The Suffrage Parade of 2011
Date: Sunday, October 2nd
Time: 11:30 AM to 1:30 PM
Place: Lakeside Park Bandstand on Bellevue
In August of 1908 the California Republican Convention was held at Ebell Hall in Oakland. Over 300 women suffragists marched from the Oakland Hotel to Ebell Hall to advocate for a plank endorsing women's suffrage. They were not successful, but it was the FIRST suffrage parade ever held in California. This parade of over 300 women re-energized the suffrage movement which led to the successful passage of the suffrage referendum in 1911, after the defeat of suffrage in 1896.
On the October 10, 1911 ballot was a suffrage referendum from the legislature and at least 8 other items. In the Bay Area only Berkeley voted in favor of suffrage. It was soundly defeated in San Francisco and Oakland, the two big cities in the Bay Area.
By the time all the votes were counted the women won the vote, but the area that put them in the winners' column were the farm counties. In San Francisco and Los Angeles the newspapers carried headlines announcing the defeat of suffrage again + a repeat of the 1896 referendum. Remarkably, a single vote in each precinct, just over 3,000, turned the tide for suffrage and by the end of the day, October 11th, the tallies were final and suffrage won.
This is an opportunity for Oakland to shine with pride by reenacting California's first suffrage parade. A number of organizations in Oakland are coming together to reenact the Suffrage Parade of 1908 on Sunday, October 2nd and they include LWV, AAUW, ACLU, Coalition of Labor Union Women, Oakland Heritage Alliance, Girl Scouts of America, and more.
One of the many delightful stories that I came across involved the 1910 census, which seemed very timely as we have recently completed the 2010 census!
This quote is taken from the pamphlet titled How We Won the Vote in California by Selina Solomons published in 1914. Selina Solomons was president of the first Woman's Club in San Francisco, formed in 1895.
"The celebrated census of 1910 being taken in the early days of our existence as a club, we decided to make it a protest against it. On consulting with our attorneys, all pronounced
it without doubt unconstitutional. The threat to punish as a crime the refusal to submit to this inquisition into our private affairs struck us as most arbitrary and un-American in spirit.
So the officers of the club refused to sign, and held out until the officials had paid repeated visits to our headquarters to plead and remonstrate. They asked which of the questions we objected to, and it seemed difficult to impress upon them that it was the principle we objected to, and not the questions! "
The beauty of this story is the definition of citizen according to the American Heritage Dictionary:
"A resident of a city or town, especially one entitled to vote and enjoy other privileges there."
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