On this day, 3 March 1913, thousands of women marched down Pennsylvania Avenue in Washington DC demanding the right to vote, in what was the largest suffrage parade to date, but were attacked by a mob of men. Hundreds of women were injured, but police just stood by and arrested nobody for the attacks. The march had been organised by the Congressional Union (CU), a militant branch of the National American Woman Suffrage Association and took place on the eve of Wilson’s inauguration. African American women were initially banned from the parade, but when they insisted they be included they were made to walk at the back of the procession. However some like Ida Wells ignored the directive. Wells joined the demonstration with women from her state, Illinois. Despite the violent attacks the women fought on, and won the right to vote in some states in 1917 and federally in 1920.
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