B-Roll, Video, Audio & Rush Transcript: Governor Hochul Delivers Remarks at Women’s March ERA Rally to Celebrate the 175th Anniversary of the Seneca Falls Convention

Earlier today, Governor Kathy Hochul delivered remarks at the Women’s March ERA Rally to Celebrate the 175th Anniversary of the Seneca Falls Convention.

B-ROLL of the event is available here.

VIDEO of the event is available on YouTube here and in TV quality (h.264, mp4) format here.

AUDIO of the event is available here.

PHOTOS of the event are available on the Governor’s Flickr page.

A rush transcript of the Governor’s remarks are available below:

Let me start off by first of all, presenting to Susan this amazingly long proclamation that I’m going to make a judgment call and say you just want me to know that we are commemorating the 175th anniversary of the Seneca Falls Convention right here.

Women of New York, this is our moment when we start to change the course of history just as the bold and audacious women did 175 years ago. They are our inspiration. They are why we are here today. And that is why today we have rights that were only dreamed of at that time. So I’m so honored to be here at this very moment in history surrounded by people who, to this day have made a difference.

And I’m really proud to acknowledge people like Susan Scheuerman, who has been out there leading the charge reminding people the story of Seneca Falls and our responsibilities to carry on in the future. Susan, our lead organizer. Melina Carnicelli, Melina, let’s give her a round of applause. She has been there through every step of the way. I want to thank Lydia Rosell for reminding us of the lands, who we are honored to be on at this time, that history is so critically important. In fact, one of the reasons Seneca Falls was that place of confluence where rights came together, the Women’s Rights Movement, the Indigenous People’s Rights Movement, as well as the Civil Rights Movement, it all came here. And I want to thank Lydia for reminding us of her presence here today.

Also, we are so blessed – we’re making history every single day – to have the first woman, Attorney General has joined us. Tish James, who is a powerhouse, a champion for the rights of all New Yorkers. Let’s give a huge round of applause. We love Tish James.

We also have people who have traveled so far to be here today. We are fortunate to have Congresswoman Cori Bush who has traveled all the way from Missouri and Congresswoman Sylvia Garcia, all the way from Texas. And of course, a woman who will always be a congresswoman in our hearts, but she has taken the mantle and moved us this much closer to having an Equal Rights Amendment as the head of the 80 million strong ERA Coalition, the ERA Coalition. This is Carolyn Maloney, the head of the entire coalition and the state president of NOW: National Organization of Women.

And how about a woman who, when I was young and the woman’s rights movement was being denigrated and criticized back in the late sixties, when my mother was participating in the marches, Eleanor Smeal, Ellie Smeal has joined us. We are in the presence of women who have spent their lives making a difference.

So I reflect back just for a few moments of what it must have been like 175 years ago. Imagine this: 300 women and a few enlightened men, because we always need those enlightened men like Frederick Douglass, right? Frederick Douglass found his way here. But all those women who found their way to this tiny community without a GPS or social media or TikTok or Instagram or Facebook telling them where to go. Okay? Imagine that.

And they did it because they were so driven with this passion in their hearts. They were so fed up. They were so sick and tired of being the property of men. And if you read the Declaration of Sentiments drafted 175 years ago, it is dripping with anger and frustration and this sense of, “We have had it, women.”

So that is what’s launched a movement, a movement that is still cherished today. When people come to this hallowed ground and understand it was not an easy time for these women because they stood against the tides of their time. They had to go against their husbands, their families, their churches, their communities. They were denigrated, they marched and they were arrested. That to me, my friends, is courage. And we honor them in one way, and that is this: to take the torch that was passed to us by those brave, audacious women and to make that torch glow even brighter. And there’s one way to do that. The one way that we can take on the moral responsibility that has been entrusted to us to move women even further ahead.

And that is very simple, that is to enact the ERA in our country. Let’s get the ERA done. Let’s get the ERA done. It is long overdue. We’ve been talking about the ERA since I was a kid, practically. My mother wanted it. I wanted it. My daughter wants it, and I can tell you right now, it better be in place when my new granddaughter, Sophia, gets to be an adult because time is up. Time is up. We’ve waited too long for those basic rights to be enshrined in our constitution because guess what? It was never meant to be “all men are created” because it’s all men and women are created equal, and all those rights need to be spelled out in our constitution so no one that can ever question our rights.

Also, back then they talked about the right to vote. Wow, what an audacious idea. It took 70 years. So the women who got here in 1848 with a vision for the future didn’t live long enough to see it. My friends, that’s what we are supposed to do. What we’re doing today is not for us, but it’s for the next generation.

All the young women that have joined us, this is your moment. You must say, “I will carry this torch forward.” Because we are counting on you, our daughters are counting on you. Our granddaughters are counting you because that’s what we do here in New York, the birthplace of so many seminal movements that have changed the course of time.

I could not be prouder to be the first woman governor of the great State of New York. And all I can say is, “What took so long?” But as I’ve said, I didn’t come here to make history. I came here to make a difference, and that is what we’re all called to do. While we’re spending our limited time here on this planet, we all must make a difference. We have to be able to look back through our lives and say, “Did we really move the course of women further ahead? Help our children and our families that are struggling, people of color, who still don’t have justice, communities that have been calling out for so long to say, ‘Why not us? When do we get our due?'”

My friends, the New York I envision is one where all people are treated as equals, and we’re going to make sure that promise is not just spoken from our lips, but it is guaranteed in our constitution starting when we go to vote next November 2024.

It’s going to happen. We’re going to make that happen, my friends, and thank you all for being here and taking that torch. And never forget the trailblazers who came ahead of us. We are joined also by Kathrine Switzer, who carried a torch for us today, reminding us that she was the first woman to run the Boston Marathon.

So we honor Kathrine Switzer here today as well. Thank you, my friends. Go forth. The power is yours. Now use it.