Hastings Tribune | Article | Tony Herrman | 10/2/19

Celebrating Suffrage

CHESTER — The more research Chester artist Cindy Chinn did on Nebraskans involved in the fight for women’s suffrage, the more she realized how involved the state was with the women’s movement.

Chinn was selected to represent Nebraska in the Her Flag project. Her Flag, created by Oklahoma artist Marilyn Artus, celebrates the 100th anniversary of the 19th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, which gave women the right to vote.

Her Flag is a nationwide collaborative art and travel project.

Artus selected a female artist from each of the 36 states that ratified the 19th amendment.

The artists each made a stripe to represent the suffrage movement in their state. Artus is traveling to those states, in order of ratification, and sewing the stripes into a giant flag. Artus’ visit to Nebraska came on Sept. 24.

“I like to do a lot of research, and so looking through and finding the right people who I felt were the best people to represent the women’s movement in Nebraska, I had a lot of choices and I had to narrow it down,” Chinn said.

For Chinn’s stripe, she selected eight activists, one for each letter of Nebraska, and emphasized their eyes.