Statement of Richard Glenn Gettell, Opening Session of the Intercollegiate Student Civil Rights Conference, 1965
This statement from the Mount Holyoke President in 1965 shows that the Civil Rights Conference caused some tension and controversy due to its radical speakers. President Gettell defended the Conference on the basis of “freedom of inquiry and individual responsibility.” He specified that Mount Holyoke did not share the beliefs of all speakers of the Conference, but rather that it was an opportunity for students to hear different views and form their opinions accordingly.
Richard Glenn Gettell
MHC Archives
1965
Paper
English
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Ossie Davis at Civil Rights Conference, February 12, 1965
Actor-playwright Ossie Davis is shown speaking at the Civil Rights Conference in Mount Holyoke’s Chapin Auditorium. Political activists Malcolm X and Michael Harrington were scheduled to speak but did not arrive in time due to travel issues. Instead, Davis gave both of their speeches in addition to his own. One of the Amherst student organizers, Junius Williams, described the conference overall as “an incredible success.”<br /><br /><strong>Image Description</strong>: A man in a suit stands at an ornate podium on the stage of Chapin Auditorium. He smiles down at the crowd of students in their rows of chairs. Behind him to the left sits another suit-clad man in a high-backed chair. He wears glasses and clasps his hands in his lap, looking into the distance. To the right of the podium sits another high-backed chair. A folding table with microphones and a pitcher of water sits ready for panelists.
MHC Archives
February 12, 1965
Photograph
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Seminar Schedule from the Civil Rights Conference at Mount Holyoke, 1965
In February of 1965, Mount Holyoke co-hosted a Civil Rights Conference alongside Amherst, Smith, and the University of Massachusetts. A variety of guest speakers attended the conference and gave lectures, including Dave Dennis, Howard Zinn, and Ossie Davis. The Conference was organized by students from the four colleges. They created the Conference because they believed that the “political, economic, and social areas into which the civil rights movement has expanded are so complex that it is necessary for people actively committed to civil rights to hear what some of the leaders in these newly opened areas have to say.”
MHC Archives
1965
Paper
English
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Mount Holyoke and Amherst Students in Washington D.C., May 15, 1964
A group of Mount Holyoke and Amherst students went to Washington D.C. to lobby for the passage of the 1964 Civil Rights Bill. In this photo, they are shown with Senator Keating, a member of the House of Representatives. Keating was influential in enacting the Civil Rights Act of 1957.<br /><br /><strong>Image Description</strong>: <span style="font-weight:400;">A group of 15 well-dressed students, mostly women, stand in a semi-circle in the midst of an ornate room. Senator Bill Keating stands in the center in a full suit. In the foreground of the photo various coats and a purse are visible on a glossy table.</span>
MHC Archives
May 15, 1964
Photograph
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Susan Higinbotham Holocombe ‘62, Co-Founder of the Committee on Civil Rights
MHC Archives
Photograph
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Karen Loeb Sharpe ‘67, Co-Chairman of the Civil Actions Group
MHC Archives
Photograph
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Anne Martin Williams ‘62, Co-Founder of the Committee on Civil Rights
MHC Archives
Photograph
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Louise DeCosta Wides ‘62, Co-Founder of the Committee on Civil Rights
MHC Archives
Photograph
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Marion Fitch Connell ‘62, Co-Founder of the Committee on Civil Rights
MHC Archives
Photograph
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“Miss Woolley on Women’s Ballot” Tract, ca. 1905-1906
The Political Equality Series (alternatively Political Equality Leaflets) were single-page tracts published by the National American Woman Suffrage Association (NAWSA) for public education on the topic of women’s suffrage. The tracts were often excerpts from longer speeches by notable activists and politicians. This particular leaflet features a portion of Mount Holyoke President Mary Woolley’s opening remarks given in 1906 at the 38th NAWSA Convention in honor of Susan B. Anthony. Notorious for her own involvement in the women’s education movement, Woolley acknowledges Anthony’s influence on the rights of women educators.
