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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.^[2] 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.^[3]

Table of Contents

Introduction
Historiography
Analysis
Conclusion
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. This project contributes to women’s rights history by discussing the 1913 Woman Suffrage Parade as well as discussing key suffrage figures like Alice Paul, Lucy Burns, Elizabeth Thatcher Kent, Jane Addams, and more.  This project contributes to protest history because the 1913 Woman Suffrage Parade was a march in Washington D.C. that protested for the creation of an amendment that would grant women the right to vote. This parade was for political purposes, connects to the 19th amendment, and contributes to political and social history.

There are multiple books and academic journals used in this project that have contributed to the history of this parade and the suffrage movement:

Amelia Fry and J.D. Zahniser‘s book, Alice Paul: Claiming Power^[4] 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^[5] 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”^[6] 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.”^[7] 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

This Digital Humanities Project argues the Woman Suffrage Parade of 1913 was vital to the eventual passing and ratification of the 19th amendment to the United States constitution. To support this statement, the analysis section will analyze the suffragists who organized the parade, the parade itself, its political impact, and the 19th amendment. First, with a background on Alice Paul and Lucy Burns. These women, members of the National American Woman Suffrage Association (NAWSA), organized the parade.

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.^[8] 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.^[9] 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.^[10]

Alice attended Swarthmore College in Pennsylvania, she majored in science and took on biology, chemistry and math classes.^[11] 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 graduate studies. It was here she realized this path would not lead her to make monumental changes to women’s rights.^[12] 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.^[13]

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.^[14] 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.^[15]

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.^[16]

Alice Paul and Lucy Burns were committed to changing the way suffragists protested in America. Unafraid to get arrested, cause a disturbance, and publicly protest, these women aimed to force the United States government to make changes for women’s rights. These protest tactics were used in the 1913 Woman Suffrage Parade. Thousands of women marching beside the Capitol building and the White House, symbolizing the demand women had to be granted voting rights. This cast a spotlight of attention on the woman suffrage movement, and is one way the 1913 Woman Suffrage Parade assisted the establishment of the 19th amendment.

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.^[17] Etheridge introduced Paul to Elizabeth Thatcher Kent, who was the chair of the NAWSA Congressional Committee before Alice. 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.^[18]

The Woman Suffrage Parade occurring the day before Wilson’s first inauguration was a way to symbolize the demand by women of the United States for voting rights. Thousands of women marching beside the Capitol building and the White House the day before a new president took office was meant to indicate women of this country wanted Woodrow Wilson to make political changes involving women’s rights. 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. ^[19]

This drawing above depicts how the Woman Suffrage Parade of 1913 was organized by country, state, organization, occupation, status, floats, and band members.^[20]

March 3, 1913

According to Alice Paul, the 1913 Woman Suffrage Parade was successful and beautiful. There were many sections that featured women that represented many cultures and professions. Paul and Lucy Burns walked in a section of college women who wore dark caps and gowns.^[21] On the first page of the Official Program of the Woman Suffrage Parade 1913 that was passed out during the event, there is a foreword section. It explains the purpose of the procession is to demand an amendment to the United States constitution, and that in nine states there already is full suffrage. On the sides of this page, there are small biographies on Alice Paul and Lucy Burns.^[22] Photographs of the parade and this program showcase how beautiful and well thought out this event was.

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Hostility

The parade did not commence completely without issue, crowds began to block the path of the marchers soon after they began walking down Pennsylvania Avenue. Men filled the streets, shouting obscenities and being hostile toward the women.^[24] U.S. Army troops on horseback came an hour later to open the blockage and clear the blocks as the parade commenced.^[25]

According to Alice Paul in an interview she did with Amelia Fry in 1972, the police did the best they could managing the crowds and helping the parade. ^[26] However, there was an investigation by the United States Senate on the conduct of the police during the parade. Some of the ladies at the parade testified the police could have done more to erase the hostile mobs. Witnesses, testimonies, and the parade legal documents such as the permits were presented in this trial. Police officers testified they understood they were to help the parade commence and do their best to stop any interruptions. According to the Senate report on this trial, over 700 officers were tasked with caring for the parade, over 200 more officers who were there for the presidential inauguration the next day also helped with the parade.^[27] At the end of the trial, it was concluded the path for the marchers was not adequately cleared and the parade was not protected as it should have been.^[28]

Police presence and investigation by the United States Senate brought even more attention and importance to the 1913 Woman Suffrage Parade. Getting the government involved with how smoothly the parade commenced shows how massive this event was. Hostile mobs of people blocking the path of the women show how controversial the subject of woman suffrage was. It paints the women leading the parade in a courageous light. Strong emotions of the public on topics is what gets the United States government to make decisions on change.

