Program

National Votes for Women Trail

Subject

Event

Location

1931 2nd Ave W, Birmingham, AL 35204, USA

Lat/Long

33.503155, -86.856514

Grant Recipient

National Collaborative for Women's History Sites

On August 18, 1915 the Alabama Equal Suffrage Association and the Birmingham Barons hosted a suffrage day to support women’s suffrage during a baseball game at Rickwood Field, in Birmingham, Alabama. An August 19, 1915 edition of The Birmingham News described the day’s events:

There were no doubts as to it being “Suffrage Day.” Posts of the grandstand proclaimed it in yellow. “Votes for Women” banners fluttered in the breeze from every spot where a banner might be placed. On railings were tacked little yellow posters bearing such hints as “Justice” and “Equal Rights” there to catch the roving eyes of the hundreds of men present. Yellow sashes circled slim waists of women fans. Some of the women wore yellow frocks and sweaters to prove that they will not refuse the ballot whenever it is handed over to them. All during the game pretty girls with broad yellow ribbons draped over one shoulder placed yellow pamphlets into hundreds of outstretched hands. Even the players were decorated. Around the waist of each was a yellow ribbon tied “cutely” in a rosette at the back.”

Before the scheduled game between the Birmingham Barons and the Chattanooga Lookouts, two teams of women played a mock game to demonstrate an important message. The article in The Birmingham News continues:

The first game was a sort of curtain raiser. Its main purpose was to demonstrate how much two teams of pretty city gym girls know about playing baseball, and the second was to show that a woman dares tackle almost anything worth while which the men do. It was a one inning game between Bessemer and Birmingham girls which resulted in a victory for the Bessemer team. The girls wore gymnasium boomers set off by yellow sashes. They batted, stole bases, sacrificed, scored and ran just as the men do, though not quite with the same air of practice. Then the real, or, beg pardon, the professional game began.

Just a few years later, the women of Alabama, as well as women across the United States, were granted the right to vote after the passage and subsequent ratification of the 19th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.