From entertainers to lawmakers, fearless women and their allies shared powerful tributes to Women’s Equality Day on Sunday.
The national celebration has been held annually on Aug. 26 since 1973. It commemorates the 1920 adoption of the 19th Amendment, which granted women the constitutional right to vote.
Many Twitter users applauded the efforts of women suffragettes, while noting that more progress needs to be made to ensure equality for all women, including women of color and women with disabilities. Jim Crow laws in the South prevented many African-Americans ― male and female ― from voting until the passage of the Voting Rights Act in 1965.
Women’s Equality Day “is both a celebration of the victory for women’s suffrage [and] a reminder that even after its ratification, women of color still had to fight for voting rights,” tweeted Sandra Fluke, a lawyer and high-profile women’s rights activist.
Actress Alyssa Milano used Women’s Equality Day to urge her followers to protest Brett Kavanaugh, a staunchly conservative U.S. circuit judge nominated to the Supreme Court by President Donald Trump. Abortion rights advocates fear Kavanaugh could provide the crucial fifth court vote needed to overturn the Roe v. Wade decision that legalized abortion nationwide, though Kavanaugh has avoided being pinned down on that issue.
Several celebrities, including Tina Turner and Ellen DeGeneres, shared posts celebrating the women in their lives, and male allies such as Apple CEO Tim Cook paid tribute to the ongoing fight for equality.