Watching the women wearing white in 1919, Atlantic City, New Jersey

It's 1919, and we're in Atlantic City, New Jersey, USA, and there are a lot of women wearing white, which we've been seeing for quite a while now. The fashion for women is still black, but white has a special meaning, support of something that is about to happen in the United States, women's suffrage, that is, the right for women to vote, which will happen in 1920.


Yes, this post is going to be political. And it's a reminder that sometimes in ordinary scenes are extraordinary things. Look again. Yes, white was a popular color, especially in the summer by the sea, but if you look through the eyes of history you can see that there may have been something going on there!


Of course, not everyone agrees politically, that's how it works. And just because a woman may be wearing white, or not, didn't necessarily advertise her feelings about votes for women. But there was something in the air that women had been fighting for for a very long time, and in a quiet way women wanted people to know where they stood on the issue.

Cast off the shackles of yesterday!
Shoulder to shoulder into the fray!
Our daughters' daughters will adore us,
And they'll sing in grateful chorus.
Well done, Sister Suffragette!



Images from the Duke University Library Digital Collections.
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