Epigraphs: The Vote: Women’s Fierce Fight, Part III, Chapter 9

This statement by a suffrage marcher is the epigraph for The Vote: Women’s Fierce Fight, Chapter 9, Breakthrough: 1913 Girls, get out your hatpins, they are going to rush us.

There are two breakthroughs in Chapter 9. The cliff-hanging passage of the Presidential and Municipal Suffrage Act in Illinois was an outstanding victory: A non-western state east of the Mississippi River had granted more than a sliver of voting rights to women. The right of vote for presidential electors gave Illinois women voting power on a national level.

The second breakthrough was a spectacular parade and pageant in Washington, D.C. on March 3, 1913. An estimated 5,000 to 8,000 women from every state and many countries marched. Across America, newspapers covered the dramatic event. WOMEN IN MAMMOUTH SHOW declared the front-page headline in an Hawaiian newspaper, the Honolulu Star-Bulletin, March 3, 1913.

The top image is a picture that appeared in newspapers across America—the signing ceremony by Governor Edward Dunne of Illinois of the Presidential and Municipal Suffrage Act. The caption begins: “This picture is a part of the suffragist history of America.” (The image appeared in The Bridgeport Evening Farmer, Bridgeport, Connecticut, July 2, 1913, 11.)  Grace Wilbur Trout is standing above the seated woman. She is flanked by co-leaders in the campaign Antoinette Funk (on her right) and Elizabeth Booth. (The number above each person matches the numbered name in the caption.) The middle image is a float in the Washington, D.C. parade carrying a sign printed with “The Great Demand,” an iconic suffrage statement—WE DEMAND AN/AMENDMENT TO THE/CONSTITUTION OF THE/UNITED STATES/ENFRANCHISING THE/WOMEN OF THIS COUNTRY. The bottom image is a front-page article from The Washington Herald, Washington, D.C., March 3, 1913. The violent treatment of the women, according to Grace Trout, “aroused the indignation of the whole nation and converted many men to the suffrage cause.” (Click on each image to enlarge it.)

The Vote: Women’s Fierce Fight is widely available in trade paperback and eBook.

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