March is Women’s History Month and for the most part among those who organize local observances, it is a big yawn.

That’s probably the same reaction Black History Month received until someone finally saw its potential and brought it into public awareness and the mainstream.

What could local editions of Women’s History Month observe?

We have a few obvious choices. Pocahontas. Sally Tompkins. Irene Morgan. Emma Lee Smith White. These women, for those who don’t know, were local pioneers in: 1. Contact between English settlers and Native Americans; 2. Women’s nursing role in war, and receiving a commission in the Confederate States Army; 3. Civil rights … she refused to go to the back of a bus; and 4. Virginia government, as a very early female member of the House of Delegates.

There you go. Like all good surveys of history, these women span the centuries and the ethnic groups. They were outstanding in their times. They are deserving of recognition....