Celebrating the 19th Amendment: Time Travel to the Women's Suffrage Parade in 1913

 

Celebrating the 19th Amendment: 

Time Travel to the Women's Suffrage Parade in 1913

Harriot Stanton Blatch, daughter of Elizabeth Cady Stanton, organizes working women in the Women's Political Union. New Jersey WPU women march wearing green, white and violet. 

Women of color are allowed to participate but asked to march in the back of the parade as so not to alienate the southern delegations. Prominent civil rights activist and suffragist, Ida B. Wells-Barnett doesn't agree with the decision. "I shall not march at all unless it is under the Illinois banner…Either I go with you or not at all. I am taking not this stand because I personally wish for recognition, I am doing it for the future benefit of my whole race.” 

She is an anti-lynching activist and founder of the National Association of Colored Women’s Club to address issues dealing with civil rights and women’s suffrage. Earlier this year, in January, she also co-founded the Alpha Suffrage Club, which was the first suffrage organization for Black women in Illinois. Her flag and sash represent the nine states that have granted women's suffrage. 

At 2 p.m. the Illinois delegation assembled on New Jersey Avenue and Wells was nowhere to be found. The other two ladies who agreed to march with Ida in the separate section, Geraldine Brooks and Belle Squire (co-founders of the Alpha Suffrage Club) went to look for her, but returned to the march without Ida. Ida jumps in and marches with the Illinois delegation mid-way through. You may see more "colored" women in various delegations such as professional groups, women's clubs, sororities and women's clubs. You may also see some on the floats, in the marching bands and other places. [Editor's note: I ran out of energy to change Addy multiple times in one day but look for a women's history month project highlighting specific women in the future.]

Uh-oh, the crowd is getting rowdy. Men surge into the street making it almost impossible for the marchers to pass. Occasionally only a single file can move forward. Women are jeered, tripped, grabbed, shoved, and many hear “indecent epithets” and “barnyard conversation.”  The police do nothing to protect us and even join in the heckling.

[Non-costumed women march here.] 

Mrs. Champ Clark, (Genevieve Davis Bennett Clark)  D.C. resident and an active figure in the suffrage movement. Her husband, Champ Clark, is a Democrat and the Speaker of the House  representing Missouri. 

Farm women are represented too in their faded gingham gowns and sunbonnets. 

For more information:

See original photos of the women's suffrage parade

Women's Political Union of New Jersey

Ida B. Wells-Barnett

Ida B. and 1913 suffrage parade photo

The 1913 Suffrage Parade in Washington, DC : An Illinois Perspective

National Association of Colored Women's Club

Mrs. Champ Clark