Here’s an interesting twist for ‘Throwback Thursday’…the Valentine Museum has a new exhibit that takes some of the conversations surrounding the nascent women’s suffrage movement in Richmond and puts them in a mockup of today’s social media milieu. It’s called #BallotBattle and its bound to spur more attention and appreciation for this period in RVA history. Prominent activists of the time, like Lila Meade Valentine (buried next door in Hollywood Cemetery) are given ‘profiles’ and highlighted in old newspaper articles like the one above.

The exhibit is small and may make some historians squirm, but overall it is a fun, fascinating way to bring local historic figures to life and pose provocative, new-old questions on the verge of a big election year. Will we see the Equal Rights Amendment pass the General Assembly?

(My question? When will Richmond citizens be able to rank their choices for Mayor on the ballot?)