Search Results for: woman suffrage

Kelley, Florence

Florence Kelley (1859 – 1932): Social Reformer, Child Welfare Advocate, Socialist and Pacifist Introduction: Florence Kelley was a social reformer and political activist who defended the rights of working women and children. She served as the first general secretary of the National Consumers League and helped form the National Association for the Advancement of…

Eras

Eras in Social Welfare History Social welfare policy and programs in America have roots going back to early Colonial days. Some entries may appear in more than one time period, as historical periods overlap and events or issues may persist over multiple eras. Use the search bar (at upper right) to locate additional programs…

Claiborne, Virginia Spotswood McKenney

Virginia Spotswood McKenney Claiborne (1887 – 1981): activist for women’s education and occupational opportunity, museum director by Alice W. Campbell The author is grateful to Meg Hughes, Director of Collections and Chief Curator at The Valentine and to Christine K. Vida, Elise H. Wright Curator of General Collections at The Valentine, for bringing the…

Garrison, William Lloyd

William Lloyd Garrison (December 10, 1805 – May 24, 1879) – Abolitionist and Editor of The Liberator By Catherine A. Paul “I will be as harsh as truth, and as uncompromising as justice. On this subject I do not wish to think, or speak, or write, with moderation.… I am in earnest—I will not equivocate—I will not…

Music & Social Reform

Written by Catherine A. Paul. “Throughout the history of the United States, music has been used to bring people together. By singing together, people are able to form emotional bonds and even shape behavior…Therefore, it is unsurprising that social movements have similarly interwoven music and action to create and sustain commitment to causes and collective activities.”

Brown, William Wells (1814-1884)

William Wells Brown – Anti-Slavery Lecturer, Groundbreaking Novelist, Playwright and Historian Introduction: William Wells Brown was an African American anti-slavery lecturer, groundbreaking novelist, playwright and historian. He is widely considered to have been the first African American to publish works in several major literary genres. Known for his continuous political activism especially in his involvement with the anti-slavery…

Caraway, Hattie Wyatt (1878 – 1950)

Hattie Wyatt Caraway served for 14 years in the U.S. Senate and established a number of “firsts,” including her 1932 feat of winning election to the upper chamber of Congress in her own right. Drawing principally from the power of the widow’s mandate and the personal relationships she cultivated with a wide cross–section of her constituency, “Silent Hattie” was a faithful, if staid, supporter of New Deal reforms, which aided her largely agricultural state.

Address to the Legislature of New York (1854)

The tyrant, Custom, has been summoned before the bar of Common Sense. His Majesty no longer awes the multitude–his sceptre is broken–his crown is trampled in the dust–the sentence of death is pronounced upon him. All nations, ranks and classes have, in turn, questioned and repudiated his authority; and now, that the monster is chained and caged, timid woman, on tiptoe, comes to look him in the face, and to demand of her brave sires and sons, who have struck stout blows for liberty, if, in this change of dynasty, she, too, shall find relief.

Yes, gentlemen, in republican America, in the 19th century, we, the daughters of the revolutionary heroes of ’76, demand at your hands the redness of our grievances–a revision of your state constitution–a new code of laws. Permit us then, as briefly as possible, to call your attention to the legal disabilities under which we labor.

Villard, Oswald Garrison

Oswald Garrison Villard (1872 – 1942): Civil Rights Activist and Editor of the The Nation and the New York Evening Post Oswald Garrison Villard (1872–1949) was an American journalist, pacifist, and civil rights advocate. The son of railroad tycoon Henry Villard and and suffragist Fanny Villard (the daughter of abolitionist William Lloyd Garrison) and…

Springfield Race Riot of 1908

On the evening of August 14, 1908, a race war broke out in the Illinois capital of Springfield. Angry over reports that a black man had sexually assaulted a white woman, a white mob wanted to take a recently arrested suspect from the city jail and kill him….In the early hours of the violence, as many as five thousand white Springfield residents were present, mostly as spectators. Still angry, the rioters minus most of the spectators next methodically destroyed a small black business district downtown, breaking windows and doors, stealing or destroying merchandise, and wrecking furniture and equipment. The mob’s third and last effort that night was to destroy a nearby poor black neighborhood called the Badlands. Most blacks had fled the city, but as the mob swept through the area, they captured and lynched a black barber, Scott Burton, who had stayed behind to protect his home.