great american bitch

suffragist history side blog!

[inez-milholland]

rory ♡ | she/they | let mother serve!

hi!! this is my side blog for the musical suffs & the real suffragists that inspired it! my main is @autisticlenaluthor — i also follow from there

currently hyperfixated on inez milholland & learning about the life she lived

[inez-milholland]

listening to the suffs cast album on a slowly flooding subway car is kind of poetic if you think about it

[inez-milholland]

it is so devastating to me that after all they did, these women are mostly forgotten. outside of susan b anthony, hardly anyone knows individual suffragists and the impact they had. especially not the black women, who’s involvement was (and is) so significantly downplayed. the suffs deserve to be remembered & deserve to be known for what they did

[222pluto]

suffs literally has me looking up current feminist theorists to read and activist organizations to join and THATS the power of the arts

[generic-enthusiast]

hey so when alice says "my ideas dwindle and die", the silhouettes in the background are doing the same hand-raising movement as inez during the march

[autisticlenaluthor]

rory!!! tell me about inez milholland!! 😁

oh i would LOVE to!!

inez is most commonly known for leading the suffrage movements march down pennsylvania ave in 1913 on horseback. her reputation was for being “the most beautiful *suffragette” & eventually, a martyr for the movement

but she is SO much more than just this (albeit absolutely iconic) moment and her death. so here are some of my favorite inez facts:

- she’s originally from brooklyn!! but when she lived in greenwich village, she interrupted a presidential campaign parade by shouting out her window with a megaphone, demanding voting rights for women

- she went to vassar college and organized the Vassar Votes for Women Club. but the dean at the time didn’t support women’s suffrage (or teaching women on campus about politics) and so he forbid them from speaking about suffrage on campus. inez then started holding club meetings at a cemetery outside campus. they continued to find ways to protest on campus, and inez led them until she graduated!

- she applied to all the big ivy league’s for her masters, but was rejected because of her sex. so she went to NYU, passed the bar exam, and became for child labor & children’s rights attorney! inez was also arrested for picketing with female laundry/shirtwaist employees during the international ladies garments workers unions strikes in 1909-1910

- she also worked in producing a social/political magazine based in greenwich!

- AND (because she truly is suffragist barbie with 100 jobs) inez worked as a journalist in europa. she wrote about the progression of WWI but was unable to remain impartial. because of her campaign for pacifism, the italian government kicked her out of the country

- inez’s journalism career started after she married her husband. inez was the one to propose!

this one is not a favorite but it is important:

- inez died at 30, her last public words being “mr. president, how long must women wait for liberty?” her death led to the first ever picket at the white house in January, 1917. suffragists led by alice paul protested for over two years in all sorts of weather and despite over 500 arrests.

to finish, here is the iconic picture of inez on her horse!

*suffragist is the preferred term over suffragette. “suffragist” was coined by a journalist in 1906 to mock suffragists & belittle their activism

sources:

In a photograph taken in 1917, woman suffragists picket the White House to urge President Woodrow Wilson to support a constitutional amendme

https://www.lowellmilkencenter.org/programs/projects/view/inez-milholland/hero

Inez Milholland: Woman on a White Horse | About the Hero

Suffragist Inez Milholland inspired a zeal for liberty at the Women’s Suffrage Procession of 1913, and continued fighting for the right to v

The Woman On The White Horse: Inez Milholland and the March for Suffrage - Village Preservation

The 19th Amendment to the Constitution was adopted on August 18, 1920, affirming that “The right of citizens of the United States to vote sh

Inez Milholland (U.S. National Park Service)

Picketing the White House

In the second half of the nineteenth century Americans headed west to seek greater opportunities for themselves and their families. As settl