Laura Herrera
Editors
Heidi A. Samuelson
Esther D. Wang
Designer
Bill Van Nimwegen Photography Timothy Paton Jr.
Copyright©2021bythe
ChicagoHistoricalSociety
Clark Street at North Avenue Chicago,IL60614-6038 312.642.4600 chicagohistory.org ISSN 0272-8540
Articles appearing in this journalareabstractedand indexed in Historical Abstracts andAmerica:HistoryandLife.
CHICAGOHISTORICALSOCIETY
Daniel S. Jaffee Chair
Mary Lou Gorno
First Vice Chair
Warren K. Chapman Second Vice Chair
Mark D. Trembacki Treasurer
Denise R. Cade Secretary
Donald E. Lassere
Edgar D. and Deborah R. Jannotta President
HONORARYTRUSTEE
The Honorable Lori Lightfoot Mayor, City of Chicago
James L. Alexander
Denise R. Cade
Paul Carlisle
Walter C. Carlson
Warren K. Chapman
Rita S. Cook
Patrick F. Daly
James P. Duff A. Gabriel Esteban
Lafayette J. Ford T. Bondurant French
Alejandra Garza
Timothy J. Gilfoyle
Gregory L. Goldner
Mary Lou Gorno
David A. Gupta
Brad J. Henderson
David D. Hiller
Tobin E. Hopkins
Daniel S. Jaffee
Ronald G. Kaminski
Randye A. Kogan
Judith H. Konen
Michael J. Kupetis
Donald E. Lassere
Robert C. Lee
Ralph G. Moore
Maggie M. Morgan
Stephen Ray
Joseph Seliga
Steve Solomon
Samuel J. Tinaglia
Mark D. Trembacki
Cover: Women participate in a liberation march and rally at the Civic Center, May 15, 1971. ST-20003470-0001, Chicago Sun-Times collection, Chicago History Museum
Ali Velshi
Gail D. Ward Lawrie B. Weed Monica M. Weed Jeffrey W. Yingling Robert R. Yohanan
HONORARY LIFE TRUSTEE
The Honorable Richard M. Daley
The Honorable Rahm Emanuel
LIFE TRUSTEES
David P. Bolger
Laurence O. Booth Stanley J. Calderon John W. Croghan Patrick W. Dolan Paul H. Dykstra Michael H. Ebner Sallie L. Gaines Barbara A. Hamel M. Hill Hammock
Susan S. Higinbotham Dennis H. Holtschneider C.M. Henry W. Howell, Jr. Edgar D. Jannotta Falona Joy Barbara L. Kipper W. Paul Krauss
Josephine Louis R. Eden Martin
Josephine Baskin Minow Timothy P. Moen Potter Palmer
John W. Rowe
Jesse H. Ruiz
Gordon I. Segal
Larry Selander Paul L. Snyder
TRUSTEES EMERITUS
Catherine L. Arias
Bradford L. Ballast
Gregory J. Besio
Michelle W. Bibergal
Matthew Blakely
Paul J. Carbone, Jr.
Jonathan F. Fanton
Cynthia Greenleaf
Courtney W. Hopkins
Cheryl L. Hyman
Nena Ivon
Douglas M. Levy
Erica C. Meyer
Michael A. Nemeroff
Ebrahim S. Patel
M. Bridget Reidy
James R. Reynolds, Jr. Elizabeth D. Richter
Nancy K. Robinson
April T. Schink
Jeff Semenchuk
Kristin Noelle Smith
Margaret Snorf
Sarah D. Sprowl
Noren W. Ungaretti
Joan Werhane
*As of June 30, 2021
The Chicago History Museum acknowledges support from the Chicago Park District and the Illinois Arts Council Agency on behalf of the people of Chicago.
AsthemagazineoftheChicagoHistoryMuseum,wewantedtodedicateanissuetotheplace whereitallhappens—theMuseum.
Inthisissue,youwillgetabehind-the-sceneslookatwhathappenswhenweloananitemfromour vastcostumecollectiontoanotherinstitutionfordisplayinanexhibition.Itinvolvesmuchmorethan packingitintoaboxforshipping.CHMconservatorHollyLundbergdocumentedtheprocessof assessingthecondition,repairing,andreadyingforloanacotilliongown(1956)designedbyAnnLowe. ThedresswasondisplayatthePeabodyEssexMuseuminSalem,Massachusetts,foranexhibitionon womenwhorevolutionizedfashion.
Foundedin2005,theMuseum’sStudsTerkelCenterforOralHistorycollaborateswithcommunity partnerstopromoteoralhistoryasatoolofsocialjustice.Followingthelegacyofwell-knownauthor,historian,andbroadcasterStudsTerkel,theCenterdocumentsdiverseChicagovoices.Inrecentyears,projectshaveincludedayouthengagementcomponent,trainingmiddleandhighschoolstudentsasoral historians.Overthepastthreeyears,theCenterhascollaboratedanddevelopedprojectsrelatedtothe WestSidecommunitiesofEastGarfieldParkandNorthLawndaleaswellastheChicagoarea’sPolish andMuslimcommunities.ThoseoralhistoriesfromMuslimChicagoansbecamethefoundationforthe in-personexhibition AmericanMedina:StoriesofMuslimChicago curatedbyPeterT.Alter,theMuseum’s chiefhistoriananddirectoroftheStudsTerkelCenterforOralHistory.Thoughtheexhibitionhasclosed, Alter’sarticleinthisissuediscussesthethemesofidentity,journey,andfaiththatemergedfromtheoral historyprojectandfeaturesexcerptsfromconversationswithMuslimChicagoansthatwerenotincluded intheexhibition.
Thepastyear,withtheMuseumclosedformonthsduetotheCOVID-19pandemic,weturnedtodigitalspacestocontinuetoshareChicagostorieswithouronlineaudience,members,andfriends,aswe alladaptedtoscreensasourprimarytoolofcommunication.Ourplannedexhibition DemocracyLimited: ChicagoWomenandtheVote wassettoopeninAugust2020tomark100yearssincetheratificationof theNineteenthAmendment.AsCOVIDcasesrose,theMuseummadethedecisiontoadapttheexhibitiontoanonlineexperience(www.democracylimited.com).Ourcurator,ElizabethFraterrigo,associate professorofhistoryatLoyolaUniversityChicago,reworkedtheexhibition,andreliedonphotographs andother2-DmaterialsintheMuseum’scollectionstotellthestorynotjustofthevote,butofrecent anddistantmomentswhenChicago-areawomenmobilizedforchange,partofalonghistoryofactivism andprotest.
Inthenarrativefoundinthisissue,sheunpacksthecomplexstoryofhowthesuffragemovementin theChicagoareawasforgedbywomenofdifferentbackgroundsandwithdifferentmotivations.Thetitle “DemocracyLimited”wasthenicknameofatrain,boardedbyagroupofwomeninFebruary1919,to embarkonatourwheretheysharedthestoryoftheirarrestsforprotestinginsupportofafederal women’ssuffrageamendment.Althoughthesewhitewomenomittedwomenofcolorfromtheirclaims totherightsofcitizenship,theirnicknameforthetrainisareminderthattheprojectofdemocracyis diminishedwithoutfullandequalparticipationofallmembersofsociety.AlthoughtheNineteenth Amendmentdidnotgrantallwomentherighttovote,itwasstillahard-wonachievementmetwith seriousoppositionandincrementalvictoriesalongtheway.
WehopeyouenjoythisissueandthatyoulearnsomethingnotjustaboutChicagohistory,butabout theworkwedoattheMuseumtobringhistorytoyou.
The
SeewhatgoesintopreparingadressfromtheMuseum’sworld-renowned costumecollectionforloananddisplay.
HOLLYLUNDBERGItisacommonpracticeformuseumstoloanartifacts tootherinstitutions.InSpring2020,theChicago HistoryMuseumconservationteampreparedacotilliongown(1956)designedbyAnnColeLowe (1898–1981)togoonloantothePeabodyEssexMuseum inSalem,Massachusetts,fortheexhibition MadeIt:The WomenwhoRevolutionizedFashion.Inwhatfollows,learn moreaboutthegarmentandconservationprocessthat wentintopreparingthepieceforloananddisplay.
AnnLowewasoneofthefirstAfricanAmerican designerstoachievewideacclaim,andherone-of-a-kind gownsandfinehandiworkwerehighlysoughtafterby theeliteofhighsocietyfromthe1920sthroughthe 1960s.Sheisperhapsbestknownfordesigningthe iconicivorysilkweddingdresswornbyJacqueline Bouvieruponherweddingin1953tothenJunior SenatorJohnF.Kennedy,thoughLowedidnotreceive creditfortheworkatthetime.
OneofLowe’strademarksistheuseofflowermotifs inherdesigns,suchastheelegantself-fabriclong stemmedroseappliquésthatembellishthebodiceand skirtofthecotilliongown,whichwaswornbyCarole DukeDenhamonDecember22,1956,atthePassavant Cotillion(GiftofMrs.CharlesChaplin,1976.241.170). Thestraplesssilkgownhasabonedbodice,center-back zipper,andafullskirtwithanattachedunderskirtof taffeta,linedwithastiffnonwoveninterfacing-likematerialandedgedwithhorsehairatthehem.Alongwiththe floralappliqués,thegownisembellishedwithfaux pearls,sequins,glassseedbeads,andrhinestones.
Afterbeingrequestedforloan,thegownwasbrought totheconservationlabtobeassessedforcondition, treatmentneeds,recommendationsfordisplay, mounting,andhandling,aswellasforanyneededconservationtreatment.
Thegownwasfoundtobeinfairlygoodcondition. Immediatelyapparentwasdamageassociatedwithuse thatincludedsomespots,stains,andsoilingdownthe
AnnLowelabel(above)anddetailofthe flower motif on this cotillion gown skirt (left).
frontandatthehem.Inaddition,thegarmentwasheavily wrinkledandcreased,andthebloomsofLowe’strademarkfloralappliquéswereflattenedandcrushed.Acloser examinationrevealedasignificantnumberofloose sequins,beads,pearls,andrhinestones,aswellassome lossesofthesameinspotsthroughoutduetoembrittlementandbreakageoftheembroiderythreads.Someofthe leavesandafewofthestemsandflowerblossomswere alsocominglooseasaresultofbrokenstitchesandthread, especiallyaroundthehipandthighareasontheskirt.The silver-platedrhinestonesettingsandthesilveredbacking onthesew-onstoneswereblackenedbytarnish.
Thestiffunderskirt,whichhelpedtosupportand providesomeshapingfortheskirt,wasmisshapenand hadnumeroushardverticalrunningfoldsdownit.Both theouterlayeroftaffetaandtheinterfacingwerecreased, andthebandofhorsehairstitchedatthehemwasbent, foldeduponitselfinspots,andmisshapen.Ofparticular concernwasthepresenceofa9-inchlong,raggedtearin theinterfacinglayeratthebackoftheunderskirt.
Examplesoflooseandmissingbeadwork,sequins,andstonesonthegown’s bodice and loose, detaching self-fabric appliqués on the skirt.
Treatment of the cotillion gown was undertaken over the course of several months. At that time, any dust and loosely adherent dirt and particulates were removed using a lowsuction vacuum, and conservation sponges were used to reduce some of the dirt and soiling at the hem of the dress and underskirt. Loose and/or detaching floral appliqués, beads, sequins, pearls, and rhinestones were secured by stitching, using a thin cotton thread for fine embroidery
(size 60/2, i.e., 60 weight thread with 2 plies). Long, broken lengths of embroidery thread found throughout the areas of beadwork and around the appliqués were pulled through to the interior side of the dress with the aid of a sewing needle. Sew-on rhinestone rose montee beads similar to those originallyusedonthegownweresourcedandpurchasedonline to fill a 1.5"–2" long section of loss along the top edge of the bodice at the front.
Thetearintheinterfacinglayeroftheunderskirtbeforetreatment.
Aseriesoftestswereundertakentofindthemostappropriatepatchmaterialandadhesivetorepairthe9-inchtear inthethicknonwoveninterliningoftheunderskirt.Both long-fiberedJapanesetissuepapersandacoupleofdifferent nonwovenspun-bondedpolyesterfabricsofdifferent weightsweretestedfortheirsuitabilityaspatchmaterial, andseveralheat-reactivatableadhesiveswerealsotestedfor use,includingsomedilutemixturesofconservationgrade acrylicadhesives,andanadhesivefilmoriginallydeveloped forthereliningofpaintedcanvasses.Thepreparedtest
patcheswereappliedtopiecesofheavyweightPellon® sewininterfacingtotestsuitabilityonamaterialsomewhatsimilarinnaturetotheinterfacingoftheunderskirt.Ultimately, agradeofHollytex,awhitenonwovenspun-bondedpolyesterfabric,waschosenforthepatchmaterialduetoits smoothfinish,nonravelingedges,dimensionalstability,and hightensileandtearstrength,alongwithanadhesivefilm createdspecificallyforconservationapplications,asitwas foundtohavebetteradhesionandmoreappropriatepeel strengththantheotheradhesivestested.
Becausethetearintheinterfacinglayeroftheunderskirtwasragged,apatchwasappliedonbothsides.The patchontheinteriorfacewasslippedinthroughthe tear,aligned,andsecuredinplacebyreactivatingthe adhesivewithaheatspatula.Asthepatchonthe exposedexteriorsurfaceoftheinterfacingwouldbevisibletoanyoneexaminingtheinteriorofthegarment,the outerfaceoftheouterpatchwastonedwithwashesof GoldenFluidAcrylicartists’paintsandair-driedpriorto beingsecuredinplace,soastoblendmoreseamlessly withthecoloroftheinterfacing.
