Community, campus groups invited to planning meeting for 100th anniversary women's march

WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. — Anyone interested in organizing a delegation or participating in a Purdue University march and rally to celebrate Women's History Month and the 100th anniversary of the women's movement is invited to attend a planning meeting on Wednesday (Feb. 13).

The meeting is 2-3 p.m. at the Black Cultural Center, and organizational information about the March 22 event, A Century of Public Action, will be provided.

"The march is timed to recognize the 100th anniversary of the women's march on March 3 in Washington, D.C., but the event is about a century of public action and social movements," said T.J. Boisseau, director of Women's Studies and associate professor of history. "It was a turning point in history for public protest. Other marches that we will celebrate are related to civil rights and Title IX."

On March 3, 1913, more than 5,000 women and their allies marched on Washington, D.C. in support of a constitutional amendment to grant women the right to vote.

"The march was inspiring," Boisseau said. "What started as a segregated event was forcibly desegregated by black women of the historic black sorority, Delta Sigma Theta, such as Ida B. Wells-Barnett, who famously ignored demands to walk in the rear and joined her state delegation mid-march. Controversy surrounding the march attracted the attention of the nation and the world, and utterly changed the way people and lawmakers viewed the idea of a constitutional amendment guaranteeing women the vote."

More information about the route, rally and related events will be available later this month. Information will be updated at

* https://www.facebook.com/pages/March-at-Purdue/327959323982975?sk=info

* http://www.tumblr.com/blog/marchatpurdue

* https://twitter.com/MarchAtPurdue

The event is sponsored by the Vice Provost for Faculty Affairs, Purdue Women Lead of the Susan Bulkeley Butler Center for Leadership Excellence, Butler Women's Archives, Department of History, Department of Political Science, Office of the Dean of Students, and Office of Student Affairs.

Writer: Amy Patterson Neubert, 765-494-9723, apatterson@purdue.edu

Source: T.J. Boisseau, tjboisseau@purdue.edu

Related website:
Women's Studies