Who gave her life for Votes for Women?

Posted on June 15, 2011 | 4 Comments

The English had their martyr –Emily Davison who threw herself in front of the King’s horse to bring attention to the cause of Votes for Women. In the U.S., Inez Milholland was well known for riding a horse in suffrage parades. Milholland died on the campaign trail when barnstorming in the West. She was known as the couragous woman who died with the word of “Liberty” on her lips. Suffragists repeated her words often when confronting U.S. President Woodrow Wilson: “Mr. President, how long must women wait for liberty?”

This entry was posted in 19th amendment, 60-Second History Lesson, Inez Milholland, Votes for Women, voting rights, woman's suffrage, women, women suffrage, Women's Suffrage, women's history. Bookmark the permalink.

4 responses to “Who gave her life for Votes for Women?”

Teri Gay | June 15, 2011 at 12:43 pm | Reply

Here’s a little more info about Inez Millholland…I wrote about her in my book, Strength Without Compromise. She lived just north of where I live – in the “North Country” of New York State with her family. (Her father, John Milholland, by the way, was the inventor of those pneumatic tubes – like the ones in the drive-through at banks.) Inez hailed from the tiny town of Lewis, in Essex County, NY. As the epitome of the 20th century’s New Woman — educated, free-thinking, career-minded, cultured — Inez rose to prominence in the national suffrage movement. She gained notoriety as the glamorous woman in white atop the white horse riding at the helm of suffrage parades in New York City and Washington DC in the early 1910’s. She was a charismatic spokeswoman who articulated the feminist agenda of voting rights and social reform to a new generation of suffragists who were mourning the loss of their longtime leaders, Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton, by the early 1900’s. When, at age thirty, Inez collapsed in exhaustion during a speech in which she was exhorting President Woodrow Wilson to support the federal suffrage amendment – and then died a month later – she became the martyr of the suffrage movement. Her contribution was lauded by the National Woman’s Party (NWP) at the time of the ratification of the Nineteenth Amendment in August 1920. Inez’s “Forward Into Light” mantra was also heralded in an amazing celebration held at the Milholland estate, Meadowmount, in Lewis, NY in 1924. Perfectly orchestrated by NWP leader Alice Paul, it was meant to coincide with the 1924 elections, the first nationwide contests in which women candidates would run for office. 1,000 women from the Essex County and Adirondack region participated in this spectacular pageant. 10,000 people journeyed from around the United States — crowding the narrow routes to rural Lewis — to attend. This event was the last and largest gathering of feminists in the US until the 1960’s.
Monique Robinson | August 1, 2011 at 7:40 pm | Reply

These suffs sure knew what they were doing. Huh?
Robert R. | August 19, 2011 at 7:20 pm | Reply

Now that I’ve seen a photo of Inez on her white horse leading that big parade, I’ve fallen in love with her. Please don’t tell my wife.
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