Cycles of Suffrage Mural, 2 N Sacramento Street
In early 2019, the Lodi Arts Commission began the search for an artist who could design and paint a mural to honor the 100-year anniversary of the 19th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. Although the Declaration of Independence signed in 1776 stated that all men are created equal, it only guaranteed voting rights to white, land-owning men. The struggle to secure voting rights for all women has been long and difficult — and continues to this day. The ratification of the 19th Amendment in 1920 was a major achievement by suffragists across the United States, even though the voting rights applied mostly to white women. It wasn’t until 1965 that the Voting Rights Act guaranteed voting rights for all women.The Lodi Arts Commission chose Lodi artist Tony Segale for the mural project. He researched the long history of women’s suffrage and considered the dilemma: How to tell this complex story in one single image?Inspiration came when he realized that the historical timeline of the women’s suffrage movement converged with that of the bicycle. In 1888, women embraced a new safety bicycle and realized they no longer had to ask for permission to go where they wanted. And thus was born Tony’s design concept, as he described: “a woman riding a bicycle, east to west, over rugged mountains and down through our fertile valley — one straight road, from the past into the future.”The mural is 30’ tall and 13’ wide and painted on the curved rose-colored wall near the famed Lodi Arch. The woman on the bicycle is one-half Caucasian dressed in a black suffragist dress and hat. Her other half is a 21st century woman in cycling attire. Her skin is different shades and colors to represent the timeless story of the fight for human rights, diversity, and inclusivity.In the border, are two inscriptions. The first is an 1880 doctor-prescribed warning meant to discourage women cyclists, followed by a three-word comment by a U.S. senator in 2016:“The unconscious effort to maintain one’s balance tends to produce a wearied and exhausted bicycle face – Nevertheless, she persisted.”The second border inscription is the text of the 19th Amendment:“The rights of the citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or any state on account of sex.”The Cycles of Suffrage mural was funded by the Lodi Arts Commission Art in Public Places and completed in May 2022.