Duchess of Weaselskin

Bayfield, CO - NW Okie says every once in awhile, "Duchess, you are in the driver's seat!" And NW Okie keeps pulling out my baby pictures to proof that point, such as the photo on the left taken about eight years ago when I was just a young pup! Do I look determined and know where, what I want?

There were a few days last week that we got into the 50's temperature-wise with some melting of snow running into Weaselskin Creek. A raccoon or a gang of raccoons have been raiding our suet feeder for the birds, also. Some northwest Oklahoma people have mentioned it was too muddy to drive out into pastures to look at horses. So . . . Have you all had some much need moisture in the form of rain, snow or what?

In our OkieLegacy Ezine dated 2010-01-25, Vol. 12, Iss. 4, we mentioned the town of Wolco, Oklahoma and asked where exactly is was and if anyone had ever heard of Wolco. We recently heard from someone that told us that Wolco was originally a Wolverine Oil Company camp located in the Avant oil field in the 1910s. Originally it was just called Wolverine and the name was changed to Wolco in 1922 with the establishment of a post office. The town was located 5 miles east of current day Barnsdall, Oklahoma (also named for an oil company). The town was built around the Wolverine gasoline plant and included a residential area, company building, a club house with swimming pool, school, and 10 private businesses. In the 1920s the population varied from three to four hundred people. In 1922, Wolverine was acquired by Shell. The refinery was shut down after World War II and by 1957, the post office was closed. Shell sold the property in 1965. All that remains of Wolco today are concrete foundations and the old drayage barn. Thanks to D. W. Taylor for sharing this information with us at the OkieLegacy Ezine.

NW Okie is still at researching the "Suffrage movement" and the women involved in working to get women the right to vote. She has found that the Democratic party had been generous to women's suffrage and there was no doubt about that, back in the early 1900's as they continued their fight in the Women's Suffrage movement. The Democrats had opened political doors and the consciousness of this gift impressed the individual woman who were attending the convention in some official capacity with a tremendous sense of her responsibility. It was no longer a question of whether women must make good in order to win recognition and credit for their sex. They were so intimately associated with the policies and achievements of the Democratic party that its success is inevitably tied to the women's suffrage. This is the case today! What women in their right mind would vote for the GOP!

Tell the GOP to "Stop the Rape & War On Women's Rights!" Good Night & Good Luck! Think Globally! View/Write Comments (count 0)   |   Receive updates (0 subscribers)  |   Unsubscribe

100 Years Ago Today - March 12, 1912

America - The Democratic Banner, dated Tuesday, 12 March 1912, out of Mt. Vernon, Ohio, had an interesting headline that caught my interest because of the name of Warwick. Before we present the 1912 article and Lady Warwick, let us look at some history of the Earls of Warwick Castle.

Medieval Earldom For Warwick Castle

The medieval earldom for Warwick Castle was created in 1088, traditionally associated with the possession of Warwick Castle. It was held to be inheritable through a female line of descent, held by members of several families. The first Earl of Warwick was Henry de Beaumont, younger son of Roger de Beaumont, Count of Meulan and brother to Robert de Beaumont, 1st Earl of Leicester. The family name of Beaumont was Latinised to de Bello Monte ("from the beautiful mountain"). The family was also known as de Newburgh, Latinised to de Novo Burgo ("from the new borough/town"). Henry changed his named to de Newburgh, after the Castle de Neubourg, his home in Normandy. Henry became constable of Warwick Castle in 1068 and Earl in 1088 as reward for his support for the King during the Rebellion of 1088.

The title (Earl of Warwick) passed through several generations of the Beaumont family until Thomas, the 6th earl, who died in 1242 without a male heir. The earldom then went to his sister Margaret and her husbands and on her death to her cousin William Maudit. When he died also without a male heir the title passed to his daughter Isabel and her husband William Beauchamp and thence her son William, who became 9th earl. During this period the earldom and the Beauchamps were elevated to the highest levels until Henry, the 14th earl was created Duke of Warwick with precedence over all except the Duke of Norfolk. This precedence was disputed however and with Henry's death in 1445, also without male heir, the dukedom was extinguished. The earldom went to his infant daughter, and on her death a few years later passed to Henry's sister Anne and her husband Richard Neville, who became 16th earl and was known to history as "Warwick the Kingmaker". After Richard Neville's death the title was created for his son-in-law, George Plantagenet, 1st Duke of Clarence, husband of Neville's eldest daughter Isabella Neville, on 25 March 1472. It then passed to Richard and Anne's grandson Edward, son of George, Duke of Clarence, and with his death in 1499 the title became extinct.

March 12, 1912 & Lady Warwick

It seems in March, 1912, Lady Warwick, an English Countess-Socialist would be lecturing in America. The Countess of Warwick in an interview "Tells How To Retain Youth." Countess of Warwick says destroy all calendars. Lady Warwick, admitted to being 50 and having a grandchild the same age as youngest daughter, says fighting for ballot is fight for sex independence, does not advocate immorality.

It was in New York, 11th of March 1912, when Lady Warwick greeted reporters and sob sisters who gathered at her apartments in the nature of a query. Lady Warwick said, "Odd, isn't it, that the eldest of my four grandchildren is almost the exact age of my youngest child?" When asked how old was her oldest grandchild Lady Warwick replied, "Seven years."

The Countess of Warwick welcomed reporters one after another to her apartments by Lady Warwick's secretary, who was the well-known London Barrister, G. R. Stirling Taylor. One of the sob sisters reporters Impulsively asked, "How do you keep so young, Lady Warwick?" Lady Warwick just laughed and gave the questioner a special squeeze of the hand. Lady Warwick answered, "I keep young, even as a grandmother, because I believe in throwing the calendar away. I wish we had no calendars."

Lady Warwick Discusses Fight For Ballot

Lady Warwick in reply to questions discussed English suffragets' fight for the ballot. She said, "The fight for the ballot in England and America is a fight for sex independence. Women forever have been held down by the man-imposed rules of so-called morality and now they are revolting. I believe England, your own country, every country, is on the eve of a revolution or, I might say more properly, evolution."

