Analyzing a Photograph of a Suffrage Parade

This activity can be used as an introduction to primary sources and photograph analysis, when learning about the women’s suffrage movement, or while discussing the importance of the right to vote. For grades K-2. Approximate time needed is 20 minutes.

Introduce the activity and photograph to students as a full class. Share with students the following historical context, if necessary:

This photograph is of a suffrage parade in Washington, DC that took place on March 3, 1913.

 

The word “suffrage” means the right to vote. In the United States, people vote to elect leaders on the local, state, and national level. Voting is an important way that people have a say in the government and the elected officials who represent them and help make the laws and rules for our country. In the early days of the United States, only property-owning white men could vote in most elections. At the time that this photograph was taken, women did not have the right to vote on a national level.

 

People who worked to get women the right to vote were called “suffragists.” Suffragists used many different methods to put pressure on the government to extend voting rights to women, including the right to peaceably assemble from the First Amendment of the Bill of the Rights.

 

The suffrage parade in this photograph is an example of a peaceful protest protected by that right. Approximately 5,000 suffragists from around the country participated in this suffrage parade. National organizers of this parade, however, advised the state contingents to have Black women march at the end of the parade, because they feared white women wouldn’t march alongside them. Several women of color, including investigative journalist and civil rights leader Ida B. Wells, stepped in with their state contingents despite the directive from the national leaders.

Ask students to consider this information as they look closely at the photograph and you lead them through the photograph analysis questions.

• Meet the photo.
• Observe its parts.
• Try to make sense of it.
• Use it as historical evidence.

When students have answered all of the analysis questions, lead the class through a discussion of the questions under “When You’re Done”:

1. What is one reason why it is important that all citizens who are 18 and older have the right to vote?
2. The people in this photograph participated in a suffrage parade, a form of peaceful protest, as a way to bring attention to their cause and try to change the laws of the United States. What is another way you could work to get a law changed if you see something you believe is unfair?

Brainstorm different answers to these questions as a full class.

Share with students that suffragists worked for decades to encourage the government to extend the right to vote to women. The 19th Amendment was ratified on August 19, 1920, granting women the right to vote on a national level. However, even with this achievement, women of color still faced racial and ethnic discrimination and barriers as some states found ways to discourage voting through methods such as poll taxes and literacy tests. People continued to work to make sure that all Americans had access to the same rights through additional legislation.

With this in mind, ask students to consider the ideals of the Declaration of Independence, and particularly the phrase “all men are created equal.” Ask students to define “equal,” and ask what they think is the meaning of the phrase. Answers may include “everyone is treated the same,” “everyone has the same rights.”

Lead a class discussion that helps the students reflect on how the meaning of this phrase may connect to the photograph they just analyzed and the actions of the suffragists.

For additional materials related to Analyzing a Photograph of a Woman Suffrage Parade (including Guiding Questions, National Standards, Historical Background and Supplemental Educational Resources).