HerStory: Fiction Honoring Women's History Month: Eddie

Sister Suffragettes is inspired by an incident in the life of Ida B. Wells-Barnett, a Black journalist, newspaper editor and leader in both the women’s suffrage and the civil rights movements. Her pointed exposé of the practice of lynching, documented in the pamphlets Southern Horrors: Lynch Law in all Its Phases and A Red Record, ferreted out the real reason for the lynchings: black economic progress.

Because of her outspokenness and refusal to “play nice”, Mrs. Wells-Barnett often found herself at odds with the women’s suffrage movement. As a result, the leaders of the National American Woman Suffrage Association (NAWSA) insisted that she not march with the Illinois delegation at President Woodrow Wilson’s inauguration, where they were demanding the right to vote. The reason? A black woman marching alongside whites would offend some Southern women.

But Ida had other plans. On March 9, 1913, she watched the parade from the crowd until the Illinois delegation had passed then joined in, protected from angry Southerners by white women sympathetic to the plight of all women, regardless of race.

"If the Illinois women do not take a stand now in this great democratic parade then the colored women are lost... I shall not march at all unless I can march under the Illinois banner."–Ida B. Wells

About the Author:

Dahlia DeWinters is a multi-published author of erotic and sensual romance with offbeat heroines. She enjoys crochet, gardening and reading anything from historical romance to science fiction. Her taste in music ranges from Frank Sinatra to Fuel and she prefers action movies to rom-com. She currently lives in the lovely Garden State, a Jersey girl through and through. Find her on Facebook posting unsolicited opinions on movies and random music/film quotes.

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