“Actions’ Group Plans Service For Election Day,” The Mount Holyoke News, October 30, 1964
This article describes the Civil Actions Group’s Election Day initiatives in Springfield, as well as their long-term goals. Members of the group planned to raise “poll tax” money and babysit for voters—direct action that would impact the local community as well as people across the country. The money they received in the poll tax fundraiser would go to the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, benefitting voters in Mississippi, which required its citizens to pay a fee of $2 (equivalent to about $16 in 2019) to register to vote. The Civil Actions Group had no membership list and required no formal commitment for going to Springfield each week, so it is hard to tell how many students participated, but, as stated in the article by co-chairman Roberta Aber ‘65, it offered “an opportunity for every girl to become involved in worthwhile community service.”<br /><br /><a href="https://compass.fivecolleges.edu/object/mtholyoke:2801" title="Mount Holyoke News Oct. 30, 1964">View the full newspaper here.</a>
MHC Archives
The <em>Mount Holyoke News</em>
October 30, 1964
Newspaper
English
rg32-s01-19641030
“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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<b><i>Josiah Allen on the Woman Question </i></b><b>by Marietta Holley, 1914</b>
Marietta Holley (1836-1926) was an American author well-known for her humorous depiction of political and social movements, including women’s rights. She often wrote under pen names including “Josiah Allen’s Wife,” but for this particular text, she wrote in dialect from the perspective of “Josiah Allen.” Holley satirized the male anti-suffrage argument by presenting Josiah Allen’s weak arguments alongside depictions of capable and rational women.<br /><br /><strong>Image Description</strong>: <span style="font-weight:400;">The book’s cover is a sandy brown color accented by dark brown and white. A dark brown line follows the book’s perimeter. The title and author are displayed in large white script at the top and bottom of the cover, respectively. In the center, the dome of the United States Capitol Building is rendered in dark brown, with a bold white sash tied diagonally across the dome, tied at right.</span>
Marietta Holley
MHC Archives
Fleming H. Revell
1914
Book
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
rg34-s03-y1897
Adra Powers, Class of 1921, Suffrage essay and bibliography, 1918
Adra Powers turned in these two assignments about suffrage for her English II class, showing that students were engaging in political topics through the curriculum. The first, a revision of a short paragraph, does not debate whether women should be granted suffrage, but instead focuses on how that right should be granted. She argues that constitutional amendments for individual states would be more effective than a federal amendment—a realistic viewpoint at the time, since the Nineteenth Amendment kept falling short of getting enough votes in Congress. It would be defeated five times before it passed through both the House and the Senate with enough support a year later. Her second assignment is a bibliography, and covers a larger scope of material, suggesting that Adra was researching the issue of women’s suffrage beyond constitutional amendments.
Adra Powers
MHC Archives
1918
Paper, ink
English
Essay, bibliography
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Anne Martin Williams ‘62, Co-Founder of the Committee on Civil Rights
MHC Archives
Photograph
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Barbara Smith, Class of 1969, Interview Transcript, 2001
In these excerpts from Tiffany McClain’s ‘01 oral history project, Barbara Smith ‘69 discusses what it was like being a Black student at Mount Holyoke in the 1960s. Smith describes racist assumptions from professors about her academic ability as “violations to the human spirit.” She notes some positive changes that occurred during her sophomore year: the number of Black students at Mount Holyoke doubled, which led to the formation of the Afro-Am Society. This change allowed them to create a space of their own, but did not stop the racist attitudes of white students, faculty, administration, and Mount Holyoke as an institution. With the creation of the Afro-Am Society and rally behind a Black cultural center, the Mount Holyoke administration noted that they believed the students were separated from the rest of the campus. Smith described these actions as necessary— “to try to build some kind of space where we could feel safe, not hated, not looked down upon.”