Left:Theset-uptorepairthetearinthe underskirtinterfacing.
Below:Here,aheatspatulaisusedto securethepatchinplace.
Close-upofthepatch-repairedtearaftertreatment.
Wrinkles,creases,andfoldsthroughoutthegown and underskirt, and the distortions and folds in the horsehair band at the hem of the underskirt were removed or reduced using a variety of localized humidification techniques, including the use of cool mist generated by an ultrasonic humidifier and isolated strips of
blotter paper misted with deionized water that were placed over areas of wrinkles and/or creases (with the misted side away from the garment) and weighted or secured in place to humidify the fibers, then allowed to reacclimatize to ambient conditions.
Blossomsonthebodicebefore(left)andaftertreatment(right).
Blossomsonskirtbefore(left)andaftertreatment(right).
Finally,theflattenedandcrushedflowerbudswere reshapedusingsmallpiecesofblottingpaperdampened withdeionizedwater,whichwerecarefullywrappedor tuckedaroundeachflowerand/orpetalforlessthana
minutetorelaxthefibers.Oncehumidified,thepetals weregentlymanipulatedbyhandtoreshape,thenleftto reacclimatizetoambientconditions.
Frontviewofthegownbefore (inset)andaftertreatment (below).
Backviewofthegownbefore (inset)andaftertreatment (below).
Whilethegownwasinthelab,itwasmeasuredand test fitted on several different forms and mannequins to find the most appropriate size for support and display purposes, and a determination was made as to what type of padding and underpinnings, such as petticoats, would be sent with the garment. After treatment was complete, a detailed condition report along with photographs, instructions for handling, dressing, and packing, and the requirements for display were written and printed up t o be packed within the travel crate along with the gown, which was carefully packed in a custom-made archival box padded out with acid-free tissue paper for the trip.
The Lowe gown was on loan from November 21, 2020, through March 14, 2021.
WithspecialthankstoNancyBuenger(conservatorinprivate practice), Sue Reif-Gill, and Julia Eckelkamp (CHM conservation volunteers) for all their help and efforts on this project.
HollyLundbergreceivedherdegreeinConservationandMaterials Science from University College London. She completed her postgraduate work in the conservation analytical labs of the Smithsonian Institution, and worked in conservation at the Field Museum of Natural History for seven years before joining the Chicago History Museum in 2005, where she specializes in the preservation, care, and conservation of materials in the Costume and Textile, Decorative and Industrial Arts, and Painting and Sculpture collections, as well as for artifacts on exhibition.
ILLUSTRATIONS |All images courtesy of Chicago History Museum staff unless otherwise noted. Page 5, Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division, www.loc.gov/item/96519318/.
TheChicagoMuslimOralHistoryProjectinterviewedmorethan150Muslim Chicagoansfromavarietyofbackgrounds—readtheirstoriesintheirownwords.
Theentrancetotheexhibition AmericanMedina:StoriesofMuslimChicago (October21,2019–May16,2021)attheChicago History Museum.
TohighlighttheimportanceofChicago’sreligiouscommunities,theChicagoHistory Museum,intheearly2000s,developedplans forareligioussuiteofexhibitionsfocusingon theAbrahamicfaiths—Christianity,Judaism,andIslam. CatholicChicago openedin2008.In2012,theexhibition ShalomChicago,focusingonthecity’sJewishcommunities,debuted.Sevenyearslater AmericanMedina:Stories ofMuslimChicago openedtocompletethesuite.
Unlikeitstwopredecessorexhibitions, American Medina’sfoundationwasanoralhistoryproject.Under theauspicesoftheMuseum’sStudsTerkelCenterfor OralHistory,theChicagoMuslimOralHistoryProject beganinthesummerof2016andcontinuedinto2021, gatheringmorethan150interviews.Theoralhistories, includingaudiofilesandtranscripts,willeventuallybe availablethroughtheMuseum’swebsite,asapermanent onlinearchive.Projectstaff,interns,andvolunteers
workedtointerviewabroadarrayofAmericanMuslims frommanysuburbsandthroughoutthecity.Oralhistory narratorscamefrommultiplehistoricallysignificant Muslimcommunities,aswellasnewerlesser-known ones.Peoplebornintothefaithaswellconvertssatfor interviews.Manyarenative-bornAmericanswhileothers wereimmigrantsandrefugees.Theyoungestnarrators werecollegestudentswhiletheoldestwereintheir eighties.Somevolunteeredtobeinterviewedafter hearingabouttheprojectthroughwordofmouthand othersbygoingtotheprojectwebsite.Staff,volunteers, andinternshowever,recruitedmostnarratorsthrough communityorganizations,mosques,publicmeetings, andindividualcontacts.
Foundedin2005,theMuseum’sStudsTerkelCenter forOralHistorycollaborateswithcommunitypartnersto promoteoralhistoryasatoolofsocialjustice.Through documentingeverydaypeople’svoices,thecentercarries
forward the legacy of well-known actor, disc jockey, oral historian, journalist, and writer Studs Terkel. In their approach to this project, oral history center staff applied frameworks of shared authority, reflective practice, antiracism, being trauma informed, and understanding thepitfallsofChristiannormativity.
Typically, the center’s oral history initiatives, including this project, have a youth engagement component. In spring 2019, center staff recruited, hired, and trained eight urban and suburban American Muslim high school students to conduct oral histories and work on the resulting exhibition. From April to October of that year, they led seventeen interviews, recruited oral history narrators, promoted the exhibition, and did research. The exhibition’s five-minute introductory film also featured them.
While listening to the interviews, center staff discovered that three main topics, among many others, consistently rose out of the Chicago Muslim Oral History Project: narrators discussed themes of identity, personal journeys, and faith. These three ideas became the organizationalrubricforthe AmericanMedina exhibitionand the following edited excerpted oral histories. Although each thematic section here is grounded by an interview featured in the exhibition, most of these oral histories did not appear in American Medina
Combing through more than 150 interviews to create this article was a major undertaking. Interns working with the oral history center, Michala Marcella Fitzpatrick, Miriam Montano, Sophie Ospital, Rachel Rudolph, and Andrea Serna, did a wonderful job analyzing oral history audio and transcripts to help produce this piece.
Likeanyfollowersofthesamereligion, Muslim Chicagoans share a faith but also maintain their individuality. Their varied characteristics help us better understand the city’s and country’s histories and Muslim communities.
MirzetDzubur isBosniak fromPrijedor,Bosnia. BosniaksareSouthSlavic Muslimsfromsoutheastern Europe.Dzuburfledhis country’sgenocideof Muslimsin1995with histwosonsandwife. Soonaftertheirarrivalin Chicago,hefoundedKUD “Bosna”Chicago,aBosniak youthdancetroupe.
PhotographbySadafSyedPhotography
Whenwecame,itwasMay23,1995.They[arefugee resettlementagency]foundforusanapartment.It wasonebedroomandthebasicsofwhatwe needed,abed...food.Wewerehappy.Andwevisited WorldRelief,andwefollowedtheirprogram.Afterone month,Iestablishedthat[adancetroupe]withafew teenagers.Thiswasgoodformeatthattimebecause— insidewehavealotoftrauma....Thatisagoodtimeforme togotothat[dancetroupepracticesandperformances]....
Doingsomethingwiththekids,teenagers,andme,it wasmytherapyandforthekids,andforeverybodyinthe [Bosniak]community,andthat’smypoint....From1995 totoday,ithasbeenover500kids,members,through generationtogeneration.Tostartitwasnoteasy.Itwas noteasybecausewedidnothavecostumesorinstruments.Wehadnothing.Ijustclappedlikethistostartin therefugeecenter—Bosniakrefugeecenter—near SheridanandBroadway[ontheNorthSide].
Aisha Ibrahim-Hanson is from Chicago and grew up on the South Side. She currently lives in northern California where she works astheconvertcarecoordinator for Ta’leef Collective. Ta’leef also has a Chicago presence and creates “the space, content, and companionship necessary for a healthy understanding and realization of Islam.”
Ithinkmyexperiencewasincrediblyuniqueina coupleofways.One,growingupI’dneverreally thoughtaboutraceattachedtoreligion,meaning therewasnoimmigrantexperiencethatIhadtokindof navigatebeinginthiscountryasalotofmypeersdid. Theyhadtodealwithnavigatinganenvironmentthat theygrewupin,whichwouldbetheWestandAmerica, butthenhavetodealwithimmigration,thingsathome... justdifferentculturalthings.
IwouldsaythatmyculturewasIslam,whichisreally interestingbecauseIslamisareligion.It’snotaculture, right?Butbeingthatmyparentsconverted,allweknew wasIslam.Therewasnothingelse.Therewasno,“Our Italiansidedoesthis,orourBlacksidedoesthis.”My parentsmadeaveryintentionalefforttoraiseallofusin theIslamiclifestyle.So,whenIsayculture,Imeansynonymouswithlifestyle.AndIlearnedthatthatwaskind ofdifferentformypeersathighschool.
BorninLahore,Pakistan, TayyabaSyed cametothe UnitedStatesinthe1980s withherfamily.Whenher familygottotheChicago area,theyfirstlivedinthe cityandthenmovedtosouthwestsuburbanWestmont. Today,Syedisanaward-winningauthor,journalist, keynotespeaker,andperformer.Sheisalsoamember oftheGlenEllyn,Illinois District41schoolboard,as “thefirstMuslimtoever serve”inthiscapacity.
Itcomesdowntoacceptingouridentityofwhowe are.Ididnotgrowupwearingtheheadscarf.I startedpracticinghijabasasophomoreincollegeat theUniversityofIllinoisatChicago.Iactuallygrewup
very detached from my faith. We grew up in the culture. There are principles that overlap between the culture and the religion. Sometimes, things are confused. It wasn’t like the religion was forced upon us. I grew up confused as to what is culture and what is religion.
Itwasn’tuntilItookabunchofworldreligion courses, philosophy courses, humanities courses, and sociology courses, where I studied everybody else, that I learned to appreciate who I was. I think that is what it comes down to. When I put the scarf on my head, I am declaring that I am a Muslim. When I was growing up, I never fit in anyway. It didn’t matter if I was covered or not covered. I still didn’t look like everybody else. That was one of the defining factors for me to start wearing the scarf. Well, I am already different. Who cares? Now, it is a testimony of my faith.
YvonneMaffei,anativeof Lorain,Ohio,andalongtimeChicagoresident,runs thepopularfoodblogMy HalalKitchen.Shedescribes herselfas“halfSicilianand halfPuertoRican,butall MidwestAmerican.”After convertingtoIslaminher 20s,Maffeiexploredhowto cookfamiliarfoodsfollowing Halaldietaryguidelines.
Ihadbiglessonstolearnthereaboutthemeaningof Halal.Icouldembracethenewreligion—andIslam doesn’ttellyoutodropyourculture—butIneeded tocommunicatemyselfalotbettertothepeopleI caredaboutandwhowereabittakenabackaboutmy decision.Foodwasthatcommunicationvehicleand somethingthatbroughtustogetherandcloser.Over theyears,Ihadtogetbetteratthat,soIstartedto thinkaboutmakingmoreItalianfoodwithHalalingredients,aswellasPuertoRicandishesandall-American foodtoo.
ThesearethethreeculturesIamingrainedinand meanalottome,soIwantedtobesuretorespectand preservemypersonalculinaryheritage.Whenmyfamily comestovisitme,theydon’twantsomethinginnovative orfancy.Theyjustwantcomfortfood.BecauseIspent yearstestingandtasting,Icannowmakeourtraditional foodswithHalalmeat,and,luckily,theyarehappyto enjoyitwithmetoo.Theflavorsarefamiliartothem, andeverybodyishappy.ThatiswhereIfoundmyhappy medium,andIsawagapinthemarket....
HalalisanArabicwordthatmeanspermissibleinthe contextofIslam.Itmeansmorethanwhatispermissible toeat.Itisalsowhatispermissibleinactions,societal
norms, financial transactions, for example. The opposite is Haram, but I just like to focus on what is permissible, because there is a huge abundance of Halal in terms of food. It is really so delicious!
OriginallyfromIstanbul, Turkey, SerpilCaputlu cametoChicagoin2004. Currently,sheisamathematicsinstructoratTriton Collegeinthewesternsuburbs.Caputludiscussedthe challengessheovercameto besuccessful.
Rightafterourmarriage,IcameheretotheU.S.A. [withmyhusband].Everythingwasnewforme,of course.Iwastwenty-twoyearsold,justfinished college.Itwasabigtransitionforme...Istillstarted goingtocollegehere,andIwashelpingmyfriendwith newspaperdeliveries.
Istartedgoingtochurchesinmyneighborhood. Thereweresomevolunteerteachersthere.Theywere verynicetome,teachingmeEnglish.Tobehonest,I didn’thaveahardtimepracticingmyreligionasa Muslimhere.Ifeltlikeeverybodywassorespectful.I wasabletodonewspaperdeliveryuntilIhadmy[first] baby.Assoonashewasborn,myhusbandgotajob offerinChicago.
