Women’s suffrage tour stops in Yuma, honors historic activism

A restored 1914 Saxon roadster pulled Yuma back into a suffrage fight that began more than a century ago, when Alice Burke and Nell Richardson crossed the country in support of women’s voting rights. The Driving the Vote for Equality tour stopped at the Yuma Main Library on May 1, turning a traveling history exhibit into a reminder that representation in Yuma has always been tied to who shows up, speaks up and keeps pushing.

Burke and Richardson launched their journey in April 1916, riding in a car they called The Golden Flier and traveling under the sponsorship of the National American Woman Suffrage Association. Their trip stretched about five months and covered 10,700 miles across 25 states, with speeches delivered along the way from the car itself. The route was grueling, but it was also strategic: in 1916, only 11 states guaranteed women the right to vote in statewide elections, making public pressure and visibility essential tools in the campaign for change.

That larger history gave the Yuma stop its force. The modern tour, which traces the original route in a restored 1914 Saxon roadster, is being used to connect the suffrage era to today’s debates over equal rights and political representation. Yuma’s place on that route underscores how the city has long sat on the edge of national movements, where civic memory and local participation meet in public spaces like the main library.

One tour member said it was easy to imagine Burke and Richardson making their way through the desert in 1916, a reminder of how much grit the original journey demanded. That image resonated in Yuma, where the suffrage story was presented not as nostalgia, but as a lesson in persistence, public education and visible community support.

The event also carried a present-day political edge through Yuma City Councilmember Karen Watts, a Yuma native who was recognized for her continuing support for equal rights efforts, including her advocacy for the Equal Rights Amendment. The Driving the Vote for Equality campaign, led by former Rep. Carolyn Maloney, frames the ERA as an unfinished mission and says Congress should recognize it as the 28th Amendment. In Yuma, that argument landed in a city where the fight for women’s voices in public life still feels close to home.