3 great men honored in Seneca Falls statue unveiling

A new statue created by Auburn’s Audrey Iwanicki, “Passage”, was unveiled at the corporate headquarters of Generations Bank on Thursday afternoon, November 5, 2015. Generations Bank President Menzo Case hosted the unveiling…The installation which depicts three men who were prominent and outspoken in the support of women’s suffrage in the early part of the 20th century. From left to right, Max Eastman, James Mott, and Frederick Douglas.Eastman was a notable member of the women’s rights movement in the early 20th century. He served as President of the Men’s Equal Suffrage League in New York and was a founding member of the Men’s League for Women’s Suffrage in New York in 1910. In 1913, he spoke at Bryn Mawr College on the subject of women’s suffrage in a speech titled, “Woman Suffrage and Why I Believe in It.”James Mott chaired the Seneca Falls Convention, the first women’s rights convention, held in Seneca Falls, New York in 1848 on July 19 and 20 at which his wife was the main speaker. He and Lucretia signed the convention’s Declaration of Sentiments.Frederick Douglass was the only African American to attend the Seneca Falls Convention where he stood and spoke eloquently in favor of women’s right to vote and said that he could not accept the right to vote as a black man if women could not also claim that right.