Lady Warwick went on to say, "Marriage will be revolutionized through economic independence of women plus the ballot. As things are now, the most sacred of all relations often is prostituted. I, fortunately, am one woman of economic independence. I have my own income and my husband has his. I believe it is better for a woman to live in fine comradeship with a man, a congenial, sympathetic man, than to prostitute the most sacred of relationships, marriage, by living, as most married women live now, simply as the spouse of a man who pays for the bread the woman eats, a kept wife. And please don't misunderstand me. I am not advocating what the world calls immorality. Far from it. I think you understand. I am happily married and am glad I am."

Lady Warwick was asked what she considered the best time of life and she answered, "The best time of life is always after the age of 30. Better than that is after 40. The very best time of life is 50, which is my age."

Other Headlines: To Fight Suffrage

Also on that same front page was the headlines (To Fight Suffrage) that came out of Cincinnati, Ohio, March 11, 1912 -- "The national association in opposition to woman's suffrage is to become actively engaged in the fight against suffrage in Ohio and a campaign will be opened immediately. Mrs. William Forse Scott, a resident of New York but a native Ohian, national secretary, arrived in Cincinnati to make preliminary arrangements. View/Write Comments (count 0)   |   Receive updates (0 subscribers)  |   Unsubscribe

NW Okie's Corner

Bayfield, CO - My grandmother, Constance Estella Warwick McGill, was a strong-willed, determined woman in her lifetime! Anyway, that is how she appeared to this NW Okie. I sometimes wish I could now go back to when she was alive to see what she thought of what is going on with the injustices the male congress have imposed on women's rights to make their own healthcare choices today.



This last week (10 March 2012) at the "Women in the World Summit" in New York City, New York, Hillary Clinton stated, "There is much we can do together! . . . . . Women should have the right to make their own choices about what they wear, how they worship, the jobs they do, the causes they support. These are choices they have to make for themselves, and they are fundamental test of democracy. Clinton asks why extremists want to focus on controlling women. I also would like the answer to that question!

Hillary Clinton is not the only women who inspires this NW Okie today. I do like what she said about women and that, "America needs to set an example for the entire world!"

Who, What inspires you about women in the World? What can you do to shape your own destiny?

Good Night & Good Luck! Think Globally! View/Write Comments (count 0)   |   Receive updates (0 subscribers)  |   Unsubscribe

Lucy Price - Youngest Anti-Suffrage Worker (1915)

America - In a news article dated April 11, 1915, that appeared in The Pittsburgh Press, Miss Lucy Price was youngest anti-suffrage worker. She was working in Western Pennsylvania under auspices of National Association opposed to Woman suffrage. Miss Price had debated often with Miss Fola LaFollette. LaFollette and Price were also considered best of friends.

It was reported that of all the women speaking for anti-suffrage, Lucy Price was regarded the most effective, yet she was the youngest platform talker on either side of the suffrage controversy and still in her twenties. Miss Price had earned the reputation of being one of the most brilliant women in debate on the American platform. It was impossible to rattle her. Price frequently volunteered to debate in Cooper Union, New York, with Max Eastman, Giovannetti and others. Miss Price is said to have remained smiling, calm under a torrent of heckling. Miss Price debated publicly with Fola LaFollette, daughter of United States Senator LaFollette, of Wisconsin.

Fola LaFollette and Lucy Price were the most intimate friends, but on the platform they were widely apart as the poles. Mrs. Inez Milholland-Boissevain, the suffragist and feminist, recently expressed the hope that Miss Price would be converted to suffrage, because of her winning platform presence and her clearness and force in debate.

Miss Price was a newspaper woman in Cleveland, Ohio, before becoming interested in the anti-suffrage movement. Price was considered a "regular reporter," on the reportorial staff and was not engaged in writing society, fashions or any of the other departments in newspaper work handled by women.

In 1913 when Ohio voted on adopting a new constitution submitted to the voters, containing a clause giving the ballot to women, Miss Price handled the fight against it and did it so effectively that suffrage was defeated in Ohio in a conclusive manner. View/Write Comments (count 0)   |   Receive updates (0 subscribers)  |   Unsubscribe

Highland County Virginia - Under the British Crown

Highland County, Virginia - This week's journey through the early days of Highland County and the Valley of Virginia continues with Chapter IX of Oren Frederic Morton's book entitled, The History of Highland County, Virginia. We continue where we left off with the earliest mention of a road in Bath around 1749, when William Jackson was directed to mark and lay off a way from Jackson's River to Colonel Johnson's on the Cowpasture.

The road orders of that time would prove there was a mill at Estill's by 1751, and at Wilson's by 1753. A permission for a mill had to be secured from the county court, but none appears to have been entered on the order book. Andrew Lockridge secured a license in 1753, but we do not know whether it was at the double fords" above Williamsville or on the Calfpasture. The pioneer mill in Bath seems to have been that of Adam Dickinson, licensed in 1746.

The Taverns

The taverns were too few for competition alone to keep down the rates. There were records that Peter Wright took out a tavern license in 1764 with Wallace and Benjamin Estill being his sureties. William Wilson had already taken a license in 1762. They referred to their house of public entertainment has an "ordinary," and the prices it might charge for its services were regulated by the county court.

Religion During the Revolution

After the Revolution there were no church organizations in Highland, Virginia and the nearest "meeting houses" were those at Deerfield on the Calfpasture and at Windy Cove, a few miles above Dickenson's Fort. Even the people most religious attended but rarely. We find out that all protestants who were not of the Church of England were known as "Dissenters." Protestant houses of worship had to be licensed and registered by the county court. In the Valley they were not fined for not attending the parish church, but they were taxed for its support. Their preachers had to take various oaths and until 1781 they were not permitted to perform the marriage ceremony. It was after the Revolution was under way that all such discriminations were brushed aside and "religion in Virginia made free."

