Mayor-elect Robyn Tannehill speaking to community members at the League of Women Voters meeting held at the Oxford Public Library on Tuesday night.
The League of Women Voters returned Tuesday night for the first registration meeting in 36 years.
Mayor-elect Robyn Tannehill spoke to a crowd at the Oxford-Lafayette County Public Library and signed up to join the league alongside nearly 60 locals and students. She spoke about the league’s potential benefits for today’s political scene.
“I think that the League of Women Voters is an important organization,” Tannehill said. “It’s nonpartisan, which is critical in making things happen, especially at a local level.”
Tannehill said north Mississippi would certainly benefit from the league’s emphasis on informed and active participation in government.
“I do think that women are uniquely suited for political participation,” she said.
Tannehill said Oxford is developing outwards as it moves forward and quickly becoming a not-so-small town. She promised the crowd of women voters that her office and the city are focused on protecting what the town holds dear.
“Everybody in this town has a role,” Tannehill said. “What is your role? How do you plan to play a part? How will you serve?”
The League of Women Voters has promoted informed political action across the country since 1920, when it formed to unite women voters around the ratification of the 19th Amendment. According to its website, the league has worked to protect the rights of working women and supported the Social Security and Food and Drug Acts. The league is open to men and women 16 years and older and welcomes students.
Tannehill said in a town like Oxford, the issues locals care about are rarely divided across party lines. She said the Board of Aldermen is able to carry out its business because its members do not represent any party and can instead focus on the community’s best interests.
“Democrats and Republicans both pick up trash and leaves and need police officers and firefighters in the same way,” she said.
Mary Queyja moved to Oxford in 1969 and served as president of the original Oxford chapter of the league for a year in the ’70s. She said when she moved to town, several women had already laid the groundwork to be a part of the national organization.
“We took the national issues and researched them and discussed them,” Queyja said. “At the time, we were the ones who started the national debates.”
The reinstated north Mississippi chapter will join the other state chapters in Jackson and on the Gulf Coast. Dianne Fergusson is president of the Oxford and north Mississippi chapter but was involved before she moved to north Mississippi.
“I started out in the league when I lived in South Carolina, and I really missed it when I moved to Mississippi,” Fergusson said.
Fergusson said the organization is returning to Oxford based on a need for more awareness and to inform voters in the wake of recent elections.
“I think the state that our country’s in now, more than ever, voter education and turnout is important when you have only half the population turning out to vote,” Fergusson said.
At Tuesday’s meeting, Fergusson explained Oxford’s chapter of the league will function as a provisional unit for the next year, which means it will have to work to solidify its certification.
Laura Antonow is the director of the Office of College Programs at the University of Mississippi. She said she is excited about what the future will bring with the league back in the area.
“I think it is fantastic that they‘re reviving the chapter here,” Antonow said. “Their timing is good, too, because of the recent divide in our country from the last election and the fake news phenomenon.”
Anne Phillippi has lived as a retiree in Oxford since 2012. She taught biology at the university for years after moving to Mississippi from Illinois. She was one of a dozen new members of the Oxford league who had previously been a member of another chapter.
The league’s next meeting is scheduled for May 16 in the special collections and archives room of J.D. Williams Library. The meeting will feature a presentation on the history of the league in Mississippi, and students are welcome to attend.
“Students in political science majors or public policy, or really anyone interested in environmental or women’s issues might want to become involved or educated in the league,” Phillippi said.
