Scholarship Highlights Suffrage Movement Icon

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NASSAU, BAHAMAS – November 27 marked the 60th anniversary of the first election where Bahamian women had the right to vote and last week saw a series of events marking the breakthrough in Bahamian women’s rights.

Now, some of this history is being brought into the future.

At a joint meeting of the House of Assembly and Senate last week, Education Minister Glenys Hanna-Martin – daughter of Beryl Hanna, one of the leading figures in the fight for universal suffrage – gave an impassioned speech about the effort that went into obtaining the right to vote.

Ruby-Ann Cooper-Darling was the first Bahamian woman to register to vote in July 1962, and a gala ball was held in her honor this weekend.

There was also a $30,000 scholarship presented in Cooper-Darling’s name.

Star Apple founder Mildred Murphy tells us more about the scholarship designed to help youth in underprivileged communities.

Murphy tells us this scholarship is her way of ensuring Cooper-Darling’s legacy the stories of women like her are brought to the future generations.