Celebrating with Street Shots from Grand Rapids Past
Scroll down for views from Grand Rapids as 20th century suffragists took to the streets! Here is one image following up their victory in August, 1920.
This 1920 poster encouraged women's voter registration after the certification of the 19th Amendment on August 26th. For the very first time, all U.S. women were eligible to vote in a U.S. presidential election. Dora Bradford Apted wrote on her poster that she cast her first presidential vote for Warren G. Harding.
Women had traveled a long road to registration. In the forefront nationally, enterprising Grand Rapids women entered one of the nation's earliest suffrage floats in a city parade. Joining the broader international campaign in 1910, 75 suffragists followed the "lily float" in bunting-laden automobiles!
Four years later in 1914, the local suffrage movement put out an edition of the Grand Rapids Press and then hawked copies from their suffrage-yellow bags on the streets. This ad for National City Bank appeared in that very newspaper.
**Help us determine whether Grand Rapids women with their yellow bags participated in a national "making noise" campaign, creating what newspapers called the "golden lane" or the "yellow peril" on busy streets. We don't have hard evidence yet, but we suspect that a gauntlet of women may have met trains arriving in this city. . .
On August 24th this year, GGRWHC was joined downtown by the reorganizing Grand Rapids League of Women Voters! We're delighted to draw attention to the long continuum of American women's political history. When all women were enfranchised, the suffrage movement metamorphosed into the League.
Not a current member of GGRWHC? Register or renew your membership and
help offset the expenses associated with annual research and programs. Your membership helps to set the record straight on the women who've made history here in our community.
GGRWHC Board Meetings
Board meetings are held on the second Wednesday of the month at 4:30 p.m. in the Vanderveen Center for the Book at the Grand Rapids Public Library. If you have suggestions for programs, oral histories, or other items, please
email us or plan to attend a meeting.
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Thank you for your interest in preserving and celebrating the history of the many phenomonal women who've helped to shape West Michigan! If you aren't already a member of the Greater Grand Rapids Women's History Council, consider showing your support through annual membership. Visit our
web site for more information and the ability to register using Pay Pal online!
Hats off to the historical women who've shaped West Michigan!