In 1968, Smith attended the Democratic Convention in Chicago in which she describes the violence protesters faced at the hands of the police. Many activists from groups such as the Students for a Democratic Society and the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee were present at the Convention to protest the Vietnam War. Also in 1968, Smith was able to participate in a national election for the first time, in which she voted for Eldridge Cleaver, a member of the Black Panther Party who was running under the Peace and Freedom ticket. She believed voting to be a “duty to exercise the franchise no matter what” she thought “about the lack of choices.”
Tiffany McClain, Class of 2001
MHC Archives
2001
Barbara Smith, Class of 1969
Text
English
Interview transcript
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Constitution for the Mount Holyoke Chapter of the National College Equal Suffrage League, 1911
During the spring of 1911, Mount Holyoke students established a chapter of the National College Equal Suffrage League on campus. Slava Balanbanoff x’13, the first secretary-treasurer, hand-copied and signed the group’s constitution, which set up procedures for election of officers and delegates to the national council, specified eligibility requirements for membership to the chapter, and outlined a mission statement. Faculty and students were eligible for membership, provided that they paid a fee of 25¢ (equivalent to about $6 in 2019). The purpose of the club was “to promote equal suffrage sentiment among college women and men.”
National College Equal Suffrage League
MHC Archives
1911
Slava Balanbanoff
Paper, pencil
English
Constitution
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Edith Packard, X Class of 1897, Letter to her Father, October 27, 1895
The week before she would cast her vote in the mock election, Edith wrote to her father that students “are all up in arms just now over the question of woman’s suffrage.” She explains the occasion for the mock election by saying “there is to be a test vote in Massachusetts as to whether women want the ballot for municipal affairs,” although this vote was open to both men and women. Edith believes “the greater part of the girls are decidedly opposed to it” at Mount Holyoke. Omitting her own beliefs from the discussion, she asks her father, “you do not have any fierce and rabid opinions on the subject do you.”
Edith Packard
MHC Archives
October 27, 1895
Paper, ink
English
Letter
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Equal Suffrage League Page in the Class of 1917 Llamarada
This yearbook page gives a brief history of the Mount Holyoke chapter of the National College Equal Suffrage League and details its activities. Through its open meetings, the League brought many important suffragists to speak on campus. Mentioned on this page are Dr. Anna Howard Shaw, who was the president of the National American Woman Suffrage Association from 1904 to 1915 and an advocate for non-militant tactics; Max Eastman, who was a male supporter of women’s suffrage and a prominent radical; and Mrs. Susan Walker Fitzgerald, the recording secretary for NAWSA who was later elected to the Massachusetts House of Representatives. The membership numbers listed on this page show that more than a third of the student body belonged to the League, although this figure does not capture students who may have attended meetings without becoming official members.<br /><br /><a href="https://compass.fivecolleges.edu/object/mtholyoke:47841" title="1917 Llamarada">View the full 1917 <em>Llamarada</em> here.</a>
Mount Holyoke College
MHC Archives
1917
Yearbook
English
rg34-s03-y1917
Fellowship of Faiths Page in the Class of 1964 Llamarada
The yearbook page for the Fellowship of Faiths (FOF) also discusses the efforts of the Civil Actions Group, an unofficial sub-group of the large interfaith organization on campus at the time. Both groups worked together on a tutorial program in Holyoke, and the FOF held a Campus Conference on Civil Rights, focussing on the subtle nature of racial discrimination in the North. Whitney Young, pictured at the bottom of the page on the left, was the executive director of the National Urban League, a community-based organization dedicated to ending racial discrimination, gave a lecture at the conference. 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 /><a href="https://compass.fivecolleges.edu/object/mtholyoke:63916" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Explore the full yearbook text here.</a>
Mount Holyoke College
1964
Yearbook
rg34-s03-y1964
Florence Tuttle's Sash and Louise Dunbar's Dress
