Woman Suffrage Procession (1913)

The woman suffrage parade of 1913, officially the Woman Suffrage Procession, was the first suffragist parade in Washington, D.C.; first large, organized march on Washington for political purposes; organized by the suffragists Alice Paul and Lucy Burns for the National American Woman Suffrage Association (NAWSA); Thousands of suffragists marched down Pennsylvania Avenue on Monday, March 3, 1913. The procession preceded President Woodrow Wilson's inauguration by a day; Paul believed that it was time to add a strong visual element to the campaign; recruited Crystal Eastman, Mary Ritter Beard, and Dora Lewis to the Committee and organized volunteers; Among local suffragists, she was aided by attorney Florence Etheridge and teacher Elsie Hill; Paul recruited Emma Gillette and Helen Hamilton Gardener to be treasurer and publicity chair, respectively. Belva Lockwood also attended the initial meeting. Paul recruited Hazel MacKaye to design professional floats; allowed black women to march at back of parade, Two groups from Howard University, including the new Alpha Chapter of Delta Sigma Theta sorority, also Mary Church Terrell; Jane Walker Burleson on horseback, accompanying a model of the Liberty Bell brought from Philadelphia, led the procession as Grand Marshall, immediately followed by the herald, Inez Milholland; groups represented: Women's Christian Temperance Union and the PTA; One prominent group featured in the procession was the pilgrims led by "General" Rosalie Jones; allegorical tableaux unfolded on the Treasury Building's steps pageant was written by dramatist Hazel MacKaye and directed by Glenna Smith Tinnin; Notable participants: Dr. Nellie V. Mark, Jeannette Rankin, Charlotte Anita Whitney, Mary Ware Dennett, Susan Walker Fitzgerald, Katherine Dexter McCormick, Harriet Burton Laidlaw, Abby Scott Baker, Dorothy Bernard, Jane Delano, Lavinia Dock, Fola La Follette, Lillian Wald, Ellen Spencer Mussey, Mary Johnston, Estelle Willoughby Ions, Elizabeth Thacher Kent, Julia Lathrop, Annie Jenness Miller, Genevieve Clark Thomson, Harriet Taylor Upton, Florence Fleming Noyes; final act was a meeting at the Memorial Continental Hall (later part of the expanded DAR Constitution Hall). Speakers were Anna Howard Shaw, Carrie Chapman Catt, Mary Johnston, and Helen Adams Keller; security failures; The demonstration on Pennsylvania Avenue was the precursor to Paul's other high-profile events that, along with actions by the NAWSA, culminated in the passage of the 19th Amendment to the U. S. Constitution in 1919 and its ratification in 1920;