In 1738 the Presbyterian Synod in Ireland had addressed Governor Gooch, "May it please your Honor, we take leave to address you in behalf of a considerable number of our brethren, who are meditating a settlement in the remote parts of your Government and are of the same persuasion as the Church of Scotland. We thought it our duty to acquaint your Honor with this design, and to ask your favor in allowing them the liberty of their consciences and of worshiping God in a way agreeable to the principles of their Education. Your Honor is sensible that those of our profession in Europe have been remarkable for their inviolable attachment to the house of Hanover, and have upon all occasions manifested an unspotted fidelity to our gracious Sovereign, King George, and we doubt not that but these our brethren will carry the same loyal principles to the most distant settlements, where their lot may be cast, which will ever influence them to the most dutiful submission to the Government which is placed over them. This we trust will recommend them to your Honor's countenance and protection, and merit the free enjoyment of their civil and religious liberties. We pray for the divine blessings upon your persons and Government and beg leave to subscribe ourselves your Honor's most humble and obedient servants."

The Governor responded with, "As I have always been inclined to favor the people who have lately removed from other provinces to settle on the western side of our great mountains; so you may be assured that no interruption shall be given to any minister of your profession, who shall come among them, so as they conform themselves to the rules prescribed by the Act of Toleration in England, by taking the oaths enjoined thereby, and registering the place of their meeting, and behave themselves peaceably toward the government."

The Schools In Highland

Schoolmaster's were scattered in different directions, over a wide area in Highland, and almost totally unable to get into the public records. The Scotch-Irish set great store on schooling, but pioneer life in this thinly-peopled wilderness was not favorable. Those that could read and write would give their children rudimentary training. Occasionally, a person appeared in the settlements who was competent to act as a tutor, and was employed for a limited extent. The first classical school west of the Blue Ridge was opened by Robert Alexander in 1749 near Greenville. It continued until the Revolution, when Liberty Academy, which became Washington and Lee University, arose at Lexington.

There was a significant instance that an early constable of the Bullpasture, who of necessity was able to read and write, reared an illiterate family. A signature by means of a mark was very common, although the illiterate person sometimes used the initial letter of his surname or even the initials of both names.

County Governments

The settlement of Highland and Augusta and the organizing of separate county governments took place at around the same time. The first court met 9 December 1745, but the only member for the district west of Shenandoah Mountain was Adam Dickenson. The courthouse was of hewed logs and 18 by 38 feet in size. There were two little windows unprovided with glass or shutters, but light also came in through unchinked spaces between the logs. Some of the openings being several feet long and several inches wide. The jail was smaller and not well constructed. The county seat was not known as Staunton until 1748, in which year it was laid out as a town. Such was the center of local government for a territory covering a section of the Valley of Virginia 240 miles long.

It was 1776 that the county court was opened by the reading of royal commission to the justices, "Be it remembered,(date) his majesty's commission directed to (justices), to hear and determine all treasons, petit treasons, or misprisons thereof, felonies, murders, and all other offenses and crimes, was openly read."

The court had general police and probate jurisdiction, with control of levies, roads, actions at law, and suits in chancery. A single justice had jurisdiction in matters not exceeding the value of one pound ($3.33). There was no particular limit as to the number of members, and at least 20 were usually in commission at the same time.

A jail in those days was numerously occupied by delinquent debtors. Imprisonment for debt was not put aside until within the memory of people still living. In the order book could be found this form, "Thereupon came, and undertook for the said defendant, incase he be cast in this suit, he shall pay and satisfy the condemnation of the court, or render his body to prison in execution for the same, or that he, the said, will do it for him."

The courthouse yard was supposed to be equipped with whipping post, pillory, stocks and a ducking stool. The whipping post was sometimes a tree. Whipping, up to the number of 39 lashes on the bare back, was much in vogue and administered promptly without regard to sex. The female thief or the mother of a bastard child was often thus punished. sometimes the culprit was unable to pay a fine prayed for corporal punishment and always received what he asked.

The essential feature of the pillory was a pair of short planks, each with a large notch in one edge so that a person's neck might be fitted into the opening. The stocks differed from the pillory in confining the culprits or ankles, or both, and not allowing them to stand. Neither position could be very agreeable, especially if the flies were numerous and the spectators inclined, as in England, to throw mud, sticks, eggs of venerable quality, and epithets as vile as the eggs.

The ducking stool was a long plank, pivoted in the center and furnished at one end with a seat to which the culprit was lashed. The design of the apparatus was to give the person an involuntary bath in a mill pond or river. It was a favorite punishment for a scolding woman.

There was another punishment of branding on the hand with a hot iron and in open court, the criminal being made to say the words, "God save the Commonwealth." For swearing or getting drunk, the penalty was five shillings for each offense or the choice of ten lashes. For working on Sunday the penalty was twice as great. Not a few crimes were punishable with death, and if the offense were regarded as particularly flagrant, it was supposed to make the penalty more impressive by decreeing death without benefit of clergy.

The spirit of the times was harsh and coarse with the severity of the laws and the frequency which even these laws were broken. The public punishment dulled the sensibilities of people and did not reform the law breaker. Men swore and otherwise misbehaved in open court, even to abusing the justices. The ears of criminals were often cropped, In the records of 1746 you can find where Philip Jones lost part of his right ear in a fight and had this fact certified, so that he might not be apprehended as a runaway convict.

In 1750 the path of the constable was not easy, as he was prevented by fist or club from removing a person's goods from his house. In 1750 a constable made the return, "Not executed by reason the Deft with a loaded Gun or Rifle stood in the door of his house and threatened to shoot me or any one that offered to lay hands on any part of his estate. Neither would he suffer me to enter into the House."

This gives us some nature of the times of our pioneers. The offenses most numerous before the court were in addition to debt, assault, trespass, slander, bastardy, drinking, swearing, neglect or road supervision, disturbing public worship and delinquency in paying head tax.

Although the use of liquor was universal, actual drunkeness was rare. Court records prove that alcohol was the same curse in pioneer days that it was in the 19th & 20th century. The voice of decency occasionally heard was shown in the will of John Dickenson of Bath in 1808, whereby he forbids the use of liquor at his interment.

The Augusta people were given to much litigation and the suits, complaints and indictments were innumerable. The settlers on the Bullpasture got into court quite frequently. Burnside and others were contentious, especially in the matter of trespass. The Millers were quarrelsome toward the Bodkins, and several combats between them were recorded. One slander suit brought out a good share of the settlement and the plaintiff gained a verdict of two pounds ($6.67). Two other men misbehaved in court and were given a few hours in jail. Still two other men were fined each 400 pounds of tobacco in 1763, for non-attendance as jurors.

