9. Brick Pavement: March on Washington

Brick Pavement

 By Becky Brown

Fifty years before Martin Luther King led "The March on Washington" for equal rights for African-Americans, women staged a spectacular parade in Washington's streets on March 3, 1913, the eve of  President Woodrow Wilson's inauguration. Organizer Alice Paul hoped to show Wilson, who'd refused to support the cause during his campaign, the political power of protest and the importance of the woman suffrage movement to Americans.

Five thousand marchers were led down Pennsylvania Avenue by Inez Milholland Boissevain astride a white horse.

Floats and divisions represented suffrage pioneers, state organizations, occupations such as doctors and librarians, men who supported equal suffrage and representatives of countries where women had the vote.

 

As they turned towards the Treasury Building the parade ran into a blockade of men in the streets.

Policemen refused to clear the path, siding with the mob.
Women were insulted, groped, and beaten. It was estimated that 300 were injured.

A few marchers made it to the Treasury Building where a pageant celebrating Liberty continued.

Brick Pavement

By Georgann Eglinski

We can recall this protest march on Washington's streets a century ago with Brick Pavement. This week's block is adapted from a 1938 pattern by the Nancy Page syndicated newspaper column.

The Nancy Page version (BlockBase #2823).

Brick Pavement

By Dustin Cecil

Cutting an 8" Finished Block

The red numbers are a little more generous when the EQ rotary cutting default is set to 1/16th of inch. Black numbers are set to 1/8" inch.

A -Cut 2 squares 2-3/8" (2-3/8")

Cut each in half diagonally to make 2 triangles. You need 4 triangles.

B - C 1 square 6-1/4" (6-3/16")

 Cut with 2 diagonal cuts to make 4 triangles. You need 2 triangles.

C - Cut 1 square 3-3/4" (3-11/16")

 

Cut with 2 diagonal cuts to make 4 triangles. You need 4 triangles.

D - Cut 2 squares 2-1/4" ( 2-1/4")

E - Cut 4 rectangles  2-5/8" x 4" (2-5/8" x 4 1/16")

F - Cut 1 square 2-5/8"  (2-5/8")

Piece the C triangles to the D squares. Make 2 units.

Then piece those units to rectangles E and add triangle B. Make 2 units.

Add triangle A to the corners.

Make the center strip.

Piece the 3 sections.

12" Block (Modified so D & F are the same size)

A - Cut 2: 2-7/8"

B - Cut 1: 9-3/16"

C - Cut 1: 5-3/16"

D - Cut 3: 3-5/16"

E -  Cut 4: 6 -3/16 x 3-5/18"

Brick Pavement

By Becky Brown

Since I adapted the pattern and drew it in Electric Quilt you won't find this block in BlockBase. If you want to print it using EQ try importing #2413a (Grandmother's Pride) into EQ. That will give you the basic structure. Erase a few lines to match the pattern. Then print.

Read more about the March, 1913 parade here:

http://www.loc.gov/loc/lcib/9803/suffrage.html

The march was well-documented by news agencies of the time and the Library of Congress has many photographs. Click here and do a search for these words

Women's Suffrage 1913

http://www.loc.gov/pictures/

8. Rocky Road to Kansas: 1912

Rocky Road to Kansas

By Becky Brown

November 2012 marks the hundredth anniversary of suffrage in Kansas. On November 5th male voters approved an equal suffrage amendment to the state constitution, making Kansas the eighth state to enfranchise women in all elections.

Campaigning in a decorated car Lawrence, Kansas,
My home town.

It took a whirlwind marketing campaign to convince men to vote in favor of women's rights. The suffragists decided against a campaign of civil disobedience in favor of public relations saturation. Inspired by the women of California who'd won the vote the year before, Kansas focused on grassroots action with local parades, plays and pageants touting the amendment.

A vignette from a pageant or play.

"The suffrage play 'How the Vote Was Won'...

produced by the DouglasCounty Equal Franchise League...

 a novel way of campaigning which is proving to be quite popular."

Lawrence Daily Journal World, July 30, 1912

 

Women went door to door to influence voters, persuaded newspaper publishers to editorialize and politicians to endorse the cause. Big names in the national movement barnstormed the state.

Illinois women on the road in 1911.

They won the vote in 1913.

Why did woman's suffrage pass in Kansas in 1912 when it didn't in earlier 1867 and 1887 campaigns? One reason is better organization aided by the advent of the automobile. Motoring over the rocky roads in Kansas allowed campaigners to get out the vote. The "suffrage Automobile," a decorated, rolling propaganda machine, provided a platform and an advertisement in the days when a brand new auto was a sight in a small Kansas town.

 Martha Farnsworth

One of the women who worked the polls was Topeka's Martha VonOrsdol Farnsworth. On election day 1912 she had time to write in her diary:

 "Up early, got Breakfast, but only took time to eat a wee bit and hurried away to the Polls for its Election day."

The amendment passed by over 16,000 votes. Martha was thrilled.

 "Wed 6. 'This is the day after.' And so bright and sunny---a glorious day, and 'there is sunshine in my heart,' for while I went to bed last night a slave, I awake this morning a free woman."

Another photograph of the Illinois auto campaign, 1911.

Remember the suffrage automobiles with Rocky Road to Kansas. This string quilt pattern was popular in the early years of the automobile, given that name by the Ladies Art Company pattern catalog. It's a variation of Amethyst. See pattern #2:
http://grandmotherschoice.blogspot.com/2012/09/2-amethyst-suffragettes.html

You can use the same PDF and templates.

Rocky Road to Kansas

By Becky Brown

Here Becky's laid the "strings" down at different angles in this version. At top she used more orderly strips.