<strong>Handmade Votes for Women Sash, 1916</strong> <br />This sash belonged to Florence Tuttle ‘16, an active member of the National College Equal Suffrage League serving in multiple leadership roles. She and two classmates handcrafted their sashes for Suffrage Day and marched in a band. Florence (left in band photo) and her sash are clearly visible because of the unique hand-cut letters.<br /><br /><strong>Louise Dunbar dress, ca. 1912</strong> <br />This cotton batiste dress belonged to Louise Dunbar ‘16, President of the Equal Suffrage League. It was likely worn for a high school graduation before her time at Mount Holyoke, though it would have been similar to dresses she wore for special occasions at college.<br /><br /><strong>Image Description</strong>: A mannequin angled slightly to the right wears an ecru cotton dress and a “Votes For Women” sash. The dress has a high square neck and elbow-length sleeves, both trimmed with lace. This lace continues vertically down the bodice with pintucking along the sides and narrows at a high waist with two lace rosettes. The lace is continued down the skirt with two decorative strips attached at the waist; they end above the knee in decorative tassels. The white sash is pinned diagonally at the right shoulder and left hip with black paper letters spelling “Votes For Women.” The letters are hand-cut and obviously imperfect. The sash is slightly creased between “For” and “Women” and the paper ‘W’ is beginning to pull up from the sash in some places where it was folded. <br /><br />In another photograph, three students wear triangular paper hats, sweaters over white dresses, and “Votes For Women” sashes pinned across their chests. They are in the midst of marching outdoors — a brick building and trees are visible in the background. The student on the right marches slightly ahead wearing a drum harness with drumsticks in either hand; she smiles at the camera. The other two students at left and center walk slightly behind holding small bugles to their lips. The student in the center looks ahead as Florence, on the far left, squints at the camera. Her sash is identifiable as the one on display because of the matching letters. There seems to be another dress-clad figure behind Florence: only an elbow is visible.<br /><br />An additional photograph depicts Louise Dunbar wearing the dress circa. 1912. Her hair is loosely pulled back and seems to be tied with a very large white bow. In addition to the dress, she wears a pair of white slippers, white stockings, elbow-length white gloves, and a bracelet on her left wrist. In her gloved hands she holds either end of a closed hand fan below her waist. A long satin ribbon trails from the end of the fan to the ankle-length hem of her dress. The dress is evidently the same as the one on the mannequin, albeit in better condition.
Florence Tuttle
MHC Archives
c. 1912, 1916
Cotton, paper; cotton
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Formation of MHC Committee on Civil Rights, 1960
In April 1960, Louise DeCosta ‘62, Marion Fitch ‘62, Susan Heineman ‘60, Susan Higinbotham ‘62, and Anne Martin ‘62 wrote this letter to the administration of Mount Holyoke to declare the formation of the Mount Holyoke Committee on Civil Rights. The group’s main focus was collecting money to donate for the legal defenses of Black students who had been arrested during peaceful protests. In 1964, the Committee on Civil Rights encouraged students to participate in the nationwide Thanksgiving fast. The money that was saved on the meal was used to support African Americans who had lost their jobs or land due to their participation in civil rights activity. Within the first two weeks of its creation, the Committee on Civil Rights raised $750 (equivalent to about $6,500 in 2019) from students, faculty, and residents of Holyoke.
Louise DeCosta, Marion Fitch, Susan Heineman, Susan Higinbotham, Anne Martin
MHC Archives
Paper
English
Letter
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Hortense Hubbard, Class of 1917, Letter to her parents, April 25, 1915
Although she was unwilling to align herself with the suffragist cause, Hortense wrote home about Suffrage Day, which took place on April 24. She describes the event: “after chapel a girl dressed in white beat a drum and there were all sorts of signs around about suffrage. By the lawn between the Library and Mary Lyon chapel they had a table where they distributed papers and tried to get people to join the society up here.” She describes several events she did not participate in, including buying a flower from Jeannette Marks and her dog. By the fall, Hortense seems to have made up her mind. On October 10th, she writes home about a suffrage parade: “I don’t want to march. I guess I am an Anti anyway.”
Hortense Hubbard
MHC Archives
April 25, 1915
Paper, ink
English
Letter
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