Lawsuits were voluminous and the writing was in very small hand and the lines were near together. The entries were nearly and carefully made. When a coarse pointed quill was used the writing could be read with ease. But when done with a fine pointed quill the writing became almost microscopic. Instead of covering the pages of the order book with an unreadable scrawl, the copyist took time to begin a long entry with a highly ornamented initial letter. Indexing was done with extreme economy of space, sometimes eight lines to the inch. The ink was generally very permanent and the paper was not corroded, as is the case when a steel pen was used. It usually began with a piously worded preamble, which was taken to mean that at heart the settlers were more religious than they professed to be.

The land conveyances before the revolution, followed the English practice of drawing a double instrument (a deed of lease followed at once by a deed of release) so that deeds were recorded in pairs in the deed-book. The deed of lease was valid from the day before the sale for one whole year to be completed and ended, yielding and paying the rent of one peppercorn on "Lady-day next (March 25)," if the same shall be lawfully demanded, to the intent and purpose that by virtue of these presents and of the statute for transferring uses into possession, the said (purchaser) may be in actual possession of these premises, and be thereby enabled to accept and take a grant and release of the possession and inheritances thereof. The consideration named in the paper was five shillings (83 cents).

The deed of release, which was the real and effective instrument, was dated one day later, and mention was made of the purchaser receiving from the seller a twig in token of possession. The Revolution swept away this clumsy practice of giving two deeds in a single transaction.

The man who could prove that he had met the cost of his passage from Europe could enter fifty acres of public domain and have it surveyed by the county surveyor. Later on he received a patent for the land. It was alleged that the Governor did not read the patents he signed and that his secretary did not compare them with the originals. It is also alleged that the grant of fifty acres to each actual settler was evaded or perverted, and that the clerk in the Secretary's office would sell such right for the modest "graft" of one to five shillings.

Prior to 1784, there was no recording of marriages unless by the officiating minister. Prior to 1747 there was no clergyman of the Church of England west of the Blue Ridge, and until 1760 no church edifice. Marriages performed by other persons were illegal in the eye of the Virginia law. This worked a hardship until a more liberal rule came into force, by which a dispensation from the Governor could enable a minister to officiate who was not an Episcopalian.

Indentured Servants

Indentured white servants were not rare in the Augusta colony. The general influence of the system was not good, it led to black slavery and also fostered immorality. The female servant who became the mother of a bastard was made to serve an extra year. Servants often ran easy, and if captured, they were forced to serve extra time as an offset to the cost of recovery, which was adjudicated by the county court. Wallace Estill made a claim of this sort in 1756, specifying twelve days as spent in the recovery.

James McAvoy and 13 other youths were kidnapped from Ireland and brought to Virginia. Several of the boys were recovered by their parents. McAvoy was sold to Robert Barble, and by him resold to a man in the Valley. While in the service of the latter he married Frances Pritt, but returned to the Bullpasture before his time was out. His owner came and took him back. At length his wife went to where he was, carrying her child, and the morning after her arrival she said she would have to go back. Pritts master offered his servant a horse to take his wife a distance, but she refused the help, and the pair walked slowly out of the settlement.

The wife tucked her cloak into her belt, took her child, and said to her companion, "Now put down your foot," James McAvoy did put down his foot and continued doing so until after walking all day and the following night, when they reached the Bullpasture. McAvoy was not again disturbed, and later on became a resident of Bath.

Negroes were rare in the mountains for some time. The first known to be in Highland was a young woman purchased for Ann Jane Usher by her guardian about 1750.

The Currency

When the pioneer went to court he took along his long-barreled flintlock rifle, and if possible a wolf head, the latter being a form of currency. The bounty on a wolf at this time was one pound. In 1763 Benjamin Estill turned in 36 assigned wolf heads, these being worth $120. The hemp certificate was also a form of money for paying taxes.

Some of the pioneers brought along a considerable stock of gold and silver coin, but it was not easy to see how money in the wilderness could reproduce itself otherwise than very slowly. There was little to take to the markets except cattle and furs and the market for the former could not have been quick. Nevertheless, land sold at a relatively high price and the goods for sale at a "public sale" found buyers.

The account book of a Staunton merchant who sent goods to Richmond from 1766 to 1775 shows that the leading items were hemp, butter, beeswax, ginseng, cheese and deerskins, the latter being worth in 1774 an average of $1.05. The shipment of flour for the nine years was only thirteen barrels, and in 1767 the price per barrel was $5. Cornbread was the staff of life.

Next week we shall bring you chapter 10, of "A History of Highland County, Virginia," by Oren F. Morton. View/Write Comments (count 0)   |   Receive updates (0 subscribers)  |   Unsubscribe

Women's Suffrage History In America

America - Searching back through the old newspaper for women's suffrage, we find that The Day Book, 14 April 1913, Chicago, Illinois mentions fFour women who were directing the "National Suffrage Fight" in Washington:

Miss Alice Paul, chairman of the congressional committee of the National Women's Suffrage Association, is the girl in the cap and gown in the picture on the left. She was the exact anti-thesis of the conventional idea of a woman's suffrage leader, being small and delicate. She came from a family of old Pennsylvania Quakers, the people who had been first in the fight for so many reforms affecting fundamental democracy.

Ida Evangeline Prouty, daughter of Congressman Prouty of Iowa, was a charming young girl just out of Northwestern University and was one of Alice Paul's chief lieutenants in the suffrage movement. She is pictured below Miss Paul.

Dr. Cora Smith King, formerly of Seattle, but became a resident of the District of Columbia, described herself on her card as, "A qualified voter in the state of Washington." She was an aide on the staff of Alice Paul, and wife of Judson King, secretary of the National Referendum League. Dr. Cora Smith King is to the Left of Alice Paul in the above image.

