One Step Forward: Author Guest Post by Marcie Flinchum Atkins
March is Women's History Month and March 8th is International Women's Day. What an appropriate time to remember those who fought for women's rights throughout history, including those who participated in the Women's Suffrage movement in the United States. One Step Forward by Marcie Flinchum Atkins, is a thrilling and moving historical novel in verse that will introduce teens to Matilda Young—the youngest American suffragist imprisoned for picketing the White House to demand women’s right to vote.
Mccay, Winsor, Artist. Suffrage march line--How thousands of women parade today at Capitol. Washington D.C, 1913. [March 4] Photograph. https://www.loc.gov/item/2002716780/.
Woodrow Wilson was about to be inaugurated as president. When he arrived in Washington, DC on March 3, 1913, he expected a big crowd to greet him at the train station. More than 200,000 people gathered along Pennsylvania Avenue—but they weren’t throwing Wilson a parade. It was a Woman’s March, or more formally, the Woman’s Suffrage Procession.
For decades, women fought for the right to vote. And they wanted it. Women marched from the Capitol Building down Pennsylvania Avenue to the Treasury Building. They formed groups that marched together: nurses, teachers, colleges, states. They’d march together to show that it wasn’t just a few women who wanted the right to vote—it was thousands.
Thick crowds watched the parade—but they weren’t all supporters. Many yelled at the women, called them names, ripped their clothing. Many believed a woman’s place was in the home and her husband’s vote could represent their family.
But not Alice Paul and Lucy Burns, two suffragists who organized the parade.
The National Woman Suffrage Processional of 1913 was the first—but not the last—women’s march. The women fighting for the right to vote also did something else that had never been done before.
In 1917, after four years of Woodrow Wilson in the White House and no progress on suffrage, some suffragists knew they needed to push harder. After Woodrow Wilson was reelected, they decided to stand at the White House gates with banners. They didn’t talk, they didn’t shout—even when their opposers did. They stood silently protesting. They became known as Silent Sentinels. They were the first to protest in front of the White House.
Sometimes, they stood at the White House gates. Sometimes, they protested at Lafayette Square across from the White House. Sometimes, they took their protests to the Capitol. Ladies at the White House gates made people uncomfortable—even angry. Despite being silent, they were arrested for “obstructing the sidewalk.” Some of them, like Alice Paul and Lucy Burns, were arrested and spent time in jail many, many times.
But they persisted until an amendment was finally passed in 1919. Then it was ratified by 36 states by 1920.
Suffragette parade Mch. 3d. Washington D.C, 1913. [Mar. 3. Washington, D.C.: George Grantham Bain, 3 March] Photograph. https://www.loc.gov/item/2001704194/.
Now, 112 years later after the first women’s march, Washington, DC is still a place where Americans come to protest for their rights. They often march along Pennsylvania Avenue, near the Capitol building, and at Lafayette Square, just like the suffragists. But the suffragists were the first.
My forthcoming book, One Step Forward, tells the story of one of the Silent Sentinels, Matilda Young. Matilda was a real person, and I imagined something must have spurred her suffrage activism on. Could it have been the 1913 Woman’s Suffrage Processional in her hometown of Washington, DC? In 1917, she became the youngest suffragist to be jailed for protesting at the White House. You can read more of Matilda’s story, and the fight for the right to vote in my historical verse novel, One Step Forward.
About the Author
Marcie Flinchum Atkins has spent over twenty-five years in the classroom and library and holds an MA and MFA in children’s literature. She is a teacher-librarian by day and a writer in the wee hours. One Step Forward is her YA debut. She lives on the outskirts of Washington, DC.