woman suffrage marchers attacked at wilson inauguration-3 mar 1913

(this is a very detailed and interesting report on that march)


Part 1: Inauguration Disrupted by Parade and Attacks



1913: Women Organize Parade to Disrupt Inauguration, Onlookers Harass and Attack Marchers

When Woodrow Wilson arrived in Washington, D.C., on March 3, 1913, he expected to be met by crowds of people welcoming him for his inauguration as United States President the next
day. But very few people came to meet his train. Instead, hundreds of thousands of people were lining Pennsylvania Avenue, watching a Woman Suffrage Parade.

Organizers of the parade, led by suffragists Alice Paul and Lucy Burns, planned the parade for the day prior to Wilson's first inauguration in hopes that it would turn attention to their cause: winning a federal suffrage amendment, gaining the vote for women.

Five to eight thousand suffragists marched from the U.S. Capitol past the White House. Most of the women, organized into marching units walking three across and accompanied by suffrage floats, were in costume, most in white. At the front of the march, lawyer Inez Milholland Boissevain led the way on her white horse.
In another tableau, Florence F. Noyes wore a costume depicting "Liberty". She posed for photographs with other participants in front of the Treasury building.

Of the estimated half million onlookers watching the parade instead of greeting the President-elect, not all were supporters of woman suffrage. Many were angry opponents of suffrage, or were upset at the march's timing. Some hurled insults; others hurled lighted cigar butts. Some spit at the women marchers; others slapped them, mobbed them, or beat them. The
parade organizers had obtained the necessary police permit for the march, but the*** police did nothing to protect them from their attackers. Army troops from Fort Myer were called in to stop the violence. Two hundred marchers were injured.****

The next day, the inauguration proceeded. But public outcry against the police and their failure resulted in an investigation by the District of Columbia Commissioners and the ousting of the police chief.
. . . . .

http://womenshistory.about.com/library/weekly/aa010118a.htm