Rocky Road to Kansas

By Dustin Cecil

The easiest way to get the look of the traditional Rocky Road to Kansas is to use striped fabric for piece C like Dustin did. That stripe fits in perfectly with his dots and wovens look.

Red and white striped fabric?

Or make your own.

Rocky Road to Kansas

BlockBase #2979

or use Amethyst

#2975a

(Don't forget the "a" when you do a number search)

Cutting an 8" Block

How to print:

Create a word file or a new empty JPG file that is 8-1/2" x 11".

Click on the image above.

Right click on it and save it to your file.

Print that file out 8-1/2" x 11". Note the inch square block for reference.

Adjust the printed page size if necessary.

Add seams.

A & C - This block uses the same templates as Block 2 Amethyst. 

B - Cut 1 square 3-3/8" (3-5/16" if you use the 1/16th inch default in BlockBase.)

Cutting a 12" Block

For B cut a square 4-3/4"

If you want to string-piece those points the way it would have been done 100 years ago:

Cut 4 pieces of backing fabric or paper using template C. Do not add the seam allowance. Beginning at the larger end add random size "strings," narrow strips of fabric, until you've covered the triangle. Trim the edges to match the seam lines. Piece these triangles as you did on Block 2.

Kansas First Lady Stella Stubbs borrowed the Governor's car and driver to campaign in Topeka in 1912. The members of the Kansas Equal Suffrage Association are squiring a visiting speaker from the Kentucky Equal Rights Association, Laura Clay. Photo from the Kansas State Historical Society.

Read Martha Farnsworth's diary in print:

Marlene Springer and Haskell Springer, eds., Plains Woman: The Diary of Martha Farnsworth, 1882-1922 (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1986) Page 73
Or online at Kansas Memory.
http://www.kansasmemory.org/item/213043

Mrs. George Trout in Chicago

From the Library of Congress

The Illinois photos are from a 1911 article in the American Magazine

"Getting Out the Vote: An Account Of a Week's Automobile Campaign by Women Suffragists,"
By Helen M. Todd. Click here to read it at Google Books.
http://books.google.com/books?pg=PA617&lpg=PA612&dq=suffrage+automobile&id=usbQAAAAMAAJ&ots=cw4kqKlOkM#v=onepage&q=suffrage%20automobile&f=false

The University of Delaware owns a catalog with this observation about fashion and philosophy:  "The automobile has been a great factor in advancing the independence of woman. It may be that when universal suffrage happens we can place a goodly part of the credit to the automobile."

http://www.lib.udel.edu/ud/spec/exhibits/tradecat/5transp.htm

7. Alice's Flag

Alice's Flag

   

Alice's Flag recalls Alice Paul's Ratification Banner. She sewed a star as each state ratified the 19th Amendment.

After decades of frustration working to obtain votes for women in state-by-state campaigns, American  organizations focused on a constitutional amendment guaranteeing the vote as national law.

The 19th Amendment to the Constitution: "The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of sex. Congress shall have power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation."

The amendment was written by 19th-century leaders Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton and first introduced into Congress in the 1870s, but legislators could not get it through both houses. Women saw to it that the bill was introduced in every session. In 1918 President Woodrow Wilson appealed to Congress to pass it by reminding them of women's war work.

 

 "We have made partners of the women in this war. ... Shall we admit them only to a partnership of suffering and sacrifice and toil and not to a partnership of privilege and right?"

Finally on June 4, 1919 the Senate gave final approval.

The next step to a constitutional amendment is ratification by a majority of the states. At the time 36 of the 48 state legislatures were required to approve. The first three states Illinois, Wisconsin and Michigan ratified quickly but then the pace slowed.

 

22 stars with 14 still to go.

Alice Stokes Paul, president of the National Women's Party, had marched with English suffragettes where she learned how to create public awareness for the campaign. In 1919 and 1920 she publicized her Ratification Banner, sewing a star as each state legislature ratified the amendment.

The battle for ratification

required coordinated effort across the country.

Alice unfurls her completed banner with 36 stars after Tennessee ratifies the Suffrage Amendment in August, 1920.

Alice's Flag

By Becky Brown

Alice's Flag is an original pattern by Becky Brown and me. Becky loves a challenge (see the fussy-cut piecing). You can always cut a single star rather than one pieced of five shapes.

Alice's Flag

By Dustin Cecil

 

Alice's Flag

By Becky Brown

There were numerous versions of the banner done in the American color palette of purple and gold. If you are using a purple and green color scheme you may want to use a yellow-green here to echo the flag.

Alice's Flag

By Georgann Eglinski

Or a smaller star. Pattern below.

  For a red and white color scheme use the smaller star so it shows.

Cutting an 8" Finished Block

For the background cut 3 strips 8-1/2" x 3-1/8" (3-3/16"--- if you want to use the 16th inch default)

Use the template here for the stars. The large star finishes to 6-1/2" from point to point. The small star 2-5/8".Add seams to the star---a little bit less than 1/4" is what most appliquers use.

At an angle, straight up and down....Alice's were rather jaunty, at an angle.

Because we designed this in

Electric Quilt there is no BlockBase number.

How to print:
Create a word file or a new empty JPG file that is 8-1/2" x 11".
Click on the image above.
Right click on it and save it to your file.
Print that file out 8-1/2" x 11". Note the inch square block for reference.
Adjust the printed page size if necessary.
Add seams.

For a 12-Inch Block

For the strips cut 3 strips 12-1/2" x 4-1/2".

For a 12" block the star has to be slightly smaller in relation to the stripes (to fit on the printer's page). 

A Toast to Victory, 1920