For over 100 years, the LWV has been a driving force of voter education and advocacy throughout the United States, and the Amarillo chapter has worked to advance those same goals for three quarters of that time. LWV Amarillo looks to commemorate 75 years of voter empowerment through a special celebration at Amtech Career Academy. HPPR’s Jenny Inzerillo spoke with Michelle Hoggatt, former president of LWV Amarillo and one of the organizers of the 75th anniversary celebration, to talk about the history of LWV Amarillo, and how they intend to celebrate their 75th year in existence. To hear the full interview, click the link at the top of the page.
Hoggatt described the history of the LWV Amarillo and some of the work they have done in decades past. “The mission is mostly education and supporting voters. We do a lot of voter registration, a lot of education. In fact, I found a newspaper article, the first in 1950, the Amarillo League had their first candidate forum in November. They had, and it was a small one, but they had a voter's guide that they distributed, and which has gone on through all 75 years. And now we, I think it's around 12, 13,000 are distributed for each election. We now do them in both English and Spanish. The Spanish language came in 1975 and so we follow along with that, but we also do all sorts of meetings, seminars and a lot of publications just to educate people as to how their government works. And the beginning league started that way, one of their first projects was to advocate for women to be allowed to serve on a jury, which I didn't know they couldn't. They started in 1950, the law changed in 1955, and then they produced and printed a pamphlet detailing ‘what is serving on a jury? How does it happen?’ They also got local judges to do seminars for women to talk them through the process of being on a jury. So the education has continued.” Hoggatt said.
Hoggatt also talked about the keynote speakers the 75th anniversary celebration will feature. “Kylie Kincaid is going to talk about the spread of what the league has done. But of course, she's dealing with our records that we sent there and what other leagues have sent. Joyce LeBombard is going to talk about what the league is doing presently and and I hope she touches on what the national league is doing, as well as Texas, because they are the ones that are involved in lawsuits, trying to defend voters rights and democracy. Kimberly Anderson is our current president of the Amarillo League, and we have asked her to speak about her vision for the Amarillo league going forward from this point.”
“One of the things I love most about doing public events is we may not get a lot of people registering to vote, but I get a lot of people who stop to say ‘thank you’. They appreciate the voters guides and our candidate forums. They appreciate that they can get a non-partisan view of candidates and that they can trust that we're putting out information directly from the candidates. We're not changing anything, and so they can look at what candidates have put out and make their own decision. We say that. I say this hundreds of times. I don't care who you vote for. I don't care how you vote. I just care that you get out and vote.”
While tickets for this event are sold out, more information about the LWV Amarillo, their events, and links to voter guides can be found at their website.
If you have an upcoming event you would like the public to be aware of, we encourage you to check out our community calendar! It's the place to visit for up-to-date information on what's coming up all across the High Plains!