Prof. Eliza Hardy Lord of New York was also doing much of the work necessary in placing the woman's cause before Congress. She was formerly dean of women at the Western Reserve University, Cleveland. In the picture above she is wearing a hat. View/Write Comments (count 0)   |   Receive updates (0 subscribers)  |   Unsubscribe

The Pioneer Woman of Civil Rights In 1955

Montgomery, Alabama - This week we remind you of the woman that began the "Civil Rights" movement that most historians date back to 1 December 1955. That was a day when an unknown seamstress in Montgomery, Alabama refused to give up her bus seat to a white passenger. This woman who refused to give up her bus seat was the honorable, inspirational Rosa Parks.

Rosa Parks (known as the "mother of the civil rights movement") was arrested and fined for violating a city ordinance, but her lonely act of defiance began a movement that ended legal segregation in America. It made her an inspiration to freedom loving people everywhere. (The Story Behind the Bus).

Rosa was born Rosa Louise McCauley in Tuskegee, Alabama to James (a carpenter) and Leona (teacher) McCauley. At the age of two Rosa moved to her grandparents' farm in Pine Level, Alabama with her mother and younger brother, Sylvester. At the age of 11 she enrolled in the Montgomery Industrial School for Girls (a private school founded by liberal-minded women from the northern United States). Rosa's mother gave her daughter this advice, "Take advantage of the opportunities, no matter how few they were."

Back in 1955 they did not have a civil rights. It was just a matter of survival, existing from one day to the next. Rosa Parks remembered going to sleep as a girl hearing the Klan ride at night, hearing a lynching and being afraid the house would burn down. Rosa Parks cited her lifelong acquaintance with fear as her reason for her relative fearlessness to appeal her conviction during the bus boycott. Rosa was quoted as saying, "It was more of a relief to know that I wasn't alone."

It was in 1957 that Mrs. Parks and her husband, Raymond moved to Detroit Michigan where Mrs. Parks served on the staff of U. S. Representative John Conyers. After the death of her husband in 1977, Rosa founded the Rosa & Raymond Parks Institute for Self Development. The Institute sponsors an annual summer program for teenagers called "Pathways to Freedom," as the young people tour the country in buses, under adult supervision, leaning the history of their country and of the civil rights movement. In 1996 President Clinton presented Rosa Parks with the Presidential Medal of Freedom. Parks received a Congressional Gold Medal in 1999.

Mrs. Parks spent her last years living quietly in Detroit, Michigan where she died in 2005 at the age of 92. Rosa Parks courage changed the lives of many. She was the only woman and second African American in American history to lie in state at the Capitol, at her death. The "Jim Crow" laws at the local and state levels barred them from classrooms, bathrooms, theaters, train cars, juries and legislatures. In 1954, the U.S. Supreme Court struck down the "separate but equal" doctrine that formed the basis for state sanctioned discrimination, which drew national and international attention to African Americans' plight.

It was the turbulent decade that followed, civil rights activists used "non-violent" protest and "civil" disobedience to bring about change. The Federal government made legislative headway with initiatives such as the voting Rights Act of 1965 and the Civil Rights Act of 1968.

In 1963, Betty Friedan (founder of the National Organization for Women) published The Feminine Mystique, which exposed the strict and confining gender roles instilled in the U.S. society in the 1950's and 1960's and today. Aa exploration of the white housewife's daily existence, The Feminine Mystique revealed how white girls were socialized to marry and then live vicariously through their husbands and children, without establishing their own identities or interests.

The sexism that was present in the Civil Rights Movement was a continuation of oppressive mentality that existed in the larger U.S. culture, which was and is today a white, male-dominated culture.

In teaching for diversity and social justice, editor Lee Ann Bell argues: "The Civil Rights Movement fired the imagination of millions of Americans who applied its lessons to an understanding of their own situations and adapted its analyses and tactics to their own struggles for equality. For example, Native American, Chicano and Puerto Rican youth styled themselves after the African American youth in SNCC (Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee) and the Black Panther Party. The predominantly White student antiwar movement drew directly from the experiences of the Black freedom struggles to shape their goals and strategies. Early women's liberation groups were spawned within SNCC itself as black and white women applied the analyses of racial inequality to their own positions as women, as did Latinas within the Puerto Rican Youth. The gay liberation and disability rights movements also credit the Civil Rights Movement as a model for their organizing and activism. Poor people's movements and welfare rights likewise drew upon this heritage. View/Write Comments (count 0)   |   Receive updates (0 subscribers)  |   Unsubscribe

Suffragists Plan Big Parade In Washington May 9 (1914)

America - 20 April 1914, Noon Edition, The Day Book, Chicago, Illinois -- [In the picture on the left, from left to right, upper row, Miss Alice Paul and Miss Lucy Burns; Lower Row, Miss Elisie Hill, Mrs. Donald Hooker and Miss Doris Stevens.]

Washington, DC, April 20, 1914 -- A group of active, energetic women were planning for the big suffrage parade and demonstration that would be held in Washington, DC, May 8, 1914. These women were officers in the Congressional Union which was known as the militant branch of the National Suffrage Organization.

Their ultimate purpose was to secure the passage of a federal amendment giving the right of the ballot to all women in the United States. Misses Alice Paul and Lucy Burns, chairman and vice chairman of the union, spent a good deal of time in England with the militants. And they believed in waging a lively battle to secure the vote.

They made no secret of the fact that they would determinedly fight the persons or the party averse to the bill which they were trying to get congress to pass. The 9 May 1914 parade was expected to be the largest suffrage demonstration Washington had ever seen back then. It was headed by a cavalry section in which there were many prominent horsewomen.

The parade proper was made up of numbers of divisions, each representing a different class. The "homemakers" were marshaled by Mrs. Harvey W. Wiley, wife of the former head of the federal bureau of chemistry. There were divisions for dentists, business women, paper box factory girls, lawyers, writers, players and all the other professions and occupations.

Misses Elsie Hill and Doris Stevens were members of the executive committee of the Congressional Union. Mrs. Donald Hooker was also a member and had the chairmanship of the finance committee. View/Write Comments (count 0)   |   Receive updates (0 subscribers)  |   Unsubscribe

4-Million Use Big Stick On Congress To Get Ballot

America - According to The Day Book, Chicago, Illinois, Vol. 3, No. 62, Wednesday, 10 December 1913, we find the headlines, "4,000,000 Will Use the Big Stick On Congress To Get Ballot," as it was written by Frederick M. Kerby. It tells us in the report that the suffrage will use strength in ten states to whip congress into line, holding the Democratic party responsible because it was the party in power back then.

