HUB History - Our Favorite Stories from Boston History

On February 24, 1919, President Woodrow Wilson visited Boston on his way home from the peace conference that ended World War I, expecting to find adoring supporters. Instead, he was greeted by members of the National Women’s Party. After a long campaign that had the 19th amendment on the verge of passing, they now blamed Wilson for dragging his feet and shifting his attention from suffrage to the peace treaty and the League of Nations. The protesters marched to the Massachusetts State House, where they refused to disperse for the president’s arrival. 25 women were arrested and taken to the Charles Street Jail, where sixteen of them would become known as the last women to be jailed for suffrage.

Please check out the full show notes at: http://HUBhistory.com/173/

And support the show on Patreon. The Last Women Arrested for Suffrage

• “I Want to Go to Jail”: The Woman’s Party Reception for President Wilson in Boston, 1919, by James J. Kenneally. This excellent article from the Historical Journal of Massachusetts details the protests and includes brief profile of each woman who was imprisoned.
• Timeline of the National Women’s Party.
• The confusion over “Mrs. Jack,” who turns out not to be Isabella Stuart Gardner.
• Profiles of the protest leaders.
• Our header image comes via Historic New England.
• The speech that Wilson gave in Boston and the suffragists planned to burn.
• Boston’s ordinance prohibiting sauntering or loitering longer than seven minutes (and police guidance on enforcing it), which has since been ruled unconstitutional.
• Photos of Woodrow Wilson’s visit to Boston by Alton Blackington, via UMass Amherst.
• Feb 24 Cedar Rapids Evening Gazette: “22 Women Pinched In Front of State House” (another version of the same AP story with a less suggestive title and no paywall.)
• Boston Globe coverage
  • Feb 20: “Suffragettes Decide Today”
  • Feb 21: “Suffragettes Decide Today” (because they didn’t actually decide on the 20th.
  • Feb 22: “Suffs to ‘Make Hub Howl’ Wilson Day”
  • Feb 23: “Suffs to Act On Common”
  • Feb 24 (evening): “Arrest of 22 Suffragettes”
  • Feb 25: “19 Suffragettes Spend Night in Jail”
  • Feb 25 (evening): “Suffragettes Refuse to Reply to Court’s Questions”
  • Feb 26: “Suffragettes On Hunger Strike”
  • Feb 26 (evening): “‘Jane Does’ Yield to Hunger in Charles St Jail”
  • Feb 27: “Three ‘Suffs’ are Forced to Quit Jail, Violently Protesting”
  • Feb 27 (evening): “Another Suffragette is Ejected From Jail”
  • Feb 28: “Jailed ‘Suffs’ Send Wire to President”
  • March 1: “Mystery Man Pays ‘Suff’s’ Fine”

Tina Cassidy’s Mr. President, How Long Must We Wait: Alice Paul, Woodrow Wilson, and the Fight for the Right to Vote was published in 2019, and it fits perfectly with this week’s episode. Suffrage leader Alice Paul was at the center of the fight to pass the 19th amendment, and she worked alongside local leaders to organize and lead the protests in Boston in February 1919. Here’s what Kirkus Reviews has to say about the book:

A remarkable tale of the woman who drove the fight for women’s suffrage.

Former Boston Globe journalist Cassidy, now chief content officer for InkHouse, chronicles the life of Alice Paul, a Quaker from New Jersey who became one of the leaders in the struggle for women’s rights in the early 1900s—and beyond. She was the daughter of a wealthy banker and earned multiple graduate degrees. While she was studying social justice in Birmingham, England, she was profoundly moved by the “suffragettes” Christabel Pankhurst and her mother, Emmeline. Raised to expect equality for all, she stayed in London and joined the fight. She was arrested multiple times in six months, went on a hunger strike, and suffered permanent physical damage from force-feeding. Running parallel to Paul’s story, Cassidy gives us the background of the suffragist’s biggest stumbling block, Woodrow Wilson. Born in Virginia, his father, a minister, authored a booklet outlining his misguided argument for how the Bible condones slavery. Wilson’s outlook was firmly fixed along those lines, and he even said, “universal suffrage is at the foundation of every evil in this country.” He cast himself as a progressive, but that didn’t include women or blacks. Paul joined the fight for equality in America, a struggle that was not as confrontational as England’s but just as dedicated. While those in charge fought for states’ resolutions, she felt an amendment to the Constitution was absolutely necessary. To say Paul was the driving force is not an exaggeration. She was tireless, always sure of her tactics and willing to endure many setbacks, arrests, and Wilson’s continued obstinacy. Dedicated women like Inez Milholland, Alva Belmont, and Lucy Burns stood right beside her.

This book should be required reading until Alice Paul becomes a household name. She not only fought for voting rights and the 19th Amendment; she kept fighting for another 50 years.

Like this week’s podcast, the upcoming talk called Sartorial Suffrage at the Boston Athenaeum was also inspired by the centennial of suffrage in the US. It will be led by Dr. Kimberly Alexander of UNH, Sara Georgini of the Adams Papers at the MHS, and Theo Tyson, who is a fellow of American Art and Culture at the Athenaeum. Together, they’ll look at the cultural connections between women’s fashion and the political movements for and against women’s suffrage. Here’s how the Athenaeum describes it:

In celebration of International Women’s Day 2020, we will take the afternoon to discuss the implications and influences of fashion, clothing, and dress on the women’s suffrage movement. Theo Tyson – who curated the Athenaeum’s current installation “(Anti)SUFFRAGE” – will use the installation as a point of departure to delve into the dogma, designs, and demands of suffrage and anti-suffrage attire. She will be joined by fashion historians Sara Georgini, Series Editor for the Papers of John Adams, part of the Adams Papers editorial project at the Massachusetts Historical Society and author of Household Gods: The Religious Lives of the Adams Family and Kimberly Alexander, PhD, Lecturer in Museum Studies at the University of New Hampshire and author of Treasures Afoot: Shoe Stories from the Georgian Era. Guided tours of our current installation (Anti)SUFFRAGE will be held immediately following the conversation.

The event will begin at noon on Friday, March 6. It is free for Athenaeum members and $10 for nonmembers. Advanced registration is required.