WhenImovedtoChicago,Iwasabletostartcommunitycollegepart-time.Then,Igotafullloadofclasses andbecameaninternationalstudent.Istartedajobasa nanny.Itookmysonwithmeandtookcareofother kidswithhim—thathelpedmepaymytuition—Ifinishedmymaster’sdegree[inmathematics].Ialreadyhad abachelor’sdegreeinphysicsbeforeIcamehere.Iwas workingabouttenhourseveryday.Intheevening,Iwas leavingmysontomyhusbandwhenhecamehome fromwork.Iwouldthenleaveformynightclasses.
Iwasverybusy,butIwashappybecauseIwasable toearnmoney,paymytuition,andcompletemyeducation.Igotmygreencardandworkpermission.Right afterIfinishedmymaster’sdegree,Istartedtoworkat differentcommunitycolleges—TrumanCollege,Triton College—havingthreepart-timejobswaslikehavinga full-timejob.
IappliedtoTritonCollegeasfull-timefaculty.After ...threeyears,Iwasabletogetmytenure[atTriton].I alsoworkatDePaulUniversitybecauseIliketobebusy. [Now,]Ihavetwokids—itwasespeciallyhardforme duringmy[second]pregnancybecauseIwasworkingat thesametime.Icontinuedteachinguntilthenight beforeIhadthebaby,andthenIwentbacktoworktwo weeksaftergivingbirth.
Diana Cruz was raised in Chicago’s Little Village community on the city’s Near Southwest Side. She commented that her “upbringing wasintheMexicanculture, but my mom did not want me to lose my Puerto Rican culture.” The Teen Historians, who interviewed Cruz, asked her: “When you first converted in 1999 as a Latino Muslim, what resources did you have?”
IwasintroducedbyafriendofminetoaLatino Muslim.Tomeitwaslike,“HowcanyoubeLatino andMuslim?Youneedtotellmemore.”Hewasmy connectiontolearningmoreaboutIslam.Hewasthe onewhosaid,“YoucanconverttoIslam.Islamisuniversal.”
IdidnotwanttolosemyidentityasaLatina.Tome, itshapedmetobelike,“IamMuslim,butIamalso Latina.”IstartedmakingitapointtodoLatinoEid eventswithotherpeople.Westartedgettingtogetherand starteddoingLatinoEid[twoyearlyfeastdaysfor Muslims]events,LatinoEidparties....Now,thereisa hugeconversionofLatinos.Thereareconversionclasses fornewconverts.Whenyouconvert,thereareamajority ofLatinoswhospeakSpanishandareabletoassistthose whospeakSpanish.Backintheday,whenIstarted, therewasnoneofthat.
Journeys,bothphysicalandspiritual, are an important part of religious faith. For well over a century, thousands of Muslims have started, ended, or undertaken their journeys in Chicago as residents, migrants, immigrants, refugees, and converts.
AsaRohingyainBurma, NorjahanBintiFozarahman facedviolentpersecution. TheBurmesegovernment doesnotrecognizethe Rohingyaasadistinctethnic group,willnotacknowledge themasMuslims,orgrant themcitizenship.Theyare stateless.Asarefugee,she enduredalong,tortuous passagethroughThailand andMalaysiabeforearrivinginChicago.Shespokeinher nativeRohingyawhilehersontranslated PhotographbySadafSyedPhotography
Thestyleofthishand-embroideredgirl'sdress(c.2005)comesfrom Medculii, a village in Afghanistan, while the mirrors on the garment are a common feature of Pashtun clothing.
ShewassayingthereasonsheleftMalaysiaisshe thoughtaboutherchildren’sfuture.Becausein Malaysiawhenyourchildrendon’thaveaneducation,peopleusedtosaythatthey’regoingtobewild.So shedidn’twantherchildrentobelikethat.Shewanted
her children to have a good future. She wanted her children to be good people in the future. And she thinks about that, and it’s hard in Malaysia.
She said we don’t have a country. We need a country. We are still refugees. But we need a country that we can goanywherewewant,wherewehavefreedomofmovement, freedom of speech. She thought about that. And then she went and applied to the UNHCR [United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees in Malaysia], and the UNHCR eventually brought her over here [to the city’s North Side].
Originally from Houston, Texas, TrentonCarl came toChicagoin2009to attendDePaulUniversity andmajorinIslamicstudies. Hegrewupwithafather“of Anglo-Americandescent” andamotherwho“is[of] Mexican[descent].”Carl convertedtoIslamin2006 andfoundcommunityat DePaulUniversity.
WhenImovedtoChicago,Ididn’tcomewitha car,andsomyworldwasbasicallyfrom Ravenswood[aNorthSideneighborhoodnear DePaul’smaincampus]todowntown.Thatwasmy world.AndsomycommunitywastheMSA[Muslim StudentsAssociation]community.SoIreachedoutto DePaul’sUMMA,UnitedMuslimsMovingAhead— that’stheirMSAprogram—beforeImovedandsaid, “Look,I’mmovingtoChicago.I’dliketogetinvolvedin yourcommunityspace.”
SothepresidentofUMMAatthetimeandIbegan emailing,andwekindofclickedreallywell.Hecreateda positionforme,makingmethehistorian.IwasimmediatelyputontheboardwhenImoved,andwithinsix monthsorsohehadaskedmetostartleadingsomeprogramsattheMSA.TheMSAspacewasofsuperimportanceformeinthosetwoyearsatDePaul.That’swhere mycommunitywas.That’swheremyfriendswere. That’swheremyintellectualactivitywas,myspiritual activitywas.
A native of Rafah, Palestine, MohamedElnatour discusseshisjourneyto ChicagofromSaudiArabia in1991.Heiscurrently the principal of the Islamic Community Center of Illinois Academy in Chicago.
PhotographbySadafSyedPhotography
IcametoChicagowith mywifeandmytwo children.NowIhaveeightchildren.TheonlypeopleI haveintheUnitedStatesaremyownchildrenand grandchildren.Someofmykidsaremarried,andthey havechildren.SonowIamagrandfather.Ihaveno brother,nocousins,nosistersintheUnitedStates.Itis veryraretofindPalestiniansfromGazaoutside[of Palestine],becausethepeopleinGazadonothavethe privilegeofhavingavisa.
Thereisnocounselor,norepresentativeforanystate togivevisasforanypeopletogooutsideofGaza.Thatis whyIcameherefromSaudiArabia.Iwasateacherover there.IappliedtotheAmericanEmbassytogetaF-1 Visaasastudenttobecomeagraduatestudent.Thatis howIgethere.IfI’minGaza,Iwouldnothavethiskind ofprivilegetocometotheUS,asthemajorityofthe peopleofGazacan’tgetherenow.
BashirAsad isaChicago nativewhosefamilyhails fromMobile,Alabama. In1968,heandhiswife, Na’Imah,joinedthe Chicago-basedNation ofIslam(NOI).With teachingsbasedonthe Quran,theBible,andBlack nationalism,long-timeNOI leadertheHonorableElijah Muhammadbuiltitintoa majorreligious,cultural, business,andpoliticalforce, challengingwhitesupremacy andpromotingIslamasan alternativereligionfor AfricanAmericans.
LeaderoftheNationofIslam, Elijah Muhammad, speaks at the Saviours’ Day annual meeting, February 26, 1966.
UponthedeathoftheHonorableElijahMuhammadin 1975, Asadandhisfamily,likemanyothermembersofthe NOI,transitionedtotheleadershipofImamW.D. Mohammed,ElijahMuhammad’sson.ImamMohammed leadthemembershipinanotherdirection,includingadherencetothedictatesoftheQuranandthelifeexampleofthe ProphetMuhammad.Thispathhadalreadybeenindicated
in the Honorable Elijah Muhammad’s teachings that it would be the direction of the future of the NOI. Imam Mohammed’s goal was to move members closer to the universal principles of “Al Islam.”
Itell people today one of the things that impressed me the most, when I attended my first [Nation of Islam] Saviours’ Day event, was the well-organized conduct of the people, neatly dressed—even the children. I can remember looking at the children and how organized and mannerable and courteous they were. I said, “This is where I want to be.” These are the kind of people I want to be a part of.
They were progressive. They had an economic program. They put importance on education. One of the things that the Honorable Elijah Muhammad and his message stressed was “that you will not be equal to the white man until you have equal education.” It was practical things like that. Although other African Americans were saying similar things, it was the emphasis on self-reliance, Do For Self, that attracted me to the Nation of Islam at that time. The Honorable Elijah Muhammad asked the African American community “Why ask another people to do for you what you can do for yourself?”
AbdulMallickAjani, whocurrentlyworksata majorinsurancecompany insuburbanNorthbrook, discussedhisjourneys fromEastPakistanto WestPakistanandthento Chicago.Sincehisarrival inChicago,hehasbeen associatedwithhisreligious communitycenter,volunteeringtheresince1972. Overtheyears,hehashad manyrolesandcurrently servesasamediator.
Afterthe1971civilwar,myfamilyandImigratedto WestPakistan[moderndayPakistan]andstarted workingthere[aftermovingfromEastPakistan, moderndayBangladesh].Thatperiodwasabitdifficult. Iwouldgotoschoolintheeveningandworkduringthe daytime.Itwasabigadjustmentfromthelifethatwe hadinEastPakistan.InWestPakistan,also,whileIwas there,theschooling,attimes,wasirregular.Ihadtalked withsomeofmyfriendswhohadcometotheUnited StatesandtoChicago...
Then,myfamilydecidedthatitmaynotbeabadidea formetocomeovertotheUnitedStates,particularlyto Chicago[in1972].Theonlyreasonofmycomingto
ChicagowasIhadthreeorfourfriendsherewhohad comeoveraboutsixmonthsbeforeIdid.AndIdidnot knowanyoneelseanywherebesidesChicago.Thetalkin myfamily,then,wasthatifIknewsomebodyinthe UnitedStates,andtheyareinChicago,itwillhelpme settleabiteasierthanifIwenttoaplacewhereIdidnot knowanyone.Myparentsandmyothersiblingsstayed in[West]Pakistanforawhilebeforetheyalsomovedto theUnitedStates.
KhalilRasheed has livedthroughoutthecity, includingintheNorthSide Uptownneighborhoodwhere heinteractedwithdiverse Muslimcommunities. He’scurrentlyagraduate studentatNortheastern IllinoisUniversitystudying politicalscienceandinternationalrelations.
IalwaysquestionedthingswhenIwasyoung.And thosequestionsreallydrovemetoresearchand inquiremoreaboutGodandspirituality.Iaccepted Islamofficially,wesaytake shahada [theIslamicprofessionoffaith],inthesummerof’95.Istartedresearching andstudyingthereligionprobablyataboutage11[in 1992],soIgotintroducedtoit,ifyouwill,through MalcolmXandhisautobiography.IrememberIwasat McCorkle[ElementarySchoolontheSouthSide],and thereweren’tenoughbookstogoaround.
Andsomymom,becauseIwasslackingonsome homework,foughtformetohaveaccesstothebooksin mysocialstudiesclass,andMalcolmXwasoneofthem. SoIhadtodoabookreport.Atthesametime,the [MalcolmX]moviecameout[in1992].AndIdidn’tget achancetoseethemovieuntillater.ButIwasintroducedtoanotherfaithoutsideofthereligionof Christianity.Istartedopeningupmyeyesandjusttrying tograbbooks—andanything.Iresearchedsome Buddhism,Islam,Christianity,youknow,different aspectsofdifferentspiritualties.Iwasalreadykindof callingmyselfMuslim—bytheageof11or12.Ihad stoppedeatingporkandgottenaccustomedtosomeof thetraditionsandpractices.
Theword“Islam”meanstosubmitor surrender to Allah (God) in Arabic, which is the language of the Muslim holy book, the Quran. For Muslims, this takes many forms, from worship and prayer to living their faith in their daily lives. Understanding how Muslim Chicagoans live their faith is key to seeing their places in Chicago’s history.
JumanaAl-Qawasmi foundedWataninsouthwest suburbanOrlandPark. WatanisaPalestine-inspired artsshopthatprovidesa spaceforPalestiniansto exploretheirculturaland intellectualheritage.Inthis excerpt,shementions Ramadan,whichisthe ninthmonthoftheHijri (Islamiclunar)calendar.Duringthismonth,theQuranwas firstrevealedtoMuhammad,Allah’s[God’s]prophet.Itis
the holiest month of the year in which Muslims observe a daily fast from sunrise to sunset
Photograph by Sadaf Syed Photography
Insteadofcontinuingwhatmasscultureencouragesin us, materialism, consumerism, capitalism, every other -ism, how I think of Islam [is] there are these vices out there. They exist. What is in your will that is trained by Ramadan, trained by your religion that you can hold yourself back and go, “No I don’t need that.”
To be that same thing where I see that Muslim identity portrayed through that, where I see that I can make money so easily doing whatever I want to do and creating whatever art I want to. Is that ethical, like is that Halal? Haram? I think more about Halal and Haram in terms of capitalism, racism, whatever it is. That’s what I’m more interested in.
YusefTrice ownsandoperatesDawahOilPalaceon thecity’sWestSide.Whennaminghisbusiness,Trice tookinspirationfromMasjid[Mosque]Dawah,alongstandingWestSidemosque.Herehedescribesthesense ofcommunityatMasjidDawahandanswersthequestion: Whatdoesyourfaithmeantoyou?Everyoralhistory interviewconcludedwiththisquestion.