Washington, Dec. 10, 1913 -- "It's just a question of leverage -- that's all!" The speaker, Miss Alice Paul, chairman of the congressional committee of the woman suffrage association said. Miss Paul was the big engineer who would try to pry loose in 1913 from a backward congress the necessary amendment to the constitution for the enfranchisement of the whole feminine half of the population of the United States?

A question of leverage came up when the newspaper reporter asked Alice Paul to explain why the suffragists had changed their plan of campaign and were endeavoring to secure the federal amendment instead of perusing only the policy of capturing the states one by one.

Miss Paul said, "You see in the beginning of the suffrage fight, the line of least resistance was to nab one state at a time. That necessitated practically the conversion, or attempted conversion, of the entire male population of each state. By that method we have succeeded in winning ten states. That means approximately four million women voters. And a woman voter becomes a very important thing to a congressman or a senator looking for re-election. That is why I say it is a question of leverage. Ten states, nearly four million voters, gives us a tremendous leverage on congress. We can now take the short-cut method in attempting to get a constitutional amendment. The sinning of ten states gives us the right, and the power, to call on one-fifth of the members of the senate and on one-seventh of the membership of congress; and these ten states represent one-sixth of the total electoral vote to be cast for president!"

"But that is not all," Miss Paul went on to state, "In addition to the states already won for suffrage, there are what we call 'The Campaign States.' I mean the seven states where the suffrage amendment has already passed the legislature and eventually will be submitted to the people in a referendum vote (Montana, Nevada, North Dakota, South Dakota, New York, Pennsylvania and New Jersey). Congressmen and senators from these states know that their people may adopt the suffrage amendment and consequently they are disposed to be on the safe side; at least they will not oppose us openly." Miss Alice Paul did not overlook any phase of the question, and pointed out the fact that a federal constitutional amendment needed to be adopted only once by a majority vote of a sufficient number of state legislatures.

In that same article, Miss Paul said, "In some states under the state method of securing the suffrage, the amendment must go through two successive state legislatures, as in Pennsylvania, New Jersey and New York. This would not be necessary in adopting a federal constitutional amendment. As long as the question must be submitted to each state legislature by either method, why not take the easiest way?"

The reporter asked Miss Paul, "What is to be the special effort of your congressional committee this winter.?"

Miss Paul replied, "The party in power is responsible. We are going to demand that the leaders of the Democratic party take some position with regard to woman suffrage. We have already sent three delegations to call on the president, one from the National Association, one from the National College Association and one from the National Council of Women Voters. The president told us that tariff and currency must be handled to the exclusion of other subjects. We shall continue to ask the president for his support. We shall ask the democratic leaders in congress for their support. We shall hold the party in power responsible."

The reporter then asked, "Will you oppose the re-election of congressmen and senators who are opposed to suffrage?"

Miss Paul said, "We will oppose the candidates of the Democratic party -- whether they oppose or favor suffrage. We must hold the party in power responsible. If that party will not grant us suffrage, then we must oppose that party at the polls!" View/Write Comments (count 0)   |   Receive updates (0 subscribers)  |   Unsubscribe

1st Woman To Vote In Congress Election (Mrs. C. W. Rogers)

America - The picture in that news article shows the first woman to vote in the Congress Election. It was Mrs. C. W. Rogers. It was in the 10 March 1918, Section 5, Magazine Section, page 17 that we found this article where suffrage worker tells her news in rhyme and opens up the glad Sprintime, as written by Eleanor Booth Simmons, and titled -- "And Now The Suffragette Doth Shine."

The rhyming article begins:

"Ruth Litt, a Suffolk farmerette
And justly famous suffragette,
is slated, it is said, to be
The Democratic nominee
for congress from the district where
her pumpkins grace the county fair.
The lady's coy; she laughs, "A fig
for office! -- come and see the pig
with which my farm, sirs, wolk'd away
with porcine prizes t'other day."
Still, if her country needs her, she
the Lady from New York may be.
The surf amendment still hangs fire,
and Jimmy Wadsworth wakes the ire
of women whom he (represents!!!!!)
and likewise many suffrage gents
because it seems he will vote true
to Mrs. Wadsworth's well known view,
to wit: That woman's place is home,
from which she should not ever roam
Except to fight the Feminists,
And Socialists, and suffragists --
that fearsome, awful three-in-one
That so obscures the antis' sun."

Ah well, a vulgar phrase to quote,
the Senator has got the goat
of every suffragist of note,
and Ida Harper says of him
that this will be the end of Jim,
so far as being Senator,
or President, or Governor,
or -- anything we're voting for.

Reprisal? Aye, and 'tis a tool
suffs have acquired, sirs, in your school.

They wish that bill was passed; the work
drags on them, yet they may not shirk.
Poor Mrs. Carrie Chapman Catt
is very tired of staying at
the town of Washington, D.C.
E'en like the good old antisa, she
doth sorely long at home to be.
Each morn she asks, in earnest tones,
of Suff Committee Chariman Jones:
"Is this the psychologic day!
Have we the votes to pass it? Say!
Is Chamberlain's appendix out
and is he back?-- But is there doubt
that Simmons will consent to pair? --
Is Calder, our good standby, there?" --
And still the Chairman counsels, "Wait!
'Tis not the psychologic date."

But Big Boss Mary Garrett Hay,
return'd from Washington today.
She says that bill will pass right soon,
will pass before another moon,
and Albany will ratify
before our Solons say good-by.

And Legislatures thirty-six --
with, it may be, some futile kicks --

are very sure to do the same.

So we shall realize the aim
that ruled the life of Susan B.,
and would that she were here to see!

An epoch dawn'd last week for us,
without the slightest jar or fuss--
no outcrop of divorce, no fights
'twixt man and wife on women's rights--
some thirty thousand, maybe more,
of womenfolk from districts four--
two on Manhattan's crowded isle--
did leave their wonted tasks a while,
and, as New York now says they can,
did cast their votes for Congressman.