This photograph shows the Woman Suffrage Parade walking down Pennsylvania Avenue with the Capitol Building in the background. Males make up the majority of the crowd blocking the path of the women. ^[29]

Parade’s Impact

Parade in the Press

Newspapers across the country covered the 1913 Woman Suffrage Procession the day of the parade. It made Washington D.C. ‘s The Evening Star front page with the headline, “Suffrage crusaders in thrilling pageant take city by storm”. In this coverage, it expresses that the procession demanded a constitutional amendment for woman suffrage. It also talks about the detail of the floats and costumes, how they were beautiful, and represented suffrage history. ^[30]

In the days that followed the parade, the press mostly covered the mobs of people who tried to block the marchers, and the police actions in response. This was elongated by the investigation of the D.C. police tasked with protecting the parade. In Boston, Massachusetts the parade was covered on the front page of the Woman’s Journal on March 8, 1913. “Parade Struggles to victory despite disgraceful scenes” it discusses how Congress is investigating the actions of the police, and the mobs that were not cleared for the marchers.^[31]

Similarly, The Chicago Daily Tribune covered the mobs blocking the parade on the front page of their newspaper on March 4, 1913.^[32] This nationwide press coverage helped spread the word of the suffrage demand along with the NAWSA organization’s key women. Alice Paul and Lucy Burns became icons of the suffrage movement and continued protesting across the states.

Alice Paul and Lucy Burns After the Parade

Dr. Anna Howard Shaw, leader of the NAWSA organization, was enthusiastic after the parade finished. Despite previous opinions that the parade was unnecessary, she stated afterwards the parade, “has done more for suffrage, to firmly establish those who were wavering and to bring to our ranks thousands of others.”^[33]She expressed her gratitude to Paul and Burns, and offered to use NAWSA funds to continue holding protest meetings in Washington. While Paul stayed in Washington and prepared witnesses for the Senate hearings on the Parade, Lucy went home. ^[34] In the midst of these hearings, Paul had the opportunity to meet with President Woodrow Wilson in the oval office to discuss woman suffrage.

Alice Paul aimed at convincing the President on a suffrage amendment, even though she knew amendments were passed by both houses of Congress. However, she knew the power and influence of the President. Three of the women she chose to meet the President knew him socially, one was married to a supporter of Wilson’s and the other two were related to Democratic congressmen. ^[35] Wilson sat with the women in the office, and Paul quickly expressed that the issue of suffrage was the biggest issue of the time. She explained that in nine states, women can vote, and the rest of the states should unite in that decision. Wilson listened to Paul and the women, but told them Congress has bigger issues to discuss, and brushed them off. At the end of the meeting, Wilson said he would “consider their views”, and Paul continued to write him letters and encouraged more suffragists to write to him.

Paul got the chance to meet with President Woodrow Wilson due to the Senate trial on the police action during the Suffrage Parade. This helped push woman suffrage further in the thoughts of the president as well as the government as a whole. The Suffrage Parade of 1913 helped push the United States toward the 19th amendment.

Woodrow Wilson After the Parade

During the first term of Wilson’s presidency, Wilson firmly believed that the suffrage decision should be made state-by-state, and not through an amendment. Inez Millholland, lead horseback marcher of the 1913 Woman Suffrage Parade, passed away in 1916. After her death, Paul attempted to get President Wilson to receive a “Milholland Memorial Delegation”. After multiple attempts she finally got him to publicly speak on Millholland’s death.^[36] Wilson had begun to support woman suffrage at that point more than he ever had. However, he did not publicly push for the amendment until his party demanded it.