WhenIgotthere[MasjidDawah],itwasafeeling ofgenuinewarmthandbrotherhood.Youcould gettheassistance,thehelp,thatyouneeded. MasjidDawahhasalwaysbeenpivotal,Ibelieve,in helpingpeopletoreconstructtheirlivesandprovidingthe helpthatisneeded....Whatdoesthefaithmeantome? Itisthevery—Ithinkwithoutit—wow—Iwouldn’teven behere.MyfaithisthereasonwhyI’msittingheretoday.
Based in Chicago, HodaKatebi isanIranianAmericanwriter,abolitionist organizer,and“creative educator.”Hereshe responded to the Teen Historians’ question: What does your faith mean to you?
likethisquestion.My faithiscentraltomy senseofselfaswellas myrelationshiptotheworldandthepeoplewithinit. Andofcoursethathaschangedovertime,asIcontinue tolearnandgrow.Today,Islam—andparticularlywithina ShiaMuslimlens—isthecornerstoneofwhatguidesme throughouttheremainderofmyshorttimehereonEarth.
Forme,Islamisablueprintthatprovidesanoutline ofvalues—suchasadeepcommitmenttofightingfor justiceandpracticingdivinemercyandcompassion,as wellasthephysicalpracticesanddisciplines,suchas prayingfivetimesadayorfastingduringRamadanthat helpscultivateandnourishourlives,holistically.
NativeChicagoan ConstanceShabazz discussedthetransformative powerofreading The Autobiographyof MalcolmX inthe1960s. In2020,Shabazzfounded theSalaamCommunity WellnessCenterinthe Woodlawncommunity ontheSouthSide.
Oneday,mydadcameuptome,andhehandsme thisbook.Hesaid,“Ithinkyoumightwantto readthis”orsomethingalongthatline.I’m thinking,“Whatisthis?”Thebookwas TheAutobiography ofMalcolmX.Ijustsaid,“Okay.”
Bythen,IhadstartedreadingbooksaboutAfrican history,AfricanAmericanhistory.Buttogetthatone fromhimIwasthinking,“Okay,”neveranydiscussion, during,after,noquestionaboutit.Ijustfeellikeitwasa signfromGod,“Readthisbook.”
WhenIreadit,thethingthatgotmewasnotthetheologyoftheNationofIslam.Ikindofknewthatalready. ButwhatgotmewasMalcolm’stransformation— humantransformationstory.Andthat’swhereIwas, becauseIwaslookingtogotothatnextstep,measa humanbeing.
IHalilDemir wasbornintoaKurdishfamilyinsoutheasternTurkey.HefoundedtheZakatFoundationof America,locatedinsouthwestsuburbanBridgeview,in 2001.
Isawmyselfhavingalotofquestions.Islamwas,for me,answeringthesequestions.Religionwasaquestionforme.Iwaslookingforequality,soIslamsays thereisnodifferencesbetweenwhiteorBlack,you know,betweenwealthyorpoor,betweenTurkandKurd, orArabsandPersians,soforthandsoon...
IfindoutthatIslamaddressestheraceissue,social justiceissue—IfindoutthatIslamaddressesthese issues.Youcannotoppresspeople,andyoudon’twant tobeoppressed,sodenyorrejectanythingtotalitarianor oppressinganyindividualinanyaspectoftheirlives.So Islamdeniedallthese.Islamgivesfreedom.Thereligion gavethefullfreedomforhumanbeings.BefreeasGod hascreatedyou.
OlaseniQuadriShehu isa QuranicandArabicteacher livinginthesouthsuburbs. HehasanextensiveeducationinIslamic,Arabic, andreligiousstudiesinhis homelandNigeria,where hewasborninthecityof Ibadan.HecametoChicago inthe2000s.Amongmany othertopics,hediscussedhis Quranicteachingphilosophy.
ThewayIbreakdowntheQuranpeoplesay,“Ah,it’s verysimple.”Don’tchasepeople.Don’tmakeittoo hard.“Ah,it’ssohard.”No,nothinglikethat.The bookofGodmustbesomethingthatchildrencan understand.It’snotsomethingthatisdifficult.Don’t touchit,don’ttouchit,no,no,no.Don’tmakeitsupervisedlikethat.
You have to respect the book of God—respect it. But don’t make people be afraid or scare them. Even if they are scared, talk to them. It’s not scary. Teach a Christian the Quran. Teach them Quran. You are not converting them.
CraigTurner (Brother Hasan)fromMasjid [Mosque]Al-Ihsanin Bronzevilleonthecity’s SouthSidedescribesthe diversityofthemosque’s FridayJumu’ahservices.
ehaveabeautiful community[Masjid Al-Ihsan],verydiverse.WhenIsaycommunity,Idon’tmeaninaconventionalsense—localitydefinedbydemographicsorarea.I lookatitinabroadersense.Theword,“community,” comeinunity.Thosewhocometothemasjidareunited inthisworshipofoneGod.Wehaveoneofthemost diversecommunitiesthatyouwillfind,notjustinthe cityofChicagobutthroughouttheUnitedStatesof America.
At our Friday Jumu’ah services, you have South Asians. You have the Arabs. You have the African immigrants. You have the African American converts. You have the Hispanic converts. It is just beautiful. Our community, our Jumu’ah, defines how Allah(God) loves wonderousvariety.
PeterT.AlteristheMuseum’schiefhistoriananddirectorofthe StudsTerkelCenterforOralHistory.HeledtheChicagoMuslim OralHistoryProjectandcuratedtheexhibition, American Medina:StoriesofMuslimChicago.
WADDITIONALRESOURCES | Watchthefive-minute introductoryvideototheexhibition AmericanMedina:Storiesof MuslimChicago atbit.ly/medinavideo.ReadthecurrentlyavailabletranscriptsfromtheChicagoMuslimOralHistoryProject atbit.ly /medinatranscripts.VisittheChicagoHistory Museum’sSoundCloudpagetohearinterviewsandclipsfrom a selection of the narrators at https://soundcloud.com/chicago museum/sets/american-medina.
ILLUSTRATIONS | Allimagesofcourtesyofnarratorsor Chicago History Museum staff unless otherwise noted. Page 17 (bottom right), ST-19031786-0025, Chicago Sun-Times collection, CHM.
Explorewomen’sactivisminChicagotosecuretherighttovote—andbeyond.
OnFebruary12,1869,NaomiTalberttookthe platformbeforeapackedassemblyat Chicago’sLibraryHall,locatedatthecorner ofLaSalleandRandolphStreets,andmadea stirringappealfortherighttovote.Claimingtospeakon behalfoffellowBlackwomenofChicagoandIllinois,she expressedhopethatopponentsof“universalsuffrage” withoutbarriersofraceorsexwouldsoon“fleeaschaff beforethewind.”“OurGodiswithusandforus,and willhearthecallofwoman,”Talbertproclaimed,“andher rightswillbegranted,andshewillbepermittedtovote.”1
Talbert’sremarksatthetwo-daywomen’srightsconventioncameatapivotalmomentinthenation’shistory whencitizenshipandvotingrightswerebeingdebated anddefinedduringthetumultuousperiodaftertheCivil War.ChicagoansgatheredatLibraryHallasCongressconsideredpassageoftheFifteenthAmendmenttobarstates fromdenyingvotingrightsbasedonrace.Alreadythe FourteenthAmendmenthadextendedcitizenshipto AfricanAmericansandpromisedequalprotectionunder thelaw.ForAfricanAmericans,forgingfreedominthisera requirednotonlytheendofenslavement,butalsoaccess toeducationandeconomicopportunity,civilrights,politicalparticipation,andprotectionfromracialviolence. Some,suchaswhiteEasternsuffragistsSusanB.Anthony andElizabethCadyStanton,whohadtraveledtoChicago toattendtheLibraryHallandothermidwesternconventions,criticizedthependingamendmentforfailingto expandthevotetowomen.Butmanyotherssawan immediateneedtosecurethevoteforAfricanAmerican meninordertosafeguardfreedomforformerlyenslaved peopleintheSouth.AlthoughtheFifteenthAmendment heldnopromiseofenfranchisingwomen,aprimarygoal ofthosegatheredatLibraryHallwastocraftastrategyfor ensuringthatwomen’srights,includingsuffrage,wouldbe includedinanewstateconstitution,plansforwhichhad beenannouncedonlymonthsearlier.
IftheLibraryHallmeetingprovidesaglimpseofa momentthatgaveparticipantshopeforchange,italso
AsRosalynTerborg-Penn pointedoutinherseminal work, AfricanAmerican Women in the Struggle for the Vote, 1850-1920 , which recovered the voices of Black suffragists, the perspectives and experiences of Black activist women were left out of many early accounts by white authors. Reporting on the Library Hall proceedings in their newspaper, The Revolution, Anthony and Stanton acknowledged Naomi Talbert Anderson’s vocal support for universal suffrage, but they did not identify her by name. Instead, her remarks appeared under the headline: “A Colored Woman’s Voice.”
providesinsightintothemesthatcharacterizedthelong strugglebyChicagoareawomentosecuretherightto vote.Likesupportersofwomen’ssuffrageelsewhere, manyattheChicagogatheringtookpartinmovements forabolitionandtemperance.Likewise,suffragewasnota singlegoal,butratheranissueboundupinbroaderaspirationsandactivismshapedbythelivedexperiencesand circumstancesofwomenwhosoughtthevote.Aswas alsothecaseinthelargerstruggle,thosewhocame togetheratLibraryHalladvancedavarietyofarguments forwomen’ssuffrage.Whitewomenwhoorganizedthe conventionsuchasMaryLivermoreandMyraBradwell wereintentonchallengingthelawsandcustomsthat keptthemsubordinatedtomen.Talbert’ssuffrageactivism emergedfromherunderstanding,groundedinlivedexperience,thatracialoppression,gender,andeconomic statuswereintertwined.Followingtheconvention,Talbert reiteratedherviewsinalettertothe ChicagoTribune There,shecounteredgenderedantisuffragearguments
that voting imperiled femininity by alluding to far graver threats and abuses historically endured by Black women. She acknowledged the economic conditions of Black women’s lives and the necessity of Black women’s work. She tied women’s suffrage to racial advancement and calleduponBlackmenforsupport,concluding,“ifyou want to overcome prejudice, you must undertake the broad platform of universal suffrage.”2
Asinthebroadermovement,issuesofracepermeated discussionsduringtheLibraryHallconvention.After decadesfightingforwomen’srights,StantongrewfrustratedthattheFifteenthAmendmentwouldenfranchise Blackmenaheadofwhitewomen.Inhereffortsto garnersupportforherviews,sheadvancedracistargumentsthatquestionedthefitnessofAfricanAmerican andimmigrantmentovote.Sheimploredthegathering to“thinkofPatrickandSambo,andHansandYung Tung...whocannotreadtheDeclarationof Independence...makinglawsfor...SusanB. Anthony.”StantonandAnthonyalsoproposedaresolutionthatintheprocessofdenouncing“manhoodsuffrage”alsoinvokedthespecterofBlackmen’ssexual
predation of white women, should the former be empowered while women were left without the ballot. 3
ThemenandwomengatheredinChicagorefusedto endorsethisresolution.ButStantonwouldcontinueto repeatthesestatementsonceCongresspassedthe Fifteenth Amendment later that month and the campaign for ratification got underway.
These post-Civil War discussions of suffrage also occurred as immigration, US expansion, and ideas of racial hierarchy fueled debates over fitness for citizenship and participation in democracy. Only a week before the Library Hall convention, the Chicago-based labor weekly The Workingman’s Advocate warned of legions of Chinese workers on the west coast and called upon government to “forbid another [Chinese worker] to set foot upon our shores.” 4 Inthe1870s,racisttropesaboutChinese laborersundercuttingwhiteworkingmen’swagesfueled violentattacksagainstChinesecommunitiesandpassage oftheChineseExclusionActin1882.Thelaw,which barredimmigrationandnaturalizedcitizenship,was eventuallyextendedtoincludeallAsianimmigrants. Duringthesesameyears,settlerscontinuedtostream
Evenasthewomen’srightsconventiontookplaceatLibraryHall,asplintergroupledbyDeliaWatermanandCynthiaLeonardofthe
InChicago,SusanB.Anthony(left)andElizabethCadyStanton criticized the Fifteenth Amendment pending passage by Congress for failing to include women. In May, they severed from longtime abolitionist allies. That split resulted in the formation of two separate women’s suffrage organizations, which remained apart until 1890. Stanton and Anthony formed the National Woman Suffrage Association in 1869 and continued working for a federal women’s suffrage amendment.
intotheTrans-Mississippiwest,spurredbyfederalpoliciestopromotelandownership,railroads,andcommercialdevelopment.CommissionerofIndianAffairs FrancesWalkerdescribedtheimpactofthismovement onNativepeoplesinhis1872report:“Thewestward courseofpopulationisneithertobedeniednordelayed forthesakeofalltheIndiansthatevercalledthis countrytheirhome.Theymusteitheryieldorperish.”5 Overthenexttwodecades,asIndigenouspeoples resistedthisencroachment,theUSwagedwaragainst themwhileundertakingpoliciesaimedatdispossessing Nativepeoplesoftheirlandsanderadicatingtheirways oflife,includingconferringUScitizenshipuponthose whogaveuptribalpractices.
Thelongstruggleforwomen’ssuffragewouldplayout amidcontestationoverboundariesofinclusionand exclusionintothenextcentury.InChicago,women’s struggleforvotingrightswasshapedbylocalindividuals andcircumstanceswhilealsoconnectedtobroader forcesanddevelopmentsnationwide.Thecityandits inhabitantsplayedactiverolesbothintheachievement oflocalvictoriesandininfluencingthecourseofalarger movementthatresultedintheadditionofthe NineteenthAmendmenttotheUSConstitutionin1920, whichprohibitedstatesfromdenyingthevote“on accountofsex.”
