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Gov. Laura Kelly and other state officials unveiled the “Rebel
Women” painting that spans an entire wall on the first floor on
Wednesday, the anniversary of Kansas' admission as the 34th U.S.
state in 1861.
While Kansas Day is traditionally marked with renditions of the
official state song, “Home on the Range,” Wednesday's event also
featured the women's voting rights anthem, "Suffrage Song,” to
the tune of “The Battle Hymn of the Republic.”
A 2022 law authorized the mural, and artist Phyllis Garibay-Coon,
of Manhattan, in northeastern Kansas, won the contest with a
depiction of 13 prominent Kansas suffragists. A few women in the
crowd of several hundred people were dressed as 19th century
campaigners who were active before statehood.
Kansas prides itself as entering the union as an anti-slavery
free state, but it also was more progressive than other states
in gradually granting women full voting rights. Women could vote
in school elections in 1861 and in city elections in 1887, and
the nation's first woman mayor, Susanna M. Salter, was elected
in Argonia, Kansas, that year. Voters amended the state
constitution in 1912 to grant women full voting rights.
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