Milholland, Vida, 1888-1952

Vida Milholland (January 17, 1888 – November 29, 1952) was a women's rights activist and the sister of Inez Milholland, one of the leaders of the National Woman's Party.

Vida was born in Brooklyn, New York in 1888. Her father, John Milholland, was a founding member of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. She was the younger sister of the famed suffragist leader Inez Milholland. When she was a young woman she was a concert soprano. She had studied at Vassar College where she was known for athletics and drama. When her sister died in 1916 she devoted her time to suffrage work and she went to prison for three days in 1917.

Vida Milholland was an ardent suffragist and an active member of the militant National Woman's Party and a political ally of Alice Paul. She spent time in Occoquan Workhouse as part of the Silent Sentinels protest. In 1917 Milholland told stories of her imprisonment at the Ritz-Carlton alongside Dora Lewis and others. Alva Belmont presided over this meeting. She also participated in the picketing of the White House during the first World War in support of women's suffrage. In 1919 she represented the NWP on their "Prison Special" tour of America where she sang at every meeting.

In the years following the success of the suffrage movement, Vida participated in events commemorating the campaigns, such as during a 1924 “Forward into the Light” parade. She passed torches to young women who drove off in their automobiles in an effort to elect women representatives. She also joined the work of the Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom. She corresponded with W. E. B. Dubois about her father’s involvement at the First Universal Races Congress held in London in 1911. She continued to sing, and she wrote a pageant, “Our America.” She sang mostly for the benefit of social causes. She lived with Margaret (Peg) Hamilton in “Chimney Corners,” a cottage at Meadowmount, her parents’ estate. Later in life she felt overwhelmed by the burdens of taking care of the estate in Lewis, New York that she inherited from her parents. At the age of sixty-four, on November 29, 1952, after the death of her younger brother in 1949 left her with legal battles to fight, she took her own life.