'Tis rumor'd 'mid the local gems
of news that Wagner of the Dems
and Koenig of the G.O.P.
did call Miss mary Hay to see--
she of the City Suff Partie.
They call'd, and took her by the hand--
oh, not together, understand;
but great minds often share a hunch;
so Bob stroll'd round once after lunch,
and Sam, he also sought Miss Hay--
this was before election day--
and each in heartfelt tones did say:
"Miss Hay, my party, always fair,
and true, and just, and right, and square;
my party -- as you know the first
the shackles on your sex to burst--
aims Tuesday next to set the pace
with women watchers at each place
of voting." "Splendid!" cried Miss Hay.
So Bob and Sam, they hied away,
and Sam, he comb'd the G.O.P.
for women who would watchers be.

Bob sought the woman Democrat,
and proudly each his quarry sat
election day behind the rails,
points sacred hitherto to males,
except for suffrage watchers once
or twice allow'd to do the stunts.

Election day pass'd with éclat.
Nice family groups -- Papa, Mamma
and Baby waiting in its cart
while inside Wifie did her part
With Hubby -- all that morning graced
small shops wherein the polls were placed.
The women watchers lent an air,
and did their work with loyal care.
men of the district, most polite,
anxious Miss Voter should vote right,
did hover -- not too near the gates --
with praises of their candidates.
Yes, Woman's Hour has surely struck.
To her New York has "pass'd the buck."
Elections now will be the rage,
and soon the Empire State will stage
a function on a mammoth scale;
in fact, next fall's will be a whale.

A maiden who at Occoquan
spent sixty days for standing on
the pavement at the White House gate,
where with a banner she did wait
to show the President a phrase
that he had writ in other days--
the Mistress Margaret Fotheringham,
a White House picket with a lamb-
like mien -- and little -- but oh my!

the kind, you know, to do or die--
a Red Cross worker now, she pants
to serve our soldier boys in France.
At Bellevue Hospital is she,
a-learning how to make beef tea
and daintily things that cannot fail
to tempt a poor sick wounded male.
But very soon she hopes to sail
to do her bit for Uncle Sam,
does Mistress margaret Fotheringham,
who was a White House picket once,
and still defends the picket stunts.

You'd make Miss Fotheringham quite hot
by doubting she's a patriot.
"I've fifteen cousins at the front,"
she says. "We Fotheringhams are wont
to stand for truth and liberty,
and that's the reason why, you see--
the very reason why I went
as picket to the President."

Read More of the rhyme b And Now the Suffragette Doth Shine! View/Write Comments (count 0)   |   Receive updates (0 subscribers)  |   Unsubscribe

Officers of Congressional Union

America - [Those listed in the photo are: Miss Lucy Burns, Vice Chairman Congressional Union; Miss Alice Paul, Chairman of Congression Union; and Virginia Arnold, Treasurer of Congressional Union.]

According to The Washington Times, Washington, DC, page 11, dated 18 November 1918, on the Personalities and Activities of Women page, it speaks of Campaign for nation-wide suffrage opens with renewed vigor, National Amendment to enfranchise women occupies position of supreme importance in affairs of Nation, according to Miss Alice Paul. They reported as seeing victory near, with both political parties striving for favor.

Congressional Union

The nation-wide political campaign was reported as now over for another four years, but not so the campaign for nation-wide suffrage, which reopened with renewed vigor on the morning of November 8, 1916, and promised to continue with unabated zeal until the Federal amendment was won. For many years there had been a woman suffrage committee in the Senate, but until 1913 it was a minority committee, whose existence was merely nominal, and whose influence was zero. In 1913 the suffrage question had increased in importance sufficiently for the Suffrage committee in the Senate to be promoted to a majority committee. Shortly afterward the Congressional Union for Woman Suffrage was organized by the Congressional committee of the National American Woman Suffrage Association with the approval of the president of the association, for the purpose of supporting the Congressional committee in its work for the Federal amendment. Four months' experience had convinced the committee that the work of securing that amendment would require much greater effort than could be given it by a committee of five women working alone.

As nearly all suffrage workers were giving their time and service to the particular states in which they lived, it was believed that the passage of the amendment would be helped by the formation of a society with the national work as its sole object. The union grew rapidly and was later admitted to the national association, remaining auxiliary until the next year, when a clause in the latter's constitution levied a 5% tax in dues upon the budget of each affiliated branch. This tax would have fallen so heavily upon the Congressional Union with its large budge that its work would have been seriously crippled, and the members therefore decided to become an independent organization early in 1914.

The first important event in the history of their campaign was the refusal of the Rules Committee, after two hearings, to report the resolution creating a Suffrage Committee, but shortly afterward they were forced throughout the activity of the union to call for a Democratic caucus of the House to take up the question of the suffrage Committee, the first time in the history of the country that either of the two great political parties had ever caucused on woman suffrage. The Democratic party through its adverse decision thus stood revealed as responsible for the refusal of the rules committee.

The Congressional Union concentrated its efforts upon securing the passage of the federal amendment which had been before the Judiciary Committee since its introduction by Representative Mondell in 1913. During the first year of its existence, the work of the union had been confined almost exclusively to Washington.

Since then its scope has been broadened into a national movement. Headquarters were established at Cameron House, opposite Lafayette Park. The national executive committee of the union consists of Miss Alice Paul, chairman; Miss Lucy Burns, vice chairman; and Mrs. Gilson Gardner, Mrs. William Kent, Mrs. O. H. P. Belmont, Mrs. John Winters Brannan, Mrs. Donald R. Hooker, Mrs. Lawrence Lewis, and Miss Anne Martin; executive secretary, Miss Virginia Arnold; treasurer, Miss Joy L. Webster, and assistant treasurer, Miss Gertrude L. Crocker.

