Rightfully Hers Part 3

 

Record of the Month!

For the month of October we are featuring the forth exhibit panel from the National Archives pop-up exhibit Rightfully Hers: American Women and the Vote. In addition to creating and distributing the exhibit panels displayed here, the National Archives created a digital exhibit with more resources and teaching tools available through the following link: (https://museum.archives.gov/rightfully-hers).

In 1890, the National Woman Suffrage Association and the American Woman Suffrage Association would merge to form the National American Woman’s Suffrage Association (NAWSA), led by Elizabeth Cady Stanton. Sadly in spite of being united in the goal of enfranchising women, there were still divisions within the NAWSA based on race. In 1896 the National Association of Colored Women (NACW) was formed with the goal of winning equality for women of color. Leaders of the NACW include Josephine St. Pierre Ruffin, Mary Church Terrell and Anna Julia Cooper, who successfully brought together over 100 African American women’s clubs across the United States. To gain acceptance and unite both men and women in their communities, the NACW fought with the slogan “lifting as we climb.”

Opposition to women’s suffrage also continued to grow among men who did not see women as humans equal to themselves, and feared any shift in power. Additionally, some women opposed suffrage for a slew of reasons, including the idea that voting rights would cause women to be more masculine (“unsexed”), that suffrage wouldn’t effect educational reform and prohibition, and the fear of the added burden that suffrage would place on them. In 1911, the National Association Opposed to Woman Suffrage was organized to try and block the efforts of the NAWSA. Despite growing opposition, the suffragists gained a powerful alley when former President Theodore Roosevelt and his Bull Moose Party came out in support of women’s suffrage, the first major national political party to do so.

Unfortunately, former President Theodore Roosevelt lost his 1912 presidential bid to Woodrow Wilson, who was apathetic towards the issue of women’s suffrage, often dismissing it. The NAWSA quickly hatched a plan to increase awareness and attempt to break through President-elect Wilson’s apathy. The plan was to have a tremendous parade down Pennsylvania Avenue on March 3, 1913 to call for a constitutional amendment guaranteeing women the right to vote. The parade organizers strategically planned their event for the day before President-elect Wilson’s inauguration. The parade planning was spearheaded by NAWSA member Alice Paul, a fiercely intelligent women who felt that the American fight for women’s suffrage would benefit from the radical and more militant strategies employed by British suffragettes.  

Over five thousand suffragists, more than twenty parade floats, nine bands, and four mounted brigades were led by lawyer and activist Inez Milholland, astride a white horse. Many spectators harassed, tripped and violently attacked the suffragists, while police on the parade route did little to help. Over a hundred women had to be hospitalized for their injuries. The attacks on peaceful parade marchers led to several well publicizing news stories and a few congressional hearings. With the overall success of the parade, Alice Paul and her colleague Lucy Burns founded the Congressional Union for Woman Suffrage to lobby for a constitutional amendment to secure national voting rights for women.

As the rest of the world plunged into war in 1914, American suffragists continued their campaigns to achieve voting rights. President Wilson’s foreign policy rhetoric began to find its way onto suffragists’ banners. The hypocrisy of his words urging men and women to “make the world safe for democracy” by volunteering to serve aboard when half the population at home lacked the fundamental right to vote was not lost on President Wilson.

Check back in November for the next chapter of the story of the fight for equal suffrage. If this information interests you, please feel free to call us at 740-670-5121 or email us at archives@lcounty.com.