Mary Woolley
MHC Archives
National American Woman Suffrage Association
1905-1906
Paper
English
Pamphlet
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“Women in Politics” article sent to The Boston Globe, July 25, 1919
On July 27, 1919, prominent Massachusetts women, including Mount Holyoke President Mary Woolley, were published in the Boston Globe feature “Sister is Primping for the Ballot Box Party” to explain what they thought would happen when women secured the vote. By June 1919, the Nineteenth Amendment had already passed through the House and Senate and its future was in the hands of the states; Massachusetts was the eighth to ratify on June 25. Although women’s suffrage would not become law until August 1920, Woolley presumably wrote this article in July 1919 in defense of states which had already ratified and to encourage other states to follow suit. Expecting that with the right preparation, women would be better suited to politics than men, Woolley opined “[t]here is no reason why Massachusetts women should not be ready for their new responsibility and privilege of citizenship.”
Mary Woolley
MHC Archives
Boston Globe
July 25, 1919
Newspaper
English
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<h4><b>Class of 1897 </b><b><i>Llamarada</i></b></h4>
The class of 1897’s yearbook includes a record of events from March 1896 to February 1897. The pages for October and November chronicle the various events that occurred during the mock election for the “suffrage question,” which was introduced at a meeting on October 14th and decided by vote on November 5th, the same day in which the general population cast their ballots. These pages also mention a Junior-Sophomore cake walk on October 22 with a racist theme, reflecting the normalization of these ideas within an overwhelmingly white administration and student body.<br /><br /><a href="https://compass.fivecolleges.edu/object/mtholyoke:47821" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Explore the full yearbook text here.</a>
Mount Holyoke College
MHC Archives
1897
Yearbook
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Matilda Calder, Class of 1896, Letters to family, October-November 1895
Matilda mentions the school-wide suffrage vote in three of her letters home in the fall of 1895. In the letter dated October 21, she announces that she will lead the pro-suffrage faction and gauges her family’s opinion by asking, “what does papa think of having a Woman’s Rights daughter.” In her next letter, she talks about the pro-suffrage rally: “our side for Woman's Suffrage held the rally on Saturday night. The speeches were very good and we had some patriotic songs.” On November 9, she announces her faction’s defeat, but believes that “all the good arguments were on our side” during the debate that took place on the weekend before the vote.
Matilda Calder
MHC Archives
October 21, 1895; October 27, 1895; November 9, 1895
Paper, ink, pencil
English
Letter
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Various Pro-Suffrage Booklets, ca. 1890-1910
These flyers are an example of propaganda distributed by the National American Woman Suffrage Association (NAWSA). In addition to pro-suffrage arguments, they addressed topics such as arguments of anti-suffrage organizations, benefits experienced in states where women voted, and contemporary politicians’ views on suffrage. The book “Woman Suffrage: Arguments and Results” is a compilation of eight of the NAWSA’s most popular booklets, produced to conveniently cover “practically the entire field of suffrage claims and evidence.” Interested citizens could purchase a sample of Political Equality leaflets for 10¢ (equivalent to about $3 in 2019) and a copy of the bound booklets for 25¢ (equivalent to about $8 in 2019), making them a relatively accessible source of information on the suffrage movement.
Various
MHC Archives
National American Woman Suffrage Association
1890-1910
Alice Stone Blackwell, Anna Cadogan Etz, Susan W. Fitzgerald, Mary A. Livermore
Paper
English
Pamphlet
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Jeannette Bickford, Class of 1918, Anti-Suffrage essay, November 13, 1914
Jeannette wrote “Reasons for the Opposition of the Further Extension of the Suffrage,” for her English I class. Because she has not been fully convinced by any of the pro-suffrage arguments she has heard, she explores the logic behind the anti-suffrage position. Anti-suffragists opposed women’s suffrage for various reasons, but Jeannette focuses on their arguments that there are more effective ways to change society than the vote, that “society can not be rid of its evils through legislation,” and the belief held by many “Antis” that “granting the suffrage to woman would mean a social revolution such as would cost the world much more than could possibly be gained from it.” Comments and corrections are written in pencil throughout the essay, presumably from Jeannette’s English professor. They also give an evaluation of the assignment as a whole: “a clear presentation of one side of the question.”
Jeannette Bickford
MHC Archives
November 13, 1914
Paper, ink
English
Essay
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