In late 1917, Alice Paul, Lucy Burns and eleven other suffragists were arrested for protesting at the White House Gates with banners. The imprisonment of the women put even more pressure on Wilson’s administration. In court, Paul stated she would not enter any pleas, “We do not consider ourselves subject to this court since, as an unenfranchised class, we have nothing to do with the making of the laws.”^[37] The other women followed Paul’s decision and refused to plea or cooperate with their trials. The women were found guilty of obstructing traffic and put in jail. Paul realized that being imprisoned brought more attention to the suffrage movement and her actions. She began a hunger strike, not eating much for days, and continued to write letters to fellow suffragists in hopes they would then send letters to the President. After four months, the cases were dismissed and she was released.^[38]

19th Amendment

In the fall of 1917, just after Alice Paul’s incarceration and hunger strike, the state of New York was the 12th state to pass a full woman suffrage amendment to its state constitution. This was the first state on the east coast to pass the amendment. In 1918, President Woodrow Wilson publicly endorsed a constitutional suffrage amendment while in his second presidential term. By June of 1919, the House of Representatives and the Senate both passed the 19th amendment. In August of 1920, Tennessee “became the 36th state to ratify the amendment” ^[39], finally gaining the three-fourths agreement needed by the states. The 19th Amendment became ratified on August 18, 1920.

Alice Paul joined millions of American women voting for the first time during the presidential election of 1920. Many suffragists, including NAWSA leader Anna Howard Shaw, passed before the amendment’s ratification. However, women across the country celebrated victory for all suffragists who fought during the struggle for woman suffrage. ^[40] Alice Paul used the momentum from the 1913 Woman Suffrage Parade to continue contributing toward the passing of the 19th amendment. Including constant pressure on President Wilson, being incarcerated for protesting, and beginning a hunger strike for suffrage.

Conclusion

On March 3, 1913 more than five thousand women began marching at the Capitol Building, toward the White House, and finally arriving at Continental Hall. These women participating in the Woman Suffrage Parade of 1913 demanded a constitutional amendment allowing women the right to vote. Taking place the day before President Woodrow Wilson’s first presidential inauguration. This parade caused immediate pressure on the president to officially recognize the efforts of suffragists. The magnitude of this parade put its organizers Alice Paul and Lucy Burns in the spotlight. Their continued push for the amendment, including meetings with President Wilson, being incarcerated for protest, and starting a hunger strike while in jail furthered the push for the 19th amendment. Therefore, the 1913 Woman Suffrage Parade was vital to the eventual passing and ratification of the 19th amendment to the United States constitution.

Works Cited

Benjamin Dale. “ Official Program Cover: Woman Suffrage Procession.” March 3, 1913. Photograph. Library of Congress. https://www.loc.gov/resource/ppmsca.12512/.

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

The Chicago Daily Tribune. “Mob at Capitol Defy Police; Block Suffrage Parade.” March 4, 1913. Newspaper. Chicago, Illinois. https://www.newspapers.com/article/chicago-tribune-mobs-block-suffrage-para/150090338/.

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

Evening Star. “City Suffrage-Mad for a Time.” March 3, 1913. Newspaper. Washington, D.C. https://www.loc.gov/resource/sn83045462/1913-03-03/ed-1/?sp=1&r=-0.04,0.393,0.35,0.224,0.

Leet Brothers. “Crowd converging on marchers and blocking parade route during March 3, inaugural suffrage procession.” March 3, 1913. Photograph. https://www.loc.gov/item/mnwp000443/./

National Archives and Records Administration. “19th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution: Women’s Right To Vote (1920).” Last modified February 8, 2022. https://www.archives.gov/milestone-documents/19th-amendment.

The National American Woman Suffrage Association. “Official program woman suffrage procession.” March 3, 1913. Library of Congress. https://www.loc.gov/item/2020780515/.

United States National Park Service. “1913 Woman Suffrage Procession.” Accessed November 12, 2024. https://www.nps.gov/articles/woman-suffrage-procession1913.htm.

United States National Park Service. “Lucy Burns.” Last modified August, 2024.  https://www.nps.gov/people/lucy-burns.htm.

United States Senate. “Senate Committee Report on the Suffrage Parade Investigation.” 1913.  Available at PDF: https://www.senate.gov/artandhistory/history/common/image/1913SuffrageParadeReport.htm.

Unknown Photographer. “College section of the March 3, Suffrage Parade in Washington, D.C.” March 3, 1913. Photograph. Library of Congress. https://www.loc.gov/item/mnwp000444/.

Windsor McCay. “Suffrage March Line: How thousands of women parade today at Capitol.” March 4, 1913. Drawing. New York Evening Journal. Library of Congress. https://www.loc.gov/item/2002716780/.

Woman’s Journal and Suffrage News. Front Page. “Parade struggles to victory despite disgraceful scenes.” March 8, 1913. Boston, Massachusetts. Newspaper. https://www.loc.gov/item/2002716777/

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