a different kind of celebrity: the bright yellow 1914 Saxon Golden Flyer II, the same vintage roadster that carried suffragists Alice Burke and Nell Richardson across America in 1916 to rally support for women’s voting rights. Today and tomorrow, it would help rally support for the Equal Rights Amendment.
The tour received a special Los Angeles welcome at an event hosted by Ms. and Feminist Majority Foundation (publisher of Ms.)— including several members of Congress, and comedian and car enthusiast Jay Leno.
Standing beside the Golden Flyer II, Leno helped bridge Los Angeles’ deep car culture with the tour’s larger mission of honoring the women who drove across America more than a century ago demanding equality and a voice in democracy.
More than a century later, the car returned to Los Angeles as a rolling reminder that progress never arrives all at once — it is driven forward by determined people willing to take the wheel. Surrounded by friends, family, advocates and supporters at the home of the nation’s most influential feminist publications, the gathering connected the unfinished fight for equality to the powerful voices that continue to shape it today.
Carolyn Maloney, the founder of ERA NOW and the tour sponsor, brought the urgency into sharp focus:
“I never thought I would have more rights than my two daughters, especially since the Dobbs decision on abortion, but also since reversals on a whole host of issues—from eliminating long-standing rules on equal employment, DEI programs, key provisions of the Voting Rights Act, and even celebrating Women’s History Month. We must stop the bulldozing over of our hard-fought rights and get Congress to recognize the ERA as the 28th Amendment. Once it’s passed, Trump cannot veto the resolution. The president has no role in amending the Constitution.”
U.S. Reps. Maxine Waters and Laura Friedman—both Democrats from California—gave uplifting remarks, both pledging to push hard for the ERA to be included in the first 100 days package put forward by the Democrats in 2027 once they win back the House.
“Thank you, Carolyn, for keeping the flame going on the ERA. Many of us have felt tired at times, but you keep going and going—so keep pushing those of us in Congress to get the job done and get the ERA recognized. As you know, I am all in,” Waters told the group.
“My mother fought for the ERA and was deeply involved in organizing South Florida during the 1970s. She founded the first chapter of NOW in Broward County, Florida, and I grew up canvassing for the ERA and abortion rights,” Rep. Friedman shared — a testament to her firm and unwavering commitment.
Jay Leno closed by adding his name to the Sign4ERA petition: “I’m optimistic. Why? Because America is like a donkey: You have to hit it with a two-by-four to get its attention. But when you do get its attention, big things can change quickly. You can begin to see the sun now, on the other side of all this mess. Keep up the good work.”
Monday, May 4
City Hall, Mayor Bass and Supervisor Solis
The momentum continued Monday morning at Los Angeles City Hall, where Mayor Karen Bass and County Supervisor Hilda Solis welcomed the tour and the Golden Flyer II to the civic heart of the city. Their participation underscored how the legacy of the suffrage movement continues to echo through today’s leadership—with women now serving at the highest levels of government in one of America’s most influential cities and counties.
“I worked closely with both Mayor Bass and Supervisor Solis while we were together in Congress. These two women are the strongest and best leaders for women’s rights in the country. With them on our team, we have momentum to move forward,” Maloney declared. “We are at a turning point and the ERA is within our reach—and once we have both the House and the Senate leaders who support the ERA, we will win.
“And finally, a very special thanks to my friend Hilda Solis for helping us today. This is a beautiful county park and we are your guests. A big shout out especially to her terrific staff.”
“This little yellow car is an inspiration to all of us—that we must get this done, get the ERA recognized and into the Constitution,” Bass said.
“So much is at stake, we have got to do this. So many of our victories are under threat or disappearing. We are standing on some very strong shoulders—let’s get this done,” Solis told the activists.
Los Angeles city attorney Hydee Feldstein Soto shared a closing story: She was in high school when the ERA passed Congress and in college when ratifications started to slow down. “Enough is enough. Too many generations have been working on the ERA, and we need to open the log jam—now,” she said.
In a city where images and words can inspire movements, the Golden Flyer II once again drew people together—not simply to admire a beautiful antique roadster, but to remember the women who used it to help change America.
May 6
Modesto: The Heart of the Central Valley—and the Heart of the Fight for Equality
The stop in Modesto brought the tour into California’s Central Valley, a region often overlooked in national political conversations despite its deep importance to the country’s agricultural economy and labor history.
Here, discussions about equality became grounded in everyday realities: caregiving, economic survival, food production and the invisible labor performed by women across generations.
Organizers emphasized that movements for equality cannot focus only on major coastal cities or political capitals. The future of democracy also depends on rural and working-class communities where many women continue balancing impossible demands with limited institutional support.
Throughout the events, participants reflected on the generations of farmworker women, immigrant women and caregivers whose work has sustained families and communities while remaining politically undervalued.
The conversations in Modesto repeatedly returned to dignity: the dignity of labor, the dignity of caregiving and the dignity of constitutional recognition.
Speakers also discussed how economic inequality intersects with attacks on voting rights and bodily autonomy. For many women in the Central Valley, barriers to healthcare, transportation, childcare and political participation are not abstract policy debates—they are daily realities shaping whether people can fully participate in civic life.
The ERA campaign, organizers argued, is ultimately about recognizing those realities in law and public policy.
As the Golden Flyer prepared to continue its journey, the Central Valley stop served as a reminder that the fight for equality has always depended on people far from the centers of political power: working women, organizers, caregivers and communities too often ignored until election season arrives.
The heart of the Central Valley, organizers said, is also the heart of the struggle for equality.
The Road Continues
As the Golden Flyer II leaves California behind, the tour now heads into the Midwest—bringing the fight for the Equal Rights Amendment to Chicago (May 18 and 19), South Bend and Lansing (May 20).
More than a century after suffragists Alice Burke and Nell Richardson drove across the country demanding political equality, the modern Driving the Vote for Equality campaign continues pressing Congress to recognize the ERA as the 28th Amendment to the Constitution.
