By Josephine Wang

A Direct Descendant of Margaret Brent...

As we celebrate Woman’s History month, it is apropos to highlight one of our own Trail Blazers of women’s right to vote. Prior to Susan B. Anthony, there was Margaret Brent of Saint Mary City, an historic city in the southern part of the Maryland Colony.

The Year was 1624, a young single woman immigrated from England to the New World seeking religious freedom.

After receiving  land from Lord Baltimore, Margaret was quite settled in the affairs of her estate, often assisting with governance of the Colony. Mainly she taught herself to be a lawyer and presented a strong case in front of the legislature that, as Maryland's first female landowner and solicitor, she had the right to vote.

She was probably laughed at and was readily denied this fundamental right to fully participate in the decision making process. This was the custom of the day - when most females were not well educated and society only allowed males to be educated. So it seemed normal that she was not able to vote.

After this denial, she decided to move to Culpeper, Virginia to try her luck; but that also became a disappointment!  Fast forward, she never lived to see the day that women can fully participate in the voting process until three hundred years later when Susan B. Anthony rallied women to make it a reality.  Anthony was a great Republican voice. We have come a long way, baby! Thank you both for being the champions of this cause.  As women, we can choose to be an astronaut, lawyer, teacher, physician, a mother or whatever career path we choose.

By the way, Margaret Brent was the aunt (many generations removed) of our immediate past Chairman, Dennis Brent Melby!

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Josephine Wang is an immigrant, teacher, writer, voter, former State Senate nominee and the longest serving Member of the Montgomery County Republican Central Committee.