Program

National Votes for Women Trail

Subject

Event, People

Location

326 T St NW, Washington, DC 20001, USA

Lat/Long

38.915794285447, -77.01693090009

Grant Recipient

National Collaborative for Women's History Sites

Leading African American suffragist and activist, Mary Church Terrell (1863-1954) marched in the national suffrage parade held on March 3, 1913 in Washington, D.C., the day before Woodrow Wilson’s presidential inauguration. Also marching in the national suffrage parade was a group of African American women students attending Howard University, a historically black research university in Washington, D.C. that had been established in 1867. These women participated in the national suffrage parade demanding their right to vote.

The 1913 national suffrage parade was organized by Alice Paul with the intention of drawing national attention to the cause of women’s suffrage, while putting pressure on the new Wilson Administration and the United States Congress to pass a federal constitutional amendment that would secure women’s right to vote. Thousands of suffrage supporters marched along Pennsylvania Avenue, and contemporary accounts estimated the crowds of spectators to have reached nearly a quarter of a million people.

Included in the ranks of suffrage marchers was Terrell and the group of women students representing Howard University. The March 14, 1913 edition of Howard University Journal, the school paper, noted that the contingent of women from the school, “presented a distinctive feature, being the only college girls in the line of march wearing each the insignia of her school” and that “Every girl wore tied over her shoulder and swinging down her back a large Howard pennant.” The March 8, 1913 edition of the Broad Ax, an African American newspaper out of Chicago, listed Terrell among the prominent African American women who took part in the national suffrage parade, along with a “bevy of Colored girls, all looking quite nifty in caps and gowns” in the college section of the parade. The April 1913 issue of The Crisis, published by the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, reported that Terrell marched along with other “college women” and that the group of students from Howard University marched “in caps and gowns.” It concluded that, “In spite of the apparent reluctance of the local suffrage committee to encourage the colored women to participate, and in spite of the conflicting rumors that were circulated and which disheartened many of the colored women from taking part, they are to be congratulated that so many of them had the courage of their convictions and that they made such an admirable showing in the first great national parade.”

Terrell lived at 326 T Street, NW, Washington, D.C. As of 2022, the LeDroit Park property was vacant, however Howard University, now owner of the house, was awarded a grant from the National Park Service of the United States Department of the Interior to aid in preservation of the property.