OnSunday,October19,1879, NativeAmericanactivistSusette LaFlescheorInshata-Theumba (Omaha),informedtheaudiencegatheredatChicago’s SecondPresbyterianChurch (Twenty-SecondandMichigan) abouttheUSgovernment’s mistreatmentofthePonca people.Forciblyrelocatedto “IndianTerritory,”agroupled byStandingBear,aPonca chief,waslaterimprisonedfortryingtoreturntotheirancestral homelandinNebraska.StandingBearsuccessfullychallengedthis imprisonmentincourt,withLaFlescheinterpretingonhisbehalf. Afterward,shetraveledthecountryadvocatingforNativeAmerican rights,includinglandrights,citizenship,andequalrights.
InChicago,participantsoftheLibraryHallconvention passedresolutionsinfavorofequaleducationand employmentopportunitiesforwomenandremovalof legalbarrierstowomen’sfullparticipationin“socialcivil, andpoliticallife.”Theyalsocommitted“tomakeaunited efforttohavethenewconstitutionforthestateofIllinois soframedthatnodistinctionshallbemadeamongcitizensintheexerciseofsuffrageonaccountofrace,color, sex,nativity,property,education,orcreed.”6 Taskedwith lobbyingforthesegoalsweremembersoftheneworganizationthatemergedfromtheLibraryHallmeeting,the IllinoisWomanSuffrageAssociation(IWSA),laterknown astheIllinoisEqualSuffrageAssociation(IESA).Chicago womenplayedmajorrolesinthisgroup,whichbattled forwomen’ssuffrageuntil1920.
Althoughtheprospectofanewstateconstitution inspiredoptimism,theoutcomeproveddisappointing. Electeddelegates—eighty-fivemenfromaroundthe state—convenedtodraftthenewdocumenton December13,1869.ByApril,theywerereadytodecide onthematterofvotingrights.Bythen,theFifteenth AmendmenthadbeenaddedtotheUSConstitution,but somedelegatesneverthelessusedtheoccasiontoexpress oppositiontoitsenfranchisementofBlackmenandits potentialtoextendvotingrightstoChineseimmigrants. Women’ssuffragereceivedlittlebacking,andindeed muchderision,fromdelegates.Inanerawhenahusband’svotewaswidelybelievedtoadequatelyrepresent theinterestsofhiswifeandchildren,onedelegateinterrupteddebatesbyjestingthatnationallyprominentsuffragistAnnaDickinsonlackedpoliticalrepresentation simplybecausenomanwouldmarryher.Laughterfollowed.Somedelegatesconsideredlimitedsuffrage—permittingproperty-holdingwomentovote.Onesupporter reasonedthatfewcouldarguewiththisprinciple. Furthermore,ratherthanemboldeningsuffragists,as
some feared, such a measure would disarm them, taking away “a great deal of the thunder of the women who are traveling about the country and crying out for woman suffrage.” Opponents of women’s suffrage claimed to have women’s best interests in mind. One such delegate voicedthewidelyexpressedviewthattheballotwould “degrade” women and drag them “down to the lower level of the politician.” The delegates decided to put the question of women’s suffrage to a popular vote, a move that would have let Illinois’s male voters decide. Then, after hearing from a woman who lobbied against suffrage, they reversed themselves, closing the door to this possibility for women’s enfranchisement.7
Althoughitsparticipantswereunabletoachievethe immediategoalofastateconstitutionalguaranteeof equalsuffrage,the1869LibertyHallconventionspurred furtherorganizingandactivism.Womencontinuedto lobbylawmakers,gotocourt,organizetoaidtheircommunities,andraisetheirvoicestodemandjustice.A lookatseveralwomeninvolvedinChicago’spost-Civil Warsuffrageactivitiesrevealshowtheirsupportfor women’svotingrightswaspartofalifelongtrajectoryof agitationandactivism.
Talbert continued to write, speak, and advocate for equal rights and racial justice. Later that year, she lectured throughout Illinois, Indiana, and Ohio, eventually moving to Dayton, where in April 1870, she addressed another mass meeting of suffragists. During the 1870s, theTalbertfamilylivedinseveralOhiocities,Talbert working as a hairdresser and public schoolteacher to support her children and ailing spouse, who died in 1877. In 1881, she married Lewis Anderson. They moved to Wichita, Kansas, in 1884, where the now-Mrs. Naomi Anderson organized an orphanage for Black children excluded from the city’s whites-only children’s home. She continued to advocate for temperance as a member of the Woman’s Christian Temperance Union (WCTU) as well as women’s rights, which she deemed essential for protecting Black women experiencing racial prejudice and violence not only in the South but throughout the United States. In the 1890s, she moved to Sacramento, where she again joined the suffrage fight. In California, she lectured widely in support of a state constitutional amendment to enfranchise women, linking Black women’s possession of the ballot to the prospect of eliminating discriminatory state laws and uplifting Black women. Anderson drew “immense crowds” in churches and meeting halls as she toured the state. Throughout her campaigns as a paid lecturer, she called for “justice and . . . a voice in making the law.”8
LikeNaomiTalbertAnderson,MaryLivermore,who organizedandpresidedovertheLibraryHallconvention, remainedinChicagoonlyashortwhilelonger,butcontinuedtoadvocateforwomen’srights.Withwomen excludedfromthepoliticalworld,shebelieved,“alarge portionofthenation’sworkwasbadlydone,ornotdone atall.” 9 Livermorehadcometothisrealizationwhile workingfortheUSSanitaryCommission,whichhandled reliefeffortsduringtheCivilWar.LivermoretouredhospitalsandencampmentstoassessandpublicizeconditionsandorganizedthesuccessfulGreatNorthwestern SanitaryFair,whichraisedmoneyfortheUnioncause. Herwartimeworkmadecleartohertheextenttowhich women’stalentsandenergywerewastedduetowomen’s exclusionfromfullparticipationinpubliclife.Afterthe war,shebecameastaunchadvocateforwomen’srights, includingsuffrage.
LivermorehadmovedtoChicagoin1857withher husband,UniversalistministerDanielLivermore,with whomsheeditedthe NewCovenant,anewspaperthrough whichtheypromotedreligious,antislavery,andtemperanceviews.Electedpresidentofthenew,predominantly whiteIllinoisWoman'sSuffrageAssociation,Livermore alsostartedanothernewspaper, TheAgitator.Itsmotto: “HealthyAgitationprecedesalltruereform....”Male friendssuggestedcallingthisnewspaper“TheLily”or someother“mild”namefitforawoman’spublication.
Livermore insisted on the “The Agitator,” which conveyed fierce determination to stir people up and create change. In 1870, Livermore moved to Boston and merged her paper with The Woman’s Journal , published by the American Woman Suffrage Association. She maintained tiestoareformnetworkforgedduringherwartimework and years in Chicago, supporting movements for women’s rights and temperance. Livermore believed education should prepare girls for independence. That way, a woman would not have to marry out of financial need. She shared these views on the lecture circuit in a talk titled “What Shall We Do With Our Daughters?” Although reportedly informing those gathered at Library Hall that she was “not very good at talking,” Livermore became an admired and frequent public speaker, an agitator who kept issues of women’s rights and other reforms before public audiences for the rest of her life.10
MaryJaneRichardsonJones’spost-CivilWarsuffrage activitywasprecededbytwodecadesofinvolvementin antislaveryandcivilrightsorganizingandactivismin Chicago.WhensheandherhusbandJohnJonesmoved toChicagowiththeirdaughterin1845,theycarriedwith themcertificatesoffreedomissuedmonthsearlierbythe MadisonCountycircuitcourt.AllfreeAfricanAmericans residinginIllinoiswererequiredtopostbondandcarry thesedocumentsunderthestate’sracistBlackLaws, whichalsoprohibitedAfricanAmericansfromvoting,testifyingincourt,orservinginthemilitia.InChicago,the Jonesesprosperedandbecameprominentmembersof thecity’sBlackcommunity.
TheJoneshomeservedasanabolitionistmeeting placeaswellasanUndergroundRailroadsafehouse. There,MaryJonestookgreatrisksbyhousingand feedingthoseseekingfreedomfromenslavement. PassageoftheFugitiveSlaveActin1850,whichrequired aclaimantonlytoassertinanaffidavitthatsomeonewas a“fugitive,”posedathreattofreedomseekersandfree Blackpeoplealike.WithaboutthreehundredBlack Chicagoans,MaryJonesandherhusbandtookpartina massmeetingatQuinnChapelAMEChurchtocoordinatearesponse.Formallydenouncingthelaw,they pledgedtoresist,organizingpatrolstokeepwatchfor bountyhunterslookingtoenslaveAfricanAmericans. Jonesalsoassistedherhusband’sdecades-longcampaign toendIllinois’sraciallyrestrictiveBlackCodes,finally repealedin1865.DuringtheCivilWar,Jonesandother womeninChicago’stightlyknitBlackcommunityorganizedreliefeffortsonbehalfofBlacksoldiers’familiesas wellasformerlyenslavedpeopleintheSouth.11 Afterthe war,shejoinedChicagowomeninorganizingforsuffrage andlaterparticipatedinthecity’sBlackwomen’sclub movement.Jones’ssupportforwomen’ssuffragewas onlyonefacetofalifelongcommitmenttoBlack freedomandequalrights.
Myra Bradwell announced the women’s rights convention in her weekly newspaper, Chicago Legal News , and later reported on its proceedings. As a married woman, Bradwell needed special permission from Illinois lawmakers in 1868 to publish the successful journal,whichkeptreadersinformedonlegalandbusiness matters. As corresponding secretary of the newly formed IWSA, Bradwell’s agitation for suffrage was entwined with her efforts to change laws under which a woman’s legal identity was absorbed into her husband’s upon marriage. She challenged gender stereotypes as well as legal barriers to women’s economic opportunity and independence.
Within weeks of the convention, Bradwell traveled to Springfield as part of a group appointed to lobby for laws granting married women rights to their earnings, property, and equal custody of their children. Bradwell drafted a bill granting married women control of their earnings, which became law in April 1869. Laws establishing further property and custody rights followed within a few years. 12 Insummer1869,havingstudied lawunderherhusband’smentorshiptoassistwithhis legalpractice,sheappliedtotheIllinoisSupremeCourt foradmissiontothebar.Afewmonthslater,she receivedanoticeofdenial.Thereason:asamarried woman,shewasnotpermittedtoenterintocontracts withorforherclients,aconditionthatleftherunableto practicelaw.Bradwellcraftedawell-reasonedchallenge tothisdecision,notingthatstatestatutesdidnotexplicitlyprohibitwomenfromthelegalprofession.In response,thecourtinformedherthatthemanyhistoricalrestrictionsonwomen’srightsmadeclearthat Illinoislawmakersneverintendedforanywoman,marriedornot,topracticelaw.
Dismayedbutdetermined,Bradwelllaunchedthefirst sexdiscriminationcaseheardbytheUSSupremeCourt. Forthenextthreeyears,sheupdatedreadersonhercase, Bradwellv.Illinois,whichessentiallyposedthisquestion: Didawomanhavearighttopursueherchosenoccupation?ThecourtgaveitsunfavorablerulinginApril1873. Onejustice,JosephP.Bradley,drewonidealizedviewsof whitewomanhoodtoclaim,“Thenaturalandproper timidityanddelicacywhichbelongstothefemalesexevidentlyunfitsitformanyoftheoccupationsofcivillife.” Inthemeantime,womenhadgainedtherighttopractice lawinIllinois,throughan1872statelawBradwellhelped draftgrantingequalrightstoemploymentinmanyoccupations.HavinglostherSupremeCourtcase,however, Bradwellfocusedherenergiesonpublishingher acclaimednewspaperuntilherdeathin1894.When,in March1890,theIllinoisSupremeCourtdecidedtogrant heralicensetopracticelawbasedonherinitialapplication,Bradwellnotedtheoccasioninhernewspaperbut declinedtoaccepttheoffer.13
CatharineVanValkenburgWaiteservedassecond presidentofIWSAafterMaryLivermore’sdepartureand oversawthegroup’slegislativeworkuntil1890.On October3,1871,Waiteandexecutivecommitteemembersmetatthegroup’sheadquartersat145Madison StreettodiscusstheupcomingNovemberelection.With women’svotingrightsleftoutofthestate’snewconstitution,theypreparedtoembarkonanewpathtosuffrage.Fivedayslater,theChicagofiredestroyedthe officesoftheassociation,whichwouldnotmeetagain formonths.Undeterred,Waite,alongwithoneofher daughters,appearedbeforetheBoardofRegistryinHyde ParkonOctober31andaskedtobeaddedtothelistof registeredvoters.Whentheywererefused,Waitetook themattertocourt—asplanned.14
LikeBradwellandotherwhitesuffragists,Catharine Waite’ssuffrageactivismwasoneaspectofherbroader engagementwithpubliclifeandcommitmenttowomen’s rights.Inthe1850s,shewroteandlecturedonequal rightsthroughoutIllinoiswithhusbandCharles BurlingameWaite.RefusedadmissiontoRushMedical Collegein1866,sheranagirl’sschoolinHydeParkand laterworkedasaneditorandpublisher.In1886,Waite graduatedfromUnionCollegeofLawandafterwardprovidedprobonolegalservicesforwomenunabletopay
MarcaBristo,aninternationallyrecognizedforceinthedisabilitycommunity,workedtirelesslytopromotedisabilityrightsandtodrive sweeping social reforms that changed Chicago and the nation. As the founding CEO of Chicago-based Access Living, a disability service and advocacy center for people with disabilities, run and led by people with disabilities, Bristo was committed to building a more inclusive society for disabled people to live fully-engaged, self-directed lives. Access Living continues this work today. In the 1980s, Access Living, Chicago ADAPT, and other demonstrators launched a campaign for accessible transportation, petitioning the Chicago Transit Authority (CTA) for lifts on public buses. Their activism and resulting lawsuit led to the improved accessibility of Chicago’s public transit, and created a blueprint for accessible transit systems across the country. Bristo also helped author the landmark 1990 Americans with Disabilities Act, and fought for its passage.
