Inauguration Day
Title
Inauguration Day
Description
We used to inaugurate the U.S. president in March, not January.
107 years ago today, thousands of women massed on Washington to protest the presidential inauguration and demand equal rights.
These women 👇hiked from NYC. Thread.
Alice Paul & Lucy Burns were suffrage’s young radicals, just back from England and determined to shake up a moribund movement. They imagined and executed an unprecedented street demonstration on March 3, 1913.
(Alice designed the program book. 👀 look inside)
It was massive, radical, messy, ugly, and gorgeous. Every major theme of the women’s suffrage movement is contained in that 1 day: the racism of the white women who led the movement, and their willingness to trade Black women’s votes for the dream of southern political approval; conflict about whether more energy should go to state-by-state campaigns or a federal amendment; debate over whether the movement was inherently partisan or committed to holding any party in power responsible; the wisdom of radical street action and possible prison time; and police inaction in the face of anti-suffrage mob violence.
It’s all there. And finally, for nearly the first time, the struggle was visible in photographs.
@tinacassidy2’s vivid description of that day, and the weeks leading up to it in “Mr President, How Long Must We Wait?†or Mary Walton's earlier Alice Paul biography. #Suffrage100 #CenturyofStruggleÂ
107 years ago today, thousands of women massed on Washington to protest the presidential inauguration and demand equal rights.
These women 👇hiked from NYC. Thread.
Alice Paul & Lucy Burns were suffrage’s young radicals, just back from England and determined to shake up a moribund movement. They imagined and executed an unprecedented street demonstration on March 3, 1913.
(Alice designed the program book. 👀 look inside)
It was massive, radical, messy, ugly, and gorgeous. Every major theme of the women’s suffrage movement is contained in that 1 day: the racism of the white women who led the movement, and their willingness to trade Black women’s votes for the dream of southern political approval; conflict about whether more energy should go to state-by-state campaigns or a federal amendment; debate over whether the movement was inherently partisan or committed to holding any party in power responsible; the wisdom of radical street action and possible prison time; and police inaction in the face of anti-suffrage mob violence.
It’s all there. And finally, for nearly the first time, the struggle was visible in photographs.
@tinacassidy2’s vivid description of that day, and the weeks leading up to it in “Mr President, How Long Must We Wait?†or Mary Walton's earlier Alice Paul biography. #Suffrage100 #CenturyofStruggleÂ
Creator
Daily Suffragist
Source
Date
03/05/2020
Files
Collection
Citation
Daily Suffragist, “Inauguration Day,” Daily Suffragist, accessed April 26, 2024, https://dailysuffragist.omeka.net/items/show/306.