A parade through downtown Rochester Saturday morning celebrated voter participation and women’s suffrage.
The theme of the Suffragist City Parade was “Organize! Agitate! Educate!” and celebrated Rochester’s connection to the voting rights movement and its importance today.
Sister Donna DeSanto was marching with the sisters of Saint Joseph.
“It’s a witness to all that Susan B. Anthony stood for and women before and since her. For not only women, but people on the margins that she and Frederick Douglass were all about. So we stand in solidarity with that effort and movement.”
She said they were also marching for the power to vote.
“We don’t realize that our power, we have power. We may not have money, but we have power in numbers and we need each other to continue to vote our hearts and our purposes.”
Nancy Rhodes was marching with the vintage ladies baseball team from the Genesee Country Village and Museum.
“There weren’t a lot of women who were able to play and recreate; they had to work, work, work. So we’re some of those ladies who were breaking the mold in the 1860’s.”
The parade ended with a block party at Susan B. Anthony Square Park.