Introduction

1913 Woman Suffrage Procession

Washington, D.C. March 3, 1913

More than five thousand marchers met to walk down Pennsylvania Avenue during the Woman Suffrage Parade of 1913. Leading the march on horseback was Grand Marshal of the suffragist parade, Mrs. Richard Coke Burleson and lawyer Miss Inez Milholland Boissevain. (Footnote for Suffrage parade drawing). This parade was organized by the National American Woman Suffrage Association’s (NAWSA) Congressional Committee members Alice Paul and Lucy Burns. The purpose of this parade was to demand the United States government to grant women the right to vote. This Digital Humanities Project argues the 1913 National Woman Suffrage Parade was vital to the eventual passing and ratification of the 19th amendment to the United States constitution.

This map depicts the journey of the procession, starting at the Peace Monument beside the United States Capitol building, and proceeding all the way to Continental Hall.(footnote for senate.gov pdf).

Table of Contents

Introduction
Historiography
Analysis
Works Cited

Historiography

This suffrage parade and the many women involved with the organization and involvement in the parade have been a topic of much historical research and writing. This parade involves several historical narratives and topics such as women’s rights history, protest history, political history, and social history. Some of the books that have contributed to the history of this parade are written by Amelia Fry and J.D. Zahniser, Cathleen D. Cahill, and Lynda G. Dodd.

Amelia Fry and J.D. Zahniser‘s book, Alice Paul: Claiming Power is a pioneering work of women’s rights history due to Fry’s collection of research and oral history of Alice Paul’s life from birth in 1885 to her death in 1977. This details Paul’s career of suffragist activism, from the founding of the National Woman’s Party (NWP), to the idea and eventual completion of the 1913 Woman Suffrage Parade in Washington D.C.  Zahniser highlights Paul’s journey from her hometown of Moorestown, New Jersey to the United Kingdom where she studied and engaged in women’s rights movements. Zahniser explores the protests and suffragists Paul engaged with, sometimes leading to her arrest and delay back to the United States. Once Paul is back in the United States, Zahniser builds up Paul’s position as a leader of women’s rights activism and pushes for women’s right to vote. After the conclusion of the 1913 Woman Suffrage Parade, the biography shifted to continued efforts toward passing of the 19th amendment.

Cathleen D. Cahill‘s book, Recasting the Vote: How Women of Color Transformed the Suffrage Movement examines women of color including African American women, Asian women, Native American women, and Spanish women. Their involvement in suffrage protests across the nation also included equal rights protests. Beginning with protests and parades from 1890-1913 that involved colored women. The Woman Suffrage Parade of 1913 is discussed in Chapter 7, including how colored women played a role in the parade. For example, the book explains Marie Bottineau Baldwin, a Native American attorney, was tasked with creating a Native American women float for the parade. Baldwin took this opportunity to educate the press on the impact of Native American women in history. This book continues this research into citizenship and voting struggles for women of color, then goes into women of color in World War I.

Lynda G. Dodd’s academic journal, “Parades, Pickets, and Prison: Alice Paul and the Virtues of Unruly Constitutional Citizenship” explores Alice Paul’s protesting career in depth. Dodd argues historians have failed to “adequately assess Paul’s contribution to the passage of the Nineteenth Amendment.” (Footnote Dodd, page 346). Unlike Fry and Zahniser, Dodd focuses more on the politics that went into protesting. Dodd’s career as Joseph H. Flom Professor of Legal Studies and Political Science at the City College, City University of New York brings an understanding of how the United States government was reacting to these protests and parades. Furthermore, Dodd discusses how the nineteenth amendment was ratified and how suffragist parties such as Alice Paul’s National Woman’s Party (NWP) and the National American Woman Suffrage Association (NAWSA) used strategies to create successful protests.

Analysis (Rough Draft Outline)

Alice Paul and Lucy Burns

-Alice Paul was born January 11, 1885 to a Quaker family in Moorestown, New Jersey. Growing up in a Quaker community, Paul lived in a culture that treated women nearly equally to men. This background shaped her passions for equal rights. (footnote, Zahniser page 5). Her father William M. Paul founded the Burlington County Trust Company in 1890, an asset manager for businesses. However, he passed away from pneumonia in 1902, leaving behind Alice and her mother Tacie P. Paul. Tacie was college educated and supported Alice’s education and suffrage career. She was an advocate for gender equality herself. (footnote Dodd page 354). Paul’s family was spared from financial worries after her father’s death, he left behind real estate, land, stocks, and his salary from the Trust Company bank. (footnote, Zahniser, Page 25).

