Author: Driving the Vote for Equality

Driving the Vote for Equality is a national advocacy tour and campaign organized by ERA activists, primarily led by ERA NOW. The campaign centers on a cross-country road trip in a restored 1914 Saxon car called the Golden Flyer II, traveling through multiple states to raise awareness and collect signatures urging Congress to recognize the Equal Rights Amendment as the 28th Amendment—modeled on a 1916 suffrage road trip in which activists drove across the country to promote women’s voting rights.

Driving the Vote for Equality: ERA Dispatches From Arizona and California

More than a century after suffragists Alice Burke and Nell Richardson launched their 1916 cross-country campaign for women’s voting rights, the modern Driving the Vote for Equality tour is again carrying the fight for constitutional equality across America.

This month, the Golden Flyer II traveled through Arizona and California—places shaped by immigration, labor struggles, border politics and widening political divides.

In Phoenix and Tucson, speakers emphasized that the ERA is not some abstract constitutional debate disconnected from everyday life, but something women and marginalized communities can rely on: equal protection under the law at a moment when hard-fought rights increasingly feel precarious.

When the Golden Flyer II rolled up to the offices of Ms. magazine in Los Angeles, advocates, lawmakers and supporters gathered around the bright yellow roadster to connect the unfinished work of suffrage to today’s political landscape. Carolyn Maloney warned that women’s rights are being “bulldozed over” through attacks on abortion access, voting rights and equal employment protections, while Rep. Maxine Waters urged activists to “keep pushing” Congress to recognize the ERA as the 28th Amendment.

Again and again, participants returned to the same conclusion: Progress has never arrived easily. It has always been built through years of grassroots organizing, coalition-building and persistence in the face of backlash.

The tour heads next to Chicago, South Bend and Lansing.

ERA Road Tour Rolls Through Texas, Linking Suffrage History to Today’s Fight to Enshrine Equality in the Constitution

The Driving the Vote for Equality Tour is a cross-country campaign retracing the 1916 suffrage road trip, when activists drove across the United States to demand voting rights for women—this time calling on Congress to recognize the Equal Rights Amendment as the 28th Amendment. Traveling in a restored 1914 Saxon car known as the Golden Flyer II, organizers are connecting past and present while gathering support nationwide.

This week’s installment highlights recent stops in Houston, Seguin and Georgetown, Texas.

On the Road, One Conversation at a Time: The Case for the ERA Is Landing

From Georgia to Tennessee to Alabama to Louisiana, the Golden Flyer II carried the legacy of the 1916 suffrage journey into direct conversation with the present-day push for constitutional equality. At each stop, the approach remained consistent: Meet people where they are, explain the stakes and invite them to take action.

The responses were often immediate and unscripted. A restaurant owner in rural Georgia signed on the spot. A mayor in Knoxville, Tenn. issued a proclamation and added her name. Visitors at civil rights sites in Montgomery, Ala. stopped to ask questions and sign. In Baton Rouge and Lafayette, La., passersby—from veterans to pedestrians on their daily routines—engaged with the campaign, many expressing surprise that gender equality is still not explicitly guaranteed in the Constitution.

ERA Road Tour: Weekly Road Diary (March 8-13)

Inspired by the 1916 suffrage road trip that helped win women the vote, activists behind Driving the Vote for Equality are traveling across the country in the restored Golden Flyer II to build support for recognizing the Equal Rights Amendment as the 28th Amendment.

Each week, Ms. will share highlights from the road.

During its first week on the road, the Golden Flyer II carried the push for the ERA through the Mid-Atlantic.

Its second week took the Golden Flyer II through Virginia, North Carolina and Georgia—stopping in cities and towns where activists, students, historians and local leaders gathered to sign petitions, share suffrage history and press Congress to recognize the ERA as the 28th Amendment.

ERA Road Tour: Weekly Road Diary (March 2-7)

Inspired by the 1916 suffrage road trip that helped win women the vote, activists behind Driving the Vote for Equality are traveling across the country in the restored Golden Flyer II to build support for recognizing the Equal Rights Amendment as the 28th Amendment.

Each week, Ms. will share highlights from the road.

During its first week on the road, the Golden Flyer II carried the push for the ERA through the Mid-Atlantic. In New York, New Jersey, Washington, D.C., and Virginia, ERA advocates connected historic sites of feminist resistance with renewed calls for constitutional equality.