Car Parade!
Title
Car Parade!
Description
On July 31, 1913, suffragists commandeered the Senate floor for more than two hours. It was the first time since 1887 that women’s voting rights had been discussed there. How’d they get there? They drove! 🧵
Rosalie Jones’ pilgrimage to Washington for the Inauguration march had gotten a lot of press, so Alice Paul devised larger-scale caravans from multiple states. Women traveled by car, on foot, on horseback, by train. The Virginia delegation came up the Potomac by boat.
The caravans gathered at a ballpark in Hyattsville, Maryland. There they were joined by members of the Senate Woman Suffrage Committee, which had just issued its first positive report in years. The supportive Senators rode with the suffragists in an auto parade to the Capitol.
Cars were open-air then, festooned with banners for the occasion. Spectators lined the streets. The DC police escorted them the whole way, eager to show they could control the crowd better than on the day before the Inauguration.
Arriving at the Capitol, the supportive Senators took over “morning business†and made it a morning about suffrage. Senators from more than a dozen states read petitions and made floor statements in support of their women constituents.
One reason suffragists believed a federal suffrage amendment was possible was the recent passage of the 17th Amdt. Take 3 minutes 👇for context on that, plus some great footage of how Washington, DC looked in 1913. #Suffrage100 #19thAmendment #KenBurnsÂ
Rosalie Jones’ pilgrimage to Washington for the Inauguration march had gotten a lot of press, so Alice Paul devised larger-scale caravans from multiple states. Women traveled by car, on foot, on horseback, by train. The Virginia delegation came up the Potomac by boat.
The caravans gathered at a ballpark in Hyattsville, Maryland. There they were joined by members of the Senate Woman Suffrage Committee, which had just issued its first positive report in years. The supportive Senators rode with the suffragists in an auto parade to the Capitol.
Cars were open-air then, festooned with banners for the occasion. Spectators lined the streets. The DC police escorted them the whole way, eager to show they could control the crowd better than on the day before the Inauguration.
Arriving at the Capitol, the supportive Senators took over “morning business†and made it a morning about suffrage. Senators from more than a dozen states read petitions and made floor statements in support of their women constituents.
One reason suffragists believed a federal suffrage amendment was possible was the recent passage of the 17th Amdt. Take 3 minutes 👇for context on that, plus some great footage of how Washington, DC looked in 1913. #Suffrage100 #19thAmendment #KenBurnsÂ
Creator
Daily Suffragist
Source
Date
31/07/2020
Files
Collection
Citation
Daily Suffragist, “Car Parade!,” Daily Suffragist, accessed April 25, 2024, https://dailysuffragist.omeka.net/items/show/469.