The 1913 Woman Suffrage Procession

This essay is part of a content series exploring the nations, stories, and themes included in the Museum’s special exhibition The Declaration’s Journey, presented by Griffin Catalyst, on view through Jan. 3, 2027. Click here for more information about the exhibition. 

Two hundred and fifty years ago, in March 1776, Abigail Adams wrote to her husband John that, “If particular care is not paid to the ladies, we are determined to foment a rebellion, and will not hold ourselves bound by any laws in which we have no voice or representation.” Throughout American history, women have used the language of the Declaration of Independence, including the statement that “all men are created equal,” to argue for their own rights. As The Declaration’s Journey demonstrates, women across generations have advocated for women’s rights , including suffrage, or the right to vote. In 1913, suffragists organized the Woman Suffrage Procession in Washington, DC, a massive parade and pageant with around 5,000 participants.

The Woman Suffrage Procession took place on March 3, 1913, the day before the inauguration of President Woodrow Wilson. Alice Paul, a well-known suffragist from New Jersey and chair of the organizing committee for the event, selected the date to both take advantage of the large crowds in town for the inauguration and underscore the fact that, thanks to the handful of states that allowed women to vote, Wilson had been elected, in small part, by women.

The plan for the Woman Suffrage Procession included two main parts: a pageant and a procession, timed so that the pageant performers could join in as it passed. As Alice Stone Blackwell, journalist and daughter of fellow suffragist Lucy Stone, wrote in the Woman’s Journal, “The artistic and allegorical beauty of the floats and dances will appeal to the spectator’s eye; the arguments on the banners and transparencies will appeal to his reason and sense of justice; but, above all, the ocular proof showing how far the advance of equal suffrage has actually gone will appeal to his political common sense.”

Pageants were a popular art form in the early 20th century, and many women took part in various aspects of creating them, such as directing, writing, and performing. The 1913 pageant, designed by Hazel McKaye, featured a woman as Columbia, a female symbol of America, alongside women representing democratic ideals including Justice and Liberty. Pageants at this time were large performances, often telling allegorical stories through scripted scenes and dancing, and were not explicitly political. While an explicitly political pageant may have been a new idea, the procession was not. Many suffragists organized parades, including Harriot Stanton Blatch (daughter of Elizabeth Cady Stanton, whose desk and writing is featured in The Declaration’s Journey); Blatch was also one of the organizers of the Woman Suffrage March. The procession through Washington, DC, led by lawyer and suffragist Inez Milholland on a white horse, had participants marching in sections, such as state and profession. A group of male supporters, including some congressmen, marched at the end. Pushback from suffragists from southern states forced African American women to march in a separate section, although some, like famed writer and activist Ida B. Wells-Barnett, chose to march alongside white women anyway. The procession also featured many floats, including a model of the Liberty Bell and a map of states where women’s suffrage had been legalized.

The event did not go according to the organizers’ plan. Police failed to control the crowds, who blocked the route of the procession and attacked marchers both physically and verbally. Dozens of suffragists were injured before cavalry troops were called in to assist. In the weeks that followed, the press coverage of the treatment of the suffragists, as well as testimonies during the congressional investigation into the police conduct that followed, built sympathy for the suffragists among the public. While it certainly was not how organizers had envisioned it happening, the Woman Suffrage Procession did achieve more widespread support for the cause.

It would take another seven years for women across the United States to gain suffrage with the 19th amendment to the Constitution. In that time, activists would hold more parades and pageants, as well as protests. Some, including Alice Paul, would be imprisoned for their efforts. Inez Milholland did not live to see suffrage become the law of the land, nor did earlier activists like Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Lucy Stone. The Woman Suffrage Procession was a major turning point in the long history of women’s fight to become equal citizens in the United States.