foralawyer.Shealsoeditedandpublished ChicagoLaw Times ,aquarterlyjournalthatincludedmanyarticles advocatinglegalreformstosecurewomen’srights.15
Between1868and1872,hundredsofwomen, includingWaiteandherdaughter,triedtoregisterand vote.AlthoughtheFourteenthAmendmentdefined votersas“male,”italsopromisedprotectionfromlaws thattookawaythe“privilegesandimmunities”ofcitizenship.Unsurewhetherthisnewamendmentmade womenvoters,somelocalpollingofficialspermitted themtocastballots.InotherplacessuchasHydePark (notyetpartofChicago),womenwerenotallowedto register.Elsewhere,registeredwomenwereturnedaway atthepolls.Would-bewomenvotersanticipatedthese outcomesaspartofthe“newdeparture”strategy.Ifpreventedfromvoting,theirnextstepwastochallengethe decisionincourt.16
InChicago,aJanuary13,1872, Tribune headline informedsuffragistsofthedisappointingoutcomeof Waite’scase:“Ladies,YouCan’tVote.”CookCounty SuperiorCourtJudgeJamesonruledthatvotingwasnot a“natural”rightprotectedbytheConstitution.TheUS SupremeCourtwouldalsoreachthisconclusion, puttinganendtothisstrategy.AfterVirginiaMinorwas barredfromvotinginMissouri,thecourtruledin Minor
vs. Happersett (1875) that voting was not a right of citizenship protected by the federal government. That decision allowed states to keep women from voting . It also set precedent for later decisions that permitted discriminatory laws that restricted voting for poor people, immigrants,andpeopleofcolor. 17
Withanotherpossibleavenuetosuffrageblocked, Chicago’sactivistwomencontinuedtoagitateandorganize.Inthedecadesthatfollowed,theypressedforlocal lawstoenfranchisewomen,maintainedtieswithsuffragistsoutsidethestate,hostedmeetingsofregionaland nationalsuffragegroups,andjoinedeffortstowinsupportforafederalamendment.Theirinvolvementinthe decadesaroundtheturnofthecenturyinarangeof organizationsaddressingamultitudeofissueswould bringthemtogethertogainsubstantialvotingrights.
AbolitionistandactivistfortherightsofBlackpeopleandwomen, Sojourner Truth was among the hundreds of women who voted between 1868 and 1872.
Duringsixdecadesoflegalpractice,PearlM.Hartcombatted injustice, defended civil liberties, and fought for the rights of marginalized people. After graduating from law school in 1914, Hart served as a public defender in the 1920s and 1930s for children and women in Cook County’s juvenile and women’s courts. During the mid-century anti-Communist Red Scare, Hart appeared on behalf of many individuals called before the House Un-American Activities Committee. Hart also defended LGBTQ people victimized by police entrapment and harassment and was a founder in 1965 of the Mattachine Society of Chicago, an early LGBTQ-rights group. Hart served as the group’s legal counsel until her death in 1975 and was remembered as the “Guardian Angel of Chicago’s gay community.”
OnJuly1,1913,spectatorslinedChicago’s sidewalkstowatchmorethanahundred automobiles,yellowandwhitebannersand streamersfluttering,maketheirwayupand down Michigan Boulevard (now Avenue) in a late afternoon victory procession. The jubilant motorists were celebrating the Presidential and Municipal Voting Act, signed into law earlier that week by Governor Edward F. Dunne. The law granted nearly full suffrage, empowering Illinois women to vote for local offices and in presidential elections. Chicago area women led the way to this substantial victory. The hundreds of women riding in the auto parade represented the many organizations that campaigned for the law, including suffrage groups such as the IESA, the Chicago Political Equality League, and the Alpha Suffrage Club, the state’s first Black women’s suffrage association; working women’s organizations, including the Chicago Women’s Trade Union League (WTUL) and Chicago Teacher’s Federation; club women and reformers from the Chicago Woman’s Club and Women’s City Club; and Progressive Party and Socialist Party supporters.
During the decades before Congress passed the Nineteenth Amendment, Chicago women of different backgrounds pursued varied and sometimes overlapping goals—working for urban and social reforms, economic and political empowerment, and racial equality. Those issues and efforts also propelled many to press for suffrage, forming tenuous alliances and building momentum toward full enfranchisement. Viewing the ballot as an expression of political will and a tool to achieve larger goals, Chicago women followed many paths to suffrage, becoming voters one campaign and one law at a time.
As the experiences of Naomi Talbert Anderson and Mary Jones attest, Black women navigating a world built on both racial and gender oppression did not have the luxury of battling only for women’s rights. Their longtime activism reached new heights in the early 1890s with the creation of a network of women’s clubs devoted to social action. Many of the women involved in these clubs also fought for women’s right to vote. Their activism and support for suffrage was rooted in the struggle for Black freedom and connected to such issues as widespread racial discrimination, a racist criminal justice system, exclusion from white institutions, and violent attacks on Black men and women intended to maintain white supremacy. Chicago women played leadership roles in this national movement. As the city’s Black community continued to grow, spurred by migration from the South, they organized to meet its needs while addressing racial inequities both within the city and the nation.
Askilledpublicspeaker,journalist,andsuffragist, Chicago’sFannieBarrierWilliamsworkedtoassistBlack Chicagoansexcludedfromthecity’swhiteinstitutions whileconnectinglocaleffortstoanationalmovementof Blackactivistwomen.Forexample,racialdiscrimination inthecity’shospitalspreventedBlackpatientsfrom accessingadequatehealthcare.BarrierWilliamsstrongly advocatedforandraisedfundstocreateProvident Hospital,aninterracialfacilitycontrolledbyAfrican Americans,whichalsoprovidedtrainingandemploymentforBlacknursesexcludedfromwhitenursing schools.BarrierWilliamsalsoservedasvicepresidentof theIllinoisWomen’sAlliance,aninterracialcoalitionof women’sgroupsformedin1888thatfocusedonthe wellbeingoftheindustrializingcity’sworkingwomen andchildren.
Throughherworkwiththealliance,BarrierWilliams forgedcooperativebondswitheliteBlackandwhite reformerstowardsharedgoals.ButBarrierWilliamsalso experiencedracialexclusion.Whenwhitesupporters nominatedherformembershipintheChicagoWoman’s Club(CWC)inNovember1894,themovestirredcontroversyamongtheall-whitegroup,whichinitially rejectedBarrierWilliams’sbidformembership.The matterembroiledtheclubformorethanayearuntilit passedaresolutionaffirmingthatnoracialqualifications formembershipexisted.BarrierWilliamswasadmitted.
The scenario played out again in 1912 when, amid fervent organizing for citywide suffrage measures, Barrier Williams, together with Black clubwomen Elizabeth Lindsay Davis and Mrs. George C. Hall, applied for membership in the Chicago Political Equality League (CPEL),anoutgrowthoftheCWCorganizedin1894to educate women on politics and advance women’s rights. By the 1910s, the CPEL stood at the forefront of local suffrage activism. Only after a public campaign waged by
many people in the Pilsen, Little Village, and Back of the Yards communities from accessing healthcare. In the 1980s, she became the driving force behind Project Alivio. The community campaign raised funds and support to create a medical center at 2355 S. Western Ave, which opened in 1989. The bilingual/bicultural Alivio Medical Center opened in 1989 with Velásquez as the first executive director. It continues to operate an urgent care center and six community health centers, providing care for the un- and underinsured.
To Fannie Barrier Williams, the club movement was a “national uprising” of Black women “pledged to the serious work” of racial advancement.She and Davis led Chicago clubwomen in hosting the 1899 meeting of the National Association of Colored Women, the umbrella organizationofBlackwomen’sclubsfoundedthreeyears earlier. Organizing this convention strengthened ties among Chicago’s clubwomen and connected them to women’s efforts in other regions. During the three-day gathering, participants addressed topics traditionally linked to women’s roles as caretakers or moral guardians of the home. They also focused on urgent, life-and-death matters: lynching, segregation, and the convict-lease system—forced prison labor that targeted African American men. During this meeting, members also elected the group’s next slate of officers.19 Althoughnot yetabletoparticipatefullyininthewiderworldofelectoralpolitics,NACWmembers,likemembersofcountlesswomen'sgroupsinthisera,enacteddemocracyas votersandofficeholderswithintheirclubwork.
ElizabethLindsayDaviswasanearlyadvocateforcreationoftheNACW;throughhersubsequentworkasthe group’snationalorganizerandhistorian,shegreatly expandedmembershipanddocumenteddecadesof Blackactivistwomen’svitalwork.InChicago,among otheractivities,in1896sheorganizedthePhyllis WheatleyClub,namedforaneighteenthcentury enslavedAfricanAmerican.Theclubinitiallyofferededucationalprograms,undertookcharitablework,andoperatedasewingschool.Later,afterprovidingtemporary
BoardofDirectorsofthePhyllisWheatleyHomeAssociation, c. 1915. Club women tapped extensive networks and organized fundraisers to support operations and maintain the residence, which moved to 3256 Rhodes Avenue in 1915, and again in January 1926 to 5128 S. Michigan Blvd.
Emergingfromthecooperativeefforttoorganizethe1899ChicagomeetingoftheNationalAssociationofColoredWomen,theIllinois Federation of Colored Women’s Clubs was created by the joining of the “Magic Seven”—Chicago’s first Black women’s clubs. The federation’s motto: “Loyalty to Women and Justice to Children.” Elizabeth Lindsay Davis (top row center) served as president and historian of the state federation. These portraits were published in her book, The Story of the Illinois Federation of Colored Women’s Clubs, 1900–1922.
shelter for several girls in members’ homes,the club established the Phyllis Wheatley Home for Girls, which opened its doors in 1908at3530ForestAvenue. There, excluded from the white YWCA and other settlement houses, young Black women migrating to Chicago found a safe residence, help finding employment, and other services. Davis served as president of the Phyllis Wheatley Club for more than twenty years, work that informed her views on suffrage. She called women “a potent factor in the body politic,” whose influence as voters would advance the goals of their philanthropic and reform activities.20
Davis’slongtimeinvolvementinclubworkincluded servingassecretaryofChicago’sfirstBlackwomen’s club,organizedbyantilynchingactivistIdaB.Wellsin 1893.WellsreachedouttoMaryRichardsonJonesto serveashonorarychairofthenewclub,amovethat bridgeditsworkandtheactivismofanearliergeneration ofBlackChicagoans.WhenWellstraveledtoEnglandto
Members of Mujeres Latinas en Accion (MLEA) Young Professionals Advisory Committee (YPAC) attend the January 21, 2017, women’s march in Chicago. Started in Pilsen in 1973, MLEA centered issues affecting girls and women, encouraging Latinas to become active agents of their lives and communities. Founders battled hostility and suspicion—from men critical of their focus on women to religious leaders conce rned the group’s work would weaken families. Today the longest-standing Latina organization in the US, MLEA fights for immigrant justice, women’s health and reproductive rights, economic justice, and an end to gender-based violence.
Publicizedinthis1892pamphletandelsewhere,IdaB.Wells’s investigations revealed how lynching was used as an instrument of terror to uphold white supremacy. She later cofounded the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, which pressed for federal antilynching legislation.
rallysupportforanantilynchingmovement,members honoredherbynamingthenewclubforher.21
WellsrelocatedtoChicagoafterreceivingdeath threatsforspeakingoutagainstlynchingafterthreeof herfriendsweremurderedbyawhitemobinMemphis in1892.ThehorrificeventpromptedWells,ajournalist, toinvestigatesystematicviolenceagainstBlackmenand women.Defendersoflynchingjustifiedthesemurdersby claimingthatBlackmenthreatenedandrapedwhite women.Wells’sinvestigationsrevealedthatviolentmobs targetedBlackpeoplewhocompetedeconomicallywith whites. 22 Aswhitesouthernersregainedpowerafter Reconstruction,theycreatedasystemoflegalsegregationandinequalityand,despitetheFifteenth Amendment,deniedBlackmen’svotingrightsthrough threats,violence,andlawssuchaspolltaxesandliteracy tests.Supportiveofthissystemofracialoppression, lynchingwasusedtoterrorizethewiderBlackcommunityandkeepitsmembers“intheirplace.”
