Women’s Suffrage Discussed at WIHA Meeting

By Marianne Salza

In the late 19th and early 20th centuries Women’s Suffrage Movement demonstrators united in an effort to obtain their lawful right to be represented in public elections. Congress’s passing of the 15th Amendment — granting the suffrage of African American men — incentivized women. They became increasingly more determined to assert their right to vote, which was not ratified until 1920, with the passing of the 19th Amendment.

During the February 4 Winthrop Improvement & Historical Association (WIHA) dinner meeting in the Deane Winthrop House barn, Park Ranger Will Watson, of the National Park Service, discussed the protests and civil disobedience practiced to achieve women’s suffrage.

“Through the 19th century, abolition and women’s rights were linked together in a fight for human rights,” said Watson, former Winthrop resident. “The [Massachusetts] State House has always been a very important spot for women’s rights and suffrage back to the 1830s.”

Angela Grimke was the first woman in American history to address the State House in 1838, when she gathered an assembly to advocate for the abolition of slaves in the United States, and support full equality for women.

Josephine St. Pierre Ruffin was an African American Boston resident who promoted African American women’s rights on Beacon Hill in the 1860s. In 1879, she founded the West End Suffrage Association.

“Massachusetts women played an important role in these protests, and continue to do so,” Watson asserted.

After years of stagnation, the movement for women’s suffrage in the United Kingdom shifted in 1910, when advocates changed their tactics by engaging in more radical acts. Alice Paul (1885-1977) and Lucy Burns (1879-1966) were crucial figures in Britain during that time. After Paul and Burns, who met while studying abroad in England, returned to the United States in 1916, the suffragettes formed the National Woman’s Party (NWP) to promote gender equality. The Massachusetts branch of the NWP was led by mother and daughter team, Katherine and Agnes More.

The first picketing of an American president was against President Woodrow Wilson at the White House, shortly after his inauguration in 1913. National Woman’s Party leaders protested his election, raising awareness that women were still denied the right to vote.

“By 1919, suffrage in the United States was a patchwork of various rights differing from state to state,” explained Watson, who mentioned that anti-suffrage was also prominent.

Political organizer, Josephine Jewell Dodge, and Massachusetts senator, Henry Cabot Lodge, were main opponents of women’s right to vote. 

“World War I changed everything for the Women’s Suffrage Movement. Women were seen as critical in the war effort while most of the men were fighting overseas,” described Watson. “World War I also changed how protesters were viewed. People started turning against suffrage protesters after the war because they were seen as not patriotic. Suffragettes became targets of violence and verbal assault.”

In February 1919, President Woodrow Wilson returned to the United States from Europe after negotiating the Treaty of Versailles that ended WWI. He addressed a crowd of 1,000 spectators outside the Massachusetts State House, where protesters demanded he take political action and change his position on women’s suffrage.

Massachusetts Woman’s Party members marched up Beacon Street and through the Boston Common, insisting that President Wilson was failing to domestically implement the principles of democracy and self-government. Two women burned copies of his speech from atop the bandstand; and several protesters were arrested, creating national outrage that enhanced sympathy for the movement. The event was the last women’s suffrage protest in Boston, 106 years ago.

“When women finally received the right to vote, Alice Stone Blackwell realized that the vote was very important,” explained Watson about the human rights advocate. “It was a powerful tool to be used in achieving equality.”

Will Watson, originally from South Carolina, has lived in the Boston area for the past 10 years. Through his work with the Boston African American Historic Site, Watson conducts educational tours around Beacon Hill and along the Freedom Trail.