Originally published by the Finger Lakes Times on July 19, 2023.

SENECA FALLS — The Equal Rights Amendment Centennial Convention this weekend will welcome a busload of supporters from Virginia and Washington, D.C.

The colorful bus, adorned with pro-ERA messages, left the Capitol Building in Washington at 11 a.m. Tuesday, kicking off an East Coast bus tour that will end in Seneca Falls, the Birthplace of the Women’s Rights Movement.

When women’s rights activist Alice Paul went to Seneca Falls in July 1923 for the 75th anniversary of the first woman’s rights convention conducted here in July 1848, she took to the pulpit at the First Presbyterian Church of Seneca Falls to issue the first call for an ERA to the U.S. Constitution. This weekend’s centennial will celebrate the 100th anniversary of Paul’s introduction of the ERA, which will be integrated into the annual Convention Days celebration this weekend.

Members of Congress will join Virginia National Organization for Women and nearly 20 other participating organizations on the “Party for the ERA” bus trip.

The centennial will feature a renewed effort to get the ERA added to the Constitution formally, as the 28th Amendment. It has been ratified by 38 of the 50 states and met other criteria, but has not been added to the Constitution by the U.S. Archivist for the Library of Congress.