FromChicago,Wellscontinuedherantilynching activismandbecameaninternationalfigureduringher
lifelong campaign for racial justice. In 1895, she married Ferdinand Barnett, a Chicago attorney. Locally, WellsBarnett’s efforts on behalf of Chicago’s growing Black community took many forms, from helping to establish the city’s first Black kindergarten, to challenging Chicago Tribune editorialsfavoringsegregatedpublicschools,to her work with the Negro Fellowship League. WellsBarnett formed this group to foster dialogue and action after widespread racial violence against Black residents of Springfield in 1908. By 1910, the League also provided a rooming house and recreation space in the Douglas area on the South Side, as well as employment services to Black men excluded from the white YMCA. Through Wells-Barnett, the group extended its work to “all matters affecting the interest of our race,” including its efforts on behalf of Joseph Campbell. Upon learning of his plight, Wells-Barnett took action to help Campbell, accused of murdering a white woman, defend himself
against the questionable charges. Concerned he would not get a fair trial in a racist criminal justice system, Wells-Barnett raised awareness and money to pay for Campbell’s legal defense. Despite these efforts, Campbell was found guilty and received a death sentence. The publicattentionandlegalsupportbroughtbyWellsBarnett and her husband helped in getting his sentence changed to life imprisonment.23
Althoughwomencouldnotyetvoteincityelections, sheformedtheWomen’sSecondWardRepublicanClub in1910to“assistmen”indeployingtheirvotesforthe bettermentofthecity’sBlackcommunity.Amemberof IESAandCPEL,WellsalsoorganizedtheAlphaSuffrage ClubinJanuary1913. 24 ForWells-Barnett,asforother Blacksuffragists,thevotewasnotamatterofgaining individualrightsforwomen.Rather,itwastiedtoa largerstruggleforpoliticalempowermentandracial equitythroughouttheUS.
Wells-BarnettfoundedtheNegroFellowship League in 1908 and raised awareness and funds to assist with Joseph Campbell’s legal defense in 1915.
AttheMarch3,1913,Woman’sSuffrageProcessioninWashington, DC,IdaB.Wells-Barnettprotestedorganizers’insistencethatshe marchseparatelywithBlacksuffragistsinsteadofwithwhitemembersoftheIllinoisdelegation.AlicePaul,processionorganizerand headofNAWSA’sCongressionalCommittee,believedastunning spectacle would attract media attention and widen support for women’s voting rights. Knowing national support was required for a constitutional amendment and concerned that allowing Black and white women to march together would anger and alienate white southerners, she and other planners tried to limit Black women’s participation. That morning, IESA president Grace Wilbur Trout had advised the Illinois women to go along with efforts to exclude Wells-Barnett. But Wells-Barnett refused to give in. Instead, as white suffragists from Illinois passed by, she marched alongside Belle Squire and Virginia Brooks, who had opposed the plan to segregate Illinois suffragists.
Duringthelatenineteenthcentury,Chicago andnearbyEvanston servedasheadquartersfora growingtemperancemovement,whichalsoled manywomentosupport suffrage.Nineteenth-centurywomenweredrawn totemperanceasamoral reformandapractical necessity.Withoutcustodyrightstotheirchildrenandunableto divorceorownpropertyformuchofthecentury,marriedwomenhadnomeanstoescapeabusive,alcoholdependenthusbands.Moreover,suchmencould scarcelybesaidtorepresentthebestinterestsoftheir wivesandchildrenattheballotbox.DuringtheLibrary Hallconvention,prominentwomen’srightsoratorAnna Dickinsoncounteredanantisuffragist’sremarksby describingmenwhomthelawmade“absolutemasters ofwivesandchildren;menwhoreeltotheirhomes nightafternighttobeatsomehelplesschild,tobeat
some helpless woman.” 25 Armed with the ballot, she argued, women could protect themselves and their families by voting for prohibition and other needed reforms. Such a view gathered widespread support in the last decades of the nineteenth century through the work of FrancesWillardandtheWCTU.
The former head of the Evanston College for Ladies (which later joined with Northwestern University), Willard served as president of the Chicago WCTU before leading the national organization for nearly two decades beginning in 1879. The WCTU had emerged from a “woman’s crusade” in Ohio and western New York, during which thousands of women prayed for saloons to close their doors. Willard gradually pressed members to seek a political route to change. In 1876, she introduced the concept of a “Home Protection” ballot, arguing that women’s votes could win laws prohibiting the sale of alcohol and other reforms to protect women and families. At first, the WCTU endorsed voting rights for women only on certain matters like local prohibition laws. In 1883, the organization began supporting full suffrage for women.26
In1885,theWCTUmoveditsheadquartersto Chicago,alreadyhometotheofficesoftheWoman’s TemperancePublishingAssociationandtheWCTU’s UnionSignal newspaper.Willard’sresidenceinthe neighboring“dry”townofEvanstonservedasanunofficialheadquarters,fromwhichshebuilttheWCTUintoa thrivingorganizationofmorethan200,000members.
Founded in 1989, Apna Ghar, which comes from a HinduUrdu phrase meaning “Our Home,” was the first organization in the US with a shelter focused on needs of domestic violence survivors of Asian descent. Today it provides comprehensive crisis intervention an d prevention services, outreach, and advocacy to end gender-based violence across communities. Former Executive Director Ranjana Bhargava (right) with Apna Ghar board members, Illinois First Lady Brenda Edgar (third from left) and Christine Takada (left), Asian American liaison to Governor Edgar, 1993.
Willard promoted a “Do Everything” approach to reform, expanding the organization’s efforts to include such matters as suffrage, workers’ rights, prison reform, and kindergartens.27
Willardworkedtoorganizewomennationwide.Many of the racist exclusions and tactics characteristic of whiteled suffrage organizations, however, were presaged by the WCTU. For instance, seeking support in the 1880s from white southern women, Willard accepted segregation in
southern units of the WCTU. When the National American Woman Suffrage Association (NAWSA)— formed from the 1890 merging of NWSA and AWSA— began to recruit southern suffragists, its leaders sanctioned Jim Crow discrimination by excluding Black womenfromnationalmeetingsinsoutherncitiesandby affirming a states’ rights approach to defining the electorate.28 WhilevisitingtheSouthforatemperanceconventionin1890,Willardalsomaderacistpublic
Withoutthevote,womenhadonlytherighttopetition—toformallyasklawmakersforsomething.In1879,Willard,thenpresidentofthe state WCTU, presented a petition with more than 170,000 signatures to the Illinois General Assembly, asking for a law allowing men and women the right to vote on whether saloons could operate in their towns. The all-male legislature did not pass the law, but women in other states adopted the practice of submitting petitions for a “Home Protection” ballot.
statements suggesting Black men opposed temperance, were prone to drunkenness, and threatened white women. In a controversy that played out in the international press, Ida B. Wells challenged Willard for perpetuating racist stereotypes used to condone lynching and failingtouseherpublicplatformtospeakoutagainstsystemic violence against Black men. Only after considerable pressure from Wells did the WCTU pass resolutions that condemned lynching.29
FromitshomebaseofChicagoandEvanston,the WCTUwonmanyconvertstosuffragebylinkingthe votetowomen’sdefenseofhomeandfamily.In1894, Willardremarkedontemperancewomen’ssupportfor suffrage:“Todayyoucannottelltheyellowribbon[suffrage]fromthewhite[temperance].”30 Theintertwining ofthetemperancecausewithsuffragehadconsequences forboththewidervotingrightsmovementandChicago women.Theclamorforvotingrightsbyprohibitionmindedwomensparkedlastingoppositionfromthe liquorindustry.Andapartialsuffragebillpreparedby theIllinoisWCTU,whichpassedin1891,wouldprovidetheopeningwedgeforChicagowomentovote.
Industrializationandurbangrowthtransformedcities inthelatenineteenthcentury.Inresponse,asMaureen Flanaganhasdemonstrated,activistwomen,through theirclubs,settlementhouses,andotherreformorganizations,workedtoshapethecityintoaplacethatprovidedforthehealth,safety,andwell-beingofits inhabitants—goalsthatcutacrosslinesofraceand class. 31 Chicagowomenintentonaddressingthechallengesofurbanindustriallifealsoincreasinglysawthe ballotasakeytoachievingtheirgoals.
Addressingasuffragemeetingin1906,Chicago’s Hull-HousesettlementfounderandreformleaderJane Addamsidentifiedalonglistofconcernsforurban women.“Unsanitaryhousing,poisonoussewage,contaminatedwater,infantmortality,thespreadofcontagion, adulteratedfood,impuremilk,smoke-ladenair,ill-ventilatedfactories,dangerousoccupations,juvenilecrime, unwholesomecrowding,prostitutionanddrunkenness aretheenemieswhichthemoderncitiesmustfaceand overcome....”Addamswentontoexplainhow“the municipalfranchise”—therighttovoteincityelections—wouldallowactivistwomentobeanevengreater forceinurbanreform.Indeed,astheyworkedtocreate institutionsandsecurelawsandresourcestotacklesuch problems,reformersfoundtheirambitionslimitedby lackofdirectpoliticalpower.HullHouseresidentand reformerFlorenceKelleycampaignedagainstsweatshops,draftedworkplacelegislationtosafeguardwomen andchildren,andservedasIllinois’sfirstChiefFactory Inspector.Yet,Kelleyexpressedfrustration,tellingasuffragemeetingaudience,“Thenumberofworkingchildrengrowsfasterthanthenumberofpetitioning
The lack of existing resources for her child with developmental disabilities prompted Guadalupe Reyes to take action in ways that extended well beyond her own family. In 1969, Reyes founded Esperanza School for children with disabilities whose learning needs went unmet in traditional classrooms. In 1973, she founded El Valor, Illinois’s first bilingual and bicultural rehabilitation center. Both organizations continue to promote inclusion by providing education, programs, and support for low-income families and children and adults with disabilities. Reyes played a leadership role in the Pilsen Neighbors Community Council and fought for the creation of Benito Juarez High School, which opened in 1977, to serve students in the Pilsen neighborhood.
women....”32 Thevotewouldprovidedirectaccessto thepoliticalsphere,allowingwomentoelectthosewho supportedchildlaborandcompulsoryeducationlaws andotherreforms.
Intheearly1900s,theconcernsofworkingwomen andtheiralliesalsopropelledthemtocampaignforsuffrage.Womenworkedinmyriadjobs—asteachersand laundryworkers,bookbindersandbootmakers,waitressesandglovemakers—tosupportthemselvesortheir families.Yet,manyenduredlonghours,harshconditions,orseasonallayoffsandearnedbarelyenoughtoget by.Genderedassumptionsthatwomenwerenotprimary householdearnershelpedemployersjustifypayingthem solittle.Racismcombinedwithgenderdiscrimination furthercircumscribedopportunitiesforBlackwomen’s employment,income,andunionmembership.Working womenandlabororganizersweredrawntothesuffrage
AleaderintheBlackwomen’sclub movementandChicagoWTUL, IreneGoinscampaignedfor workers’rightsandorganized Blackwomenstockyardworkers duringandafterWorldWarI. Afterratificationofthe NineteenthAmendment,Goins organizedtheFrederickDouglass LeagueofWomenVoters,which offeredcitizenshipclassestoeducateAfricanAmericanwomenon politicalmatters,andservedontheboard oftheIllinoisLeagueofWomenVoters.
causethroughtheireffortstowinbetterworkplaceconditionsandalivingwage.
AsleadersoftheChicagoTeacher’sFederationinthe early1900s,CatharineGogginandMargaretHaley foughtforteachers’faircompensationandvoiceindetermininghowthecity’sschoolswererun.Theirbattles withschoolandcityadministrators—menunaccountabletowomenwhocouldn’tvote—inspiredtheircommitmenttosuffrage.Theyalsowonsupportforsuffrage fromthemanyprimarilysecond-generationCatholic immigrantwomenwhotaughtinChicago’sschools.33
March 1974 formation of the Coalition of Labor Union Women (CLUW) in Chicago. Wyatt battled intersecting gender, racial, and economic injustices throughout her life. She campaigned for Black voting rights in the South and fair housing in Chicago. As a union leader, she fought racial and gender-based workplace discrimination and supported the Equal Rights Amendment, which, if ratified, would have provided a constitutional guarantee for gender equality. It was narrowly defeated in 1982.
Meanwhile, trade unionists lobbied for laws to protect working women’s health and safety—and for suffrage. In 1909, for example,AnnaWillardand Elizabeth Maloney, leaders of Waitresses Union, Local 484, together with glove worker and union organizer Agnes Nestor and laundry worker Lulu Holley, spent months lobbying the Illinois General Assembly for a law limiting work hours to eight hours a day for women in many jobs. Facing strong opposition from manufacturers, they had to settle for a ten-hour law. They called the victory a step “in the splendid struggle for justice” for working women. During these months, activists also pressed for municipal voting rights for Chicago women. When hearings for both measures were held concurrently, Jane Addams, together with Grace Nicholes of the Women’s Trade Union League (WTUL), went from one hearing to another, advocating first for suffrage, then for the eight-hour day, which lawmakers called the “girls’ bill.”34 Meanwhile,Maloneyand Nestorlobbiedlawmakersforsuffrageonbehalfof workingwomen.Duringherlongtenureaspresidentof theChicagoWTUL,Nestorcontinuedtopursueaneighthourlawduringeachlegislativesession.Duringthe 1910s,shewasjoinedinthiseffortbyBlacklabororganizerandclubwomanIreneGoins,whoorganizedwomen stockyardworkersduringWorldWarI.Goinswasalsoa suffragistandlaterstartedtheDouglasschapterofthe LeagueofWomenVoters.
