“It’s too late darling. Just like it’s too late for antiquated views about suffrage.”
This is a delightful book of short stories written by contemporary authors Kristin Hannah, Lisa Wingate, M.J. Rose, Steve Berry, Paula McLain, Katherine Chen, Christina Baker Kline, Jamie Ford, Dolen Perkins-Valdez, Megan Chance, Alyson Richman, Chris Bohjalian, and Fiona Davis. Fans of their writing will recognize their styles and themes, but all stories are appropriate for discussion in middle and high school students in schools.
This book’s fictional short stories all occur leading up to and on October 23, 1915, when tens of thousands of women marched on Fifth Avenue in New York weeks before New York’s women’s suffrage referendum would fail. The stories’ common elements include the white attire and colorful sashes that women wore and the banners and signs they made. The writers provide a “feel as though you are there” sense of New York City in 1915 when traveling on the subway was a relatively new experience, especially for out-of-towners and women who were alone. The Met Life Tower, which opened in 1909, is a new landmark, and the tenements in Hell’s Kitchen are depicted for what they were at the time. New York’s neighborhoods, often defined by ethnicity or privilege, figure into the stories’ settings, with New York itself a motif in the stories. Women participated in the famous march, dubbed “parade,” on foot, on floats, and on horseback. Some women pushed baby carriages, and it was clearly a multigenerational event. Fashion, jewelry, and art, hallmarks of New York and progress are prominent elements in the stories as women traveled from many states to participate. Yet, the authors clarify that Black women were expected to march at the end of the parade, not alongside white women from their respective states. Most of the stories also described some of the opposition to women’s suffrage; it divided families, workplaces, and society as a whole. Some women didn’t see a need to vote, and others couldn’t bear the thought of continuing to live as an American without this right. The Men’s League of Women’s Suffrage is included in many of the stories. Many men supported women’s right to vote and marched with women that day. However, some men committed violent acts to interfere with the proceedings, and some made public spectacles of themselves and loved ones to display their power.
Included among the stories are fictionalized accounts of Reverend Olympia Brown, the first woman minister recognized by a national denomination, and Ida Sedgwick Proper, a painter who sponsored a national art contest for brochure art. Alva Belmont, also known as Alva Vanderbilt, is also included among the depictions of suffragettes. Mabel Lee, the first female Ph.D. at Columbia, figures into an interesting story about her male rival. The lost girl named Grace or “Little Miss Suffragette” shows up in multiple stories. Grace is the photographer, a role her aunt assigned since her uncle did not want her to march. Grace runs away multiple times and meets up with key characters in the parade so that she can represent the youth and the future of women’s suffrage in America. Her character provides a sentimental connection among some stories, serving as a symbol of hope for the women’s cause.