-Alice attended Swarthmore College in Pennsylvania, she majored in science and took on biology, chemistry and math classes. (footnote, Zahniser, 19). After getting a biology degree, she attended Columbia University and received her masters. She planned to use her education to become a social worker, so she went to England to continue her studies. It was here she realized this path would not lead her to make monumental changes to women’s rights. (footnote, Dodd page 356). She actively protested for women’s rights in England, in her twenties. She was arrested for protesting multiple times. A police station in London is where she met fellow American suffragist Lucy Burns. (footnote, Zahniser, page 71).

-Paul returned to the United States in January of 1910, in April she was invited to speak at a NAWSA convention for the first time. (footnote, Zahniser 113). Paul disliked how American suffragist leaders were too timid to protest through the streets, cause a disturbance, and get arrested for protesting like she experienced in England. She believed protest would force political leaders to make changes to the constitution, not simply trying to elect leaders that would pass suffrage rights in individual states. While NAWSA was originally unimpressed with Paul’s ideas, Jane Addams saw potential in Alice. She suggested that Paul volunteer for the newly opened Congressional Chair position at NAWSA. She obtained the position along with her close friend Lucy Burns in 1912. (footnote, Cahill 97).

-Lucy Burns was born July 28, 1879 to an Irish Catholic family in Brooklyn, New York. She attended and graduated as a top student in Vassar College located in Poughkeepsie, NY. After she graduated in 1902, she continued as a graduate student at Oxford College in Europe. She ended her student career when she joined the Women’s Social and Political Union (WSPU). She and Alice Paul became good friends and traveled back to the United States where they formed the National Woman’s Party (NWP). Eventually, they took Congressional Committee Chair member positions of the National American Woman Suffrage Association (NAWSA). Under this association they organized the Woman Suffrage Parade of 1913. (footnote, National Park Service).

Creating & Organizing the Parade

-Florence Etheridge proposed a “National Inaugural Suffrage Procession” to the National American Woman Suffrage Association (NAWSA) at a conference in the summer of 1912. Activists attending the conference showed little support for the idea, having no resources or money to fund it. However, Alice Paul was present and became intrigued by the idea. (footnote, Cahill page 97).

-Etheridge introduced Paul to Elizabeth Thatcher Kent, who was the chair of the NAWSA Congressional Committee before her. Kent and her husband, California congressman William Kent helped Paul move to Washington D.C. and helped Paul and Burns with the procession. Burns, Etheridge, Paul, and Kent agreed the procession had to be held the day before President Woodrow Wilson’s presidential inauguration. (footnote, Cahill page 98).

-In January of 1913, Alice Paul sent a written application to Major Richard Sylvester, D.C. chief of police. In this application, Paul requested a permit for the procession and she insisted it would not interfere with the presidential inauguration the next day. Sylvester granted the permit for the parade to take place on March 3rd, 1913. (footnote, senate.gov).

–
This drawing depicts how the Woman Suffrage Parade of 1913 was organized by country, state, organization, occupation, status, floats, and band members.

March 3, 1913 (to be worked on)

-Discuss when the parade commenced, and where it commenced.
-The Official Program of the Woman Suffrage Parade 1913
-Discuss the issues with the parade (violence, angry mobs, disruption of the parade, the police helping the parade)
-Add in photos in each section

Impact of the Parade (to be worked on)

-Discuss how the Parade affected Woodrow Wilson’s presidency.
-Parade added spotlight onto women’s rights movement.
-Alice Paul and Lucy Burns after the parade

19th Amendment (to be worked on)

-Discuss how the 19th amendment first became an official push by the United States government
-how the 19th amendment became ratified
-how women suffragists reacted to the amendment
-aftermath of the amendment

Works Cited (to be worked on)

“1913 Woman Suffrage Procession (U.S. National Park Service).” n.d. Accessed November 12, 2024. https://www.nps.gov/articles/woman-suffrage-procession1913.htm.

Cahill, Cathleen. 2020. Recasting the Vote: How Women of Color Transformed the Suffrage Movement. The University of North Carolina Press.

Dodd, Lynda G. February 28, 2013. Parades, Pickets, and Prison: Alice Paul and the Virtues of Unruly Constitutional Citizenship. Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=2226351

Zahniser, J.D., Fry, Amelia. 2014. Alice Paul: Claiming Power. Oxford University Press. Kindle Edition.

Footnotes will be added in Full Exhibit Draft