Today in 1911: Suffragists Celebrate Their Victory in California

[niyad]

Today in 1911: Suffragists Celebrate Their Victory in California


It’s only the second time in 15 years that the National American Woman Suffrage Association (N.A.W.S.A.) has been able to celebrate winning “Votes for Women” in another State, so it made the most of the California victory with a mass meeting at New York’s Cooper Union tonight.
The program was quite elaborate, with special electrical effects, and salutes to individuals ranging from Abraham Lincoln to Emmeline Pankhurst. Since it was only yesterday that what looked like a crushing defeat on Tuesday night, October 10th, turned into a one-vote-per-precinct margin of victory when the last rural ballots were tallied, it’s quite amazing that such a spectacle could be put together on such short notice.

A large blue banner hung in the background of the platform with a portrait of Abraham Lincoln surrounded by six stars representing the six States in which women now have equal suffrage, and a quote attributed to him which says: “I go for all sharing the privileges of the Government who assist in bearing its burdens, by no means excluding women.” All the numerous and prominent women on the platform wore brand new six-star “Votes for Women” buttons, items that proved quite popular when offered for sale to the audience members.
Reverend Anna Howard Shaw, president of N.A.W.S.A., took the stage to open the meeting, saying: “Fellow citizens, there has never been an occasion in the world when women had so great occasion for rejoicing.” She then introduced young Portia Willis, who said: “Ladies and gentlemen, I am glad to present to you the sixth star.” At that point, an enormous star composed of electric lights lit up, the band played, the audience cheered, and then sang “The New America,” a suffrage song that dates back to a N.A.W.S.A. convention in 1891.

Ida Husted Harper found great enthusiasm when she presented a resolution calling on the New York Legislature to give the voters of the Empire State the same chance to vote on a suffrage referendum as those in the Golden State just had – and give the women here the same chance to make their case for suffrage to the men of New York.

Isaac Stevens, of Colorado, who had been working in California earlier in the campaign, was brimming with confidence, and told the audience that if the New York Legislature wouldn’t put a suffrage referendum on the ballot that suffrage supporters would just skip the whole “State-by-State” process and work on getting the Susan B. Anthony Amendment passed by Congress and ratified by the States so that suffrage would be won nationwide all at once. It was a short, but effective speech, much to the relief of some in the audience after the band played “We Won’t Go Home ‘Till Morning” as he walked on stage.

. . . .
http://feminist.org/blog/index.php/2014/10/13/today-in-1911-suffragists-celebrate-their-victory-in-california/