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Votes For Women

Arm band and pin worn by Mary E. Hussey as a suffragette.

 

The note on the envelope says, "I wore this in the first suffragist parade in Washington on the Avenue when the officals and police let the mob ride all over us -- but they got enough. The chief of police lost his job and had to leave town. M. E. Hussey"

 

In the incident she mentions (which took place on March 3, 1913), the police were not very sympathetic to the marchers and did not attempt to stop the unruly mishief-makers who heckeld and threw things at the women as they marched down Pennsylvania Avenue between the White House and the Capitol. The situation quickly got out of hand and a near riot broke out. Eventually the army had to be called in to restore order. Congress took an interest in the subsequent investigation into the failure of the police to keep order. Although many congressmen were not in favor of a woman's right to vote, it was, in many cases, their wives and daughters who were in the parade and subjected to harassment by the mob. Regrardless of their view on women's suffrage, the congressmen all agreed that the ladies should have been accorded police protection. This was the downfall of the chief of police who was forced out of his job.

 

Mary Elizabeth Mackey

November 13, 1846 (Lowell, OH) - June 16, 1938 (Arlington, VA)

Daughter of Hugh Mackey and Eliza Atherton

Spouse of David J. Hussey

Mother of Dexter S. Hussey

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Uploaded on December 15, 2006
Taken on February 28, 1913