Milholland, Inez, 1886-1916

Inez Milholland Boissevain (August 6, 1886 – November 25, 1916) was a suffragist, labor lawyer, socialist, World War I correspondent, and public speaker who greatly influenced the women's movement in America. She was active in the National Woman's Party and a key participant in the 1913 Woman Suffrage Procession.

Born to a wealthy family in Brooklyn, New York, Milholland grew up in New York City and London. While in England, she met the militant suffragist Emmeline Pankhurst and became a political radical. After graduating from Vassar in 1909, Milholland started working as a suffrage orator in New York City. She also advocated for women’s labor rights. She was arrested picketing alongside female shirtwaist and laundry workers during strikes in 1909 and 1910. She also used her resources as a member of an upper-class family to pay bail for other strikers and organize fundraisers. After being rejected from several law schools because she was a woman, Milholland earned a law degree from New York University in 1912.

On March 3, 1913, Milholland achieved wide fame when she served as the herald of the Woman Suffrage Procession in Washington, D.C. Astride a horse named “Grey Dawn” and dramatically dressed in white to represent the “New Woman” of the twentieth century, she led thousands of women down Pennsylvania Avenue in the first organized march on Washington. Her work for women’s rights continued after the parade. She gave numerous suffrage speeches in the United States and England. She also campaigned for pacifism as World War I brewed in Europe.

During an Atlantic Ocean crossing to England in 1913, Milholland met a Dutch coffee importer named Eugen Jan Boissevain. She proposed to him while they were still aboard the ship. They were married shortly after they landed. Boissevain supported and encouraged his wife’s work.

Over the next few years Milholland began to experience poor health from pernicious anemia. She refused to stop her activism. In 1916, she started a suffrage tour of the Western United States. On October 22, she collapsed while giving a speech in Los Angeles. Audience members reported that the last words she said before collapsing were addressed to Woodrow Wilson: “Mr. President, how long must women wait for liberty?” Despite repeated blood transfusions, she died at Los Angeles' Good Samaritan Hospital on November 25.