The first woman to serve in Congress took her seat on this date in 1917. Jeannette Rankin of Montana shortly became one of the few representatives to vote against entry into World War I, a stand that contributed to her defeat when she ran for the Senate in 1918. She reentered Congress in 1940, and putting her principles ahead of office-holding, cast the lone vote against declaring war on Japan after Pearl Harbor in 1941. Her political career, which began before women gained the right to vote, ended with her term. More than 46 percent of female citizens over 18 voted in the 2010 congressional election, and nearly 67 percent report being registered to vote. Profile America is in its 16th year as a public service of the U.S. Census Bureau.
Sunday, March 3rd. The first issue of Time magazine appeared on newsstands 90 years ago today. The co-creator, Henry Luce, founded other famous magazines, such as Life and Sports Illustrated. In 1935, he married Claire Booth Luce, whose own life was filled with accomplishment. She edited two magazines — Vogue and Vanity Fair — and was a successful playwright. In the 1940s, she served two terms in the House of Representatives as the first woman sent to Congress by Connecticut. And in 1953, she became ambassador to Italy, one of the first women to represent America in a major nation. In the U.S. today, there are some 8,000 periodical publishers. You can find more facts about America from the U.S. Census Bureau, online at <www.census.gov>.
Saturday, March 2nd. The capital of the vanquished Confederacy was the site of the first chartered black-owned bank in the U.S., founded on this date in 1888 by former slave and Union Army veteran William Washington Browne. It was known as the Savings Bank of the Grand Fountain, United Order of True Reformers. The bank provided mortgage loans and other banking services that were difficult for African-Americans to obtain in the segregated climate after reconstruction. When the bank opened, Richmond had a population of just over 81,000 people, 32,000 of them African-American. Today, Richmond is home to over 205,000 people, just over half of them African-Americans. You can find more facts about America from the U.S. Census Bureau, online at <www.census.gov>.