About 107 years ago, suffragists Alice Paul and Inez Mulholland led 8,000 protestors (mostly women) in a parade in downtown Washington, D.C. on the day before the inauguration of Woodrow Wilson. (thread)
Woodrow Wilson — to whom Alice Paul had pled for consideration only a few weeks before (receiving a lukewarm “it will receive my most careful consideration”) — was arriving at Union Station at about that time.
Hardly greeted with the normal fanfare for a newly-arrived president-elect, one of Wilson’s staff members was said to have asked where all the people were to welcome their incoming president.
“Watching the suffrage parade”, replied a police officer.
“Watching the suffrage parade”, replied a police officer.
Marchers — spanning diverse sections, including participants from countries who had already granted women the right to vote — walked boldly down Pennsylvania Avenue as bemused men looked on with drinks and not a little condescension.
Their demand was simple: full enfranchisement of the right to vote for women. Soon, perhaps realizing this wasn’t all a joke, the men began wading into the procession, tearing at signs and clothing.
Police escorts passively stood to the side, only becoming engaged with the violence unfolding before them to get a little action themselves on the marchers.
Beaten with fists and nightsticks, over 100 women were taken to an area hospital. Reports of the violence spread quickly through newspapers across the country, giving the suffragists the most favorable public support they had seen in decades, probably ever.
It would take another seven years to achieve ratification of the Nineteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, (technically but not really) granting all persons, regardless of sex, the right to vote.
That was 100 years ago today. A century of partial suffrage.
That was 100 years ago today. A century of partial suffrage.
It's worth noting these were very flawed people. There was awful white supremacy in the ranks of white suffragists, and the 19th Amendment alone only substantially increased the freedom of white women. Many Black women marching were intentionally segregated from white sections.
But women of all races and backgrounds marched that day because they all wanted a better tomorrow with the vote. Perhaps some thought they'd see a woman in Congress someday. I doubt any of them thought they'd see a woman president. For many, sheer desperation brought them.
The odds didn't matter. They still marched. They marched against oppression, against subjugation, they marched into a blizzard of fists and nightsticks because their voice--their freedom--was more important than their lives.
They marched not for themselves but their daughters and granddaughters. They marched for a tomorrow they would never see, knowing they would never see it.
Today, we are grateful for them.
Today, we are grateful for them.