"Miss Paul declared, "Never before has the national suffrage amendment occupied a position of such prominence as today. It is one of the issues on which the election was fought in the twelve States where women vote. We were not concerned with the result of the election. Ours was a campaign in which it made no difference who was elected. We did not indorse any candidate. We did not care who won. We were not pro-Republican, pro-Socialist, nor pro Prohibition. We were simply pro-woman. We did not try to affect the result in the non-suffrage States. Both parties throughout the campaign devoted great effort to trying to prove to the woman voters their devotion to the enfranchisement of women. When the two great national parties vie with each other in proclaiming their enthusiasm for suffrage for women we feel assured that the passage of the suffrage amendment by Congress is near at hand." View/Write Comments (count 0)   |   Receive updates (0 subscribers)  |   Unsubscribe

Women's Aided Reed's Defeat of 1920

Missouri - 27 June 1920, The Washington Times, Final Edition, page 3, Washington DC, headlines read: "Women Aided Reed's Defeat," Rejection of Missouri Senator welcomed because of suffrage attitude. It was written by Mrs. Kellogg Fairbanks, member of the executive committee of the Democratic National committee.

San Francisco, June 27, 1920 -- "Bands playing, motors honking, policemen's whistles shrilly expostulating, flat street car wheels, banging guns on the fleet now and then mysteriously and sonorously saluting, boy scouts marching, dark horses champing, Cox's army parading, delegates sightseeing, sun shining, flags flying, Palmer band playing the Long, Long Trail, boosters boosting, jazzers jazzing, lobbyists lobbying -- this is the San Francisco on the eve of the convention."

Women Are Features

The outstanding feature of the whole thing was the women. They gave color to this convention that never had been seen before. There were 400 women officially with the convention, 96 delegates, 202 alternates, 50 State committee women who were members of the national committee, 17 members of the executive committee of the national committee, and the rest personnel of various committees.

So large a feminine representation means that there were women on every committee; nothing was decided and no moves are made without their participation. The day before, at the executive session of the National Committee, women sat silent and eager when Senator Reed, one of the greatest foes of equal suffrage, lost his pleas to be seated in the national convention.

It was a triumphal moment for some of the women present, who had, again and again, fruitlessly interviewed him in his office at Washington in the interest of woman suffrage.

Recognition Given

The Democratic party had been generous to women, there was no doubt about that. They had opened political doors that they thought would never have been closed and the consciousness of this gift impressed the individual woman who were attending the convention in some official capacity with a tremendous sense of her responsibility. It is no longer a question simply of whether women must make good in order to win recognition and credit for their sex. They were so intimately associated with the policies and achievements of the Democratic party that its success is inevitably tied to theirs.

Other headlines in The washington Times were concerned with Mrs. Snell and she must share her seat. Mrs. Snell was the lone District of Columbia woman delegate to take turns with men in the voting. View/Write Comments (count 0)   |   Receive updates (0 subscribers)  |   Unsubscribe

Milwaukee's Municipal Public Dance of 1910

America - According to The Spokane Press, dated Saturday, 17 December 1910, out of Spokane, Washington, there was a female news writer (Lucy Price) that wen unescorted and found the Milwaukee's Municipal Public Dance place where she would take her younger sister next time. Evils of the Common Dance Hall were removed and there were no artificial attempt at the "Uplift" and No pat range. The Young people feel that it was their club and it belonged to them. The article begins on page one and continues on page six. The Editor's Note was as follows, "Possibly the newest experiment by municipal government, and certainly the most unique, is that of Milwaukee in conducting a municipal public dance. As we all know, the public dance is a problem that is growing in its seriousness in every American city, and Milwaukee hopes, with her municipally conducted and controlled dance, to solve the problem, for herself at least. But what is the Milwaukee dance like? This question is interesting to all young people and to all people who are interested in young people. The Press saw a story in it and commissioned Miss Lucy Price to go to the third Saturday night dance given by the Wisconsin city and write her experiences. Miss Price tells the story in the following article, written especially for this newspaper. -- Editor."

Lucy Price writes, via Milwaukee, Wisconsin, December 17, 1910 -- "I went plainly dressed, clothes such as any honest working girl with little to waste might wear. I went to see what a public dance of the people, run by the people for the people, might be like. I wanted to see it, this dance given every Saturday night by the city government of Milwaukee, from the standpoint of the girl from the factory; of the girl from behind the counter of the department store."

Lucy Price mentions it was a 400-mile travel, and the 15 cents it cost her to get into the dance hall was worth it. Miss Price saw the dance as something "of the people, by the people for the people" and she came away convinced that if she had a younger sister she would take her the next time she went to a municipal dance.

I am wondering what was the problem of Milwaukee's dance hall that Milwaukee thought the municipal dances solve the dance problem? Being before this NW Okie's time, what was the problem?

Miss Price reported that the Saturday night municipal dance seems to be the solution for the problem. Was establishing this municipal dance in Milwaukee taking something from their young people?

Miss Price reported that the dance hall problem had grown to grave proportions. That it had become a matter of serious significance to the American city.This was why Miss Lucy Price came to Milwaukee to see Milwaukee's Municipal Dance plan, to learn for herself just how it is working out.

It was 8 o'clock when reporter Lucy Price reached the big auditorium, where there were already about 2000 young men and women there. Many of the girls had come unescorted as Miss Price had. Admission was 15 cents and that covered the cost for the evening. Those of who were going to dance checked their hats and coats at the wardrobe. No girls wore their hats on the floor. It was quite a factor toward keeping the club or "party" atmosphere. Tiers of opera chairs surround the dancing floor, seating about 2000. These were filled with spectators. The class that works with its hands, the club men and the women who do not labor with their hands, and the well-to-do class of the city were represented among the spectators, and they seemed to enjoy the dancing equally.

The floor, which would generally seat 8000 when concerts are given, was crowded with dancers of almost every age. The most of them were between sixteen and twenty, but many were all into middle age. Many of the girls wore light muslin frocks, others wore white shirtwaists, some silk waists, and dark skirts, and many plain dark wool dresses. In the center of the floor was the musicians' platform. The charity ball given in the hall a few nights before still decorated the hall, adding to the festal impression that Miss Lucy Price got as she entered the floor space.

Miss Lucy Price reported, "Because I was for the time being a girl in a strange place with no friends to contribute to my enjoyment of life, I had learned in that short time why girls like to go to dance halls, and why, when the band begins to play, they don't care much whether or not they know the fellows who ask them to dance." View/Write Comments (count 0)   |   Receive updates (0 subscribers)  |   Unsubscribe