Volume 14 , Issue 11

Suffragists Plan Big Parade In Washington May 9 (1914)

20 April 1914, Noon Edition, The Day Book, Chicago, Illinois -- [In the picture on the left, from left to right, upper row, Miss Alice Paul and Miss Lucy Burns; Lower Row, Miss Elisie Hill, Mrs. Donald Hooker and Miss Doris Stevens.]

Washington, DC, April 20, 1914 -- A group of active, energetic women were planning for the big suffrage parade and demonstration that would be held in Washington, DC, May 8, 1914. These women were officers in the Congressional Union which was known as the militant branch of the National Suffrage Organization.

Their ultimate purpose was to secure the passage of a federal amendment giving the right of the ballot to all women in the United States. Misses Alice Paul and Lucy Burns, chairman and vice chairman of the union, spent a good deal of time in England with the militants. And they believed in waging a lively battle to secure the vote.

They made no secret of the fact that they would determinedly fight the persons or the party averse to the bill which they were trying to get congress to pass. The 9 May 1914 parade was expected to be the largest suffrage demonstration Washington had ever seen back then. It was headed by a cavalry section in which there were many prominent horsewomen.

The parade proper was made up of numbers of divisions, each representing a different class. The "homemakers" were marshaled by Mrs. Harvey W. Wiley, wife of the former head of the federal bureau of chemistry. There were divisions for dentists, business women, paper box factory girls, lawyers, writers, players and all the other professions and occupations.

Misses Elsie Hill and Doris Stevens were members of the executive committee of the Congressional Union. Mrs. Donald Hooker was also a member and had the chairmanship of the finance committee.   |  View or Add Comments (0 Comments)   |   Receive updates ( subscribers)  |   Unsubscribe

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