Asaglovemaker,Nestorhadworkedlonghoursto exhaustion,gettingpaidbythepieceandhavingthepower usedbyhersewingmachinedeductedfromthesewages. LikeFlorenceKelley,whoviewedtheballotasaninstrumenttoadvancereformers’goals,Nestorunderstoodthe ballotasatoolforachievinghealthandsafetylawsand workplacefairness.The“workinggirl”neededthevotejust asallworkersdid,Nestorproclaimed.“Tousitisnota questionofequalrightsbutaquestionofequalneeds.”35
Workingwomenundertookotherapproachesto achievingtheirgoals;theyformedunionsandtookpart instrikes,believinggroupactionwouldempowerwageearners.Butworkersonthepicketlinefacedopposition notonlyfrombusinessowners,butalsofrompoliceand thecourts,whichoftensidedwithbusinesses.In September1910,forexample,youngwomenwalkedoff thejobatclothingmakerHartSchaffner&Marxto protestwagecutsandunfairworkingconditions.Their actionsparkedamonths-longstrikeinvolvingmorethan
40,000 garment workers, half of them women, including many recent immigrants from southern and eastern Europe. Labor activists and their allies protested the arrest and harsh treatment of peaceful picketers, including the use of private police forces against striking workers.Likewise,whenstrikingwaitressesmarched through a lunchtime crowd outside Henrici’s restaurant in February 1914, they were later arrested and charged
Astrikingrestaurantworkerwearsacoatannouncingwaitresses’ demands: “On strike at Henrici’s. Henrici’s pays $7 for 7 days. We want $8 for 6 days.” Hundreds of unionized waitresses were among the many working women who joined the Wage Earners Suffrage League in 1913.
Policeputawomanintothebackofapolicewagonduringthe1910garmentworkersstrike.
withencouraginganillegalboycott.NationalWTUL presidentMargaretDreierRobinsofChicagolinkedsuch circumstancesfacedby“girlstrikers”andwomen’sneed oftheballotduringaCongressionalsuffragehearingin April1910.Citingrecentstrikes,sheexplainedthat whenwage-earningwomentriedtoorganizeandtake action,theyfoundthemselves“fightingtheirindustrial battlesinthepoliticalfield,”wheresuchinstrumentsof poweraspoliceofficers,thecourts,andinjunctionswere usedagainstthem.“Wheneverwetrytomeetthatpoliticalpower,ortheexpressionofthatpoliticalpower,we arehandicapped,becausethereisnopowerinourhand tohelpchangethatpoliticalpower.”36
Chicagoareawomenfollowedmanypathsto suffrage.Bitbybit,theyachievedlocalvictories—steppingstonestofullsuffrage.In1891, anambitiousefforttosecureaconstitutional amendmentenfranchisingIllinoiswomenwasdefeated. However,sinceeducationseemedtofitwithinthe “women’ssphere,”thestatelegislaturepassedaSchool SuffrageBilldraftedbythestateWCTU,allowingwomen tovoteforelectiveschooloffices.InChicago,where
mostschoolofficialswereappointed,notelected,the lawhadlittleimpactonwomen’spoliticalpower.Every twoyears,Chicagowomencouldnowvoteinoneelection—formembersoftheUniversityofIllinois’sgoverningboard.Still,foractivists,thenewlawmarkeda milestone,demonstratingthatsuffragecouldbeachieved throughlegislativeactionratherthanastateconstitutionalamendment,aspreviouscourtdecisionshadheld. GuidedbylegislativesuperintendentCatharine McCulloch,IESAandotherwomen’sgroupscontinued topressforlimitedbutexpandedvotingrightsoneproposedbillatatime.37
Inthemeantime,Chicagowomenmadeuseofthe limitedvotetheyhadachieved.Duringthe1894election,fourwomenranascandidatesfortrusteeofthe UniversityofIllinois,anoccasionthatrousedChicago suffragiststohitthecampaigntrailandregistervoters. SocialandeducationalreformleaderLucyFlower becamethefirstwomanelectedtostatewideofficewhen womenhelpedelectherthatyear.Blackclubwomen suchasIdaDempsey,IdaB.Wells,andFannieBrown gavespeechesandcanvassedthroughtheauspicesofthe interracialIllinoisWomen’sRepublicanEducational
ActivistsandunionmembersmarkedInternationalWomen’sDayonMarch8,2018,witharallycallingforfairpaying,safejobs. Women janitors of Local 1 of the Service Employees International Union took part in the demonstration amid contract negotiations with Chicago area employers.
Committee (IWREC), urging Black women to go to the polls for Flower, who created scholarships for Black students, only recently admitted to the university. As historian Lisa Materson has demonstrated, for Black Chicago women, many of whom had witnessed the disfranchisementofAfricanAmericanmenintheSouth,thelocal election took on greater meaning as a springboard for discussions of national politics and federal support for civil rights. While some Black suffragists supported Flower, a Republican candidate, Fannie Barrier Williams cautioned against strict party loyalty, encouraging Black voters to choose candidates whose platforms best aligned with their interests.38
LeadingwhitesuffragistsalsourgedChicagowomen tovoteintheseelectionsinordertogainbroaderacceptanceforwomen’sinclusionintheelectorate.Activist womenseizedachanceforenfranchisementintheearly 1900swhenurbanreformersproposeddraftinganew citycharter,thelegaldocumentthroughwhichstates empoweredmunicipalgovernments.Statelaws restrictingtheautonomyofmunicipalauthorityhindered
effective governance in Chicago. A new charter better suited to the burgeoning city’s needs could address this problem and simultaneously extend the vote to women. Although largely excluded from the formal process of creating a new charter, activists nevertheless lobbied for inclusionofsuffrage. 39 They also urged women to make themselves visible as voters in the 1906 University of Illinois trustees’ election. “Women of Chicago! Register,” urged one broadside. Noting that low voter turnout among women fueled arguments against their further enfranchisement, it went on to explain, “A large vote cast this Fall may influence members of the Charter convention to recommend full municipal suffrage for women in the new Charter.”40
Again,theirhopeswentunfulfilled.Butwomen’s effortstoachieve“municipalsuffrage”inChicagoduring twofailedattemptsatanewcitychartereventually inspiredstatewideorganizingcriticaltopassingthefarreaching1913statesuffragelaw.Whenthefirstproposedcharterdidnotenfranchisewomen,activistsspoke outagainstitsfailuretogivethemavoiceinchoosing
the IESA,
their representatives and shaping the city’s affairs. Chicago voters failed to endorse the proposed charter in a referendum vote, prompting a second charter convention. This time, women’s suffrage received more support, but instead of including the measure in the proposed charter,delegatesdraftedaseparatesuffragebillforconsideration by the legislature. On April 13, 1909, Chicago suffragists boarded a “special train” to Springfield for a hearing on the Chicago Municipal Suffrage Bill in the House of Representatives. Intending to showcase broad support and offer multiple justifications for suffrage, twenty-five speakers each delivered a three-minute speech. Lawmakers heard about women’s suffrage as it related to such issues as child welfare, public health, philanthropy, urban reform, and the needs of wage earning and professional women.41 AlthoughtheChicago billfailedtopass,activistscontinuedtobuild momentumforastatewidelaw.
Towardthatend,suffragistsemployedanewtactic— statewideautomobiletours—toraiseawareness, encouragelocalorganizing,andurgevoterstoelectlegislatorssupportiveofwomen’ssuffrageandotherreforms. InChicagoandnationwide,suffragistsincreasingly stagedevents—dramaticmarches,parades,automobile tours,performances—tograbheadlinesandprovide strikingimagesthatfilleddailynewspapersbythe 1910s.Undertheleadershipofnewlyelectedpresident GraceWilburTroutofOakPark,theCPELorganizedthe toursincoordinationwithIESA.Troutbroughtaflairfor organizingandpromotion,greatlyexpandingCPEL membershipandvisibility.42 TheautotoursgaveChicago suffragistsanopportunitytocanvasthestatewhilealso servingasanimportantpublicitystunt.
Thetoursrequiredcarefulpreparation.Plannerscontactedofficialstosecurelocalcooperation.Theyalso sentadvancepromotionalmaterialsthatcalledattention tothefactthatwomenalreadyvotedinmanywestern states.“WomenvoteforpresidentandforallotherofficersinallelectionsonthesametermsasmeninUtah, Wyoming,Idaho,andColorado,”theseplacardsnoted. “WhynotinIllinois?”Organizersalsoalertedreporters, attractingwidespreadpresscoverage.
Duringsummer1910,suffragistspackedtheirbags, donneddustersand“automobileveils”towardoffthe grimeoftheopenroad,piledintoWintonandStoddard Daytonvehicles,andcrossedthestateduringmultiple tours.TheytraveledwesttoGalesburg,northto Waukegan,northwesttoRockford,andsouthto Champaigninchauffeuredautosloanedbywealthy backers.(Onesupporterprovidedhercarandenlisted hersontodriveit.)Astheypulledintotownsincarsfestoonedwith“VotesforWomen”bannersandflags,a vocalistsangtoattractlisteners,andsuffragistsmade speechesandpassedoutpamphlets.Thewomendrew
crowdsinparksandonstreetcorners,intowncenters andoutsidecountycourthouses.InRockford,theyspoke tofurniturefactorylaborerstakingalunchbreak.In Morrison,theyenlistedthemayor’swifetobringthe localstatelawmakertoanopen-airmeeting,where CatharineMcCullochcriticizedhisfailuretobacka recentsuffragemeasureandelicitedhispledgeofsupportduringtheupcominglegislativesession.InFreeport, battlingnoisefromautomobiles,streetcars,andanearby theater,McCullochdenouncedlocalofficialsforfailingto deliveronthepromiseofaquietsettingforsuffrage speakers.Elsewhere,thewomenreceivedamorewelcomereception.WesternIllinoiswasreportedly“aflame withenthusiasmovervotesforwomen,”wheresuffragistsreachedabout8,000peopleduringopenairmeetingsinfourtowns.43
The1910autotourshelpeddrumupandcoalesce suffragesentimentthroughoutIllinois.In1912,after inchingclosertovictorythepreviousyearwhenstatesenatorspassed,buttheHousedefeated,anearlyfullsuffragebill,representativesoftheCPEL,WTUL,andseveral otherwomen’sgroupspetitionedtohavethematterput beforevotersinanonbindingpoll.Thesewomenhoped thereferendum’soutcomewouldconvincelawmakersof widespreadsupport—acontroversialandriskyattemptto
Somereportersusedsuchwordsas“militant”and“invaders”andwroteaboutwhatsuffragistsworeonthetrips.Buttoursalso received favorable accounts. The Chicago Tribune sent reporters on the road with suffragists and later published essays by suffragist and auto tourist Belle Squire.
win a symbolic victory. Once Cook County Judge John E. Owens gave permission for the balloting to take place during upcoming primary elections, Chicago area suffragists went to work in full force to get out the vote. Campaigners tacked up suffrage placards alongside candidates’posters,anddistributedbuttons,badges,andliterature throughout the city. Suffragists spoke at churches and theaters, organized mass meetings, and delivered five-minute lectures in crowded movie houses. Virginia Brooks canvassed restaurants and cafes to arrange for speakers to reach voters as they dined. Directed by Margaret Dreier Robins, the WTUL’s suffrage committee went door to door in the city’s Seventeenth Ward, distributing literature and sample ballots printed in English, Yiddish, Italian, Polish, and Lithuanian. Suffragists traversed the city. They addressed potential voters at the “car barns” at Devon and Clark Streets, spoke to striking carpenters at Sixty-Third and Halsted Streets, visited steel workers in South Chicago, and held an outdoor meeting at Madison Street and Ogden Avenue to encourage support from nearby industrial workers.44
Morethanathousandhopefulwomenvolunteeredto serveaspollwatchersandballotcountobserverson April9,1912,asChicagovoters—men—weregiventhe chancetoanswerthequestion:“DoYouApproveof ExtendingSuffragetoWomen?”Morethantwohundred thousandvoterscastballots,depositingthemintospecialboxesprovidedbysuffragistsfortheoccasion. Despitewomen’swidespreadcampaigning,men answerednonearlytwotoone.Althoughtheadvisory ballotfailed,thecampaignforitsucceededindrawing togetheradiversecoalitionofactivistsandsupporters whocontinuedtobattleforastatewidelaw.
Thatsummer,votesforwomenreceivedevengreater attention,locallyandnationally,whenreformerssplintered fromtheRepublicanPartyduringitsnationalconventionin ChicagotoformtheProgressiveParty.Manysuffragists embracedthenewparty,whichnominatedTheodore Rooseveltforpresidentandmarkedthefirsttimeamajor nationalpartyendorsedwomen’ssuffrage.Whenthe ProgressivePartyhelditsconventionattheChicago ColiseuminAugust,supportersofRooseveltandsuffrage paradedtothesite,carryingabannerproclaiming “Woman’sVotes,Chicago’sWelfare.”Atthenationallevel, theRepublican-Progressivesplitassuredthepresidencyfor
Suffragists wrote and performed plays to dramatize the need for the vote and raise money for their campaigns. Set in the 1860s and based on women’s legal status at that time, this 1911 suffrage play by Catherine McCulloch tells a story of political awakening. In it, a group of middle-class women realize that without voting power they cannot change laws harmful to themselves and the title character, Bridget, a laundry worker whose earnings, by law, are the property of her husband.
Democratic candidate Woodrow Wilson. In Illinois, twenty-five Progressives were elected to the House, shifting the balance of power there to the benefit of suffragists.45
Yearsofwidespreadcampaigningpreparedsuffragists tolaunchthefinalpushforastatewidesuffragelawin 1913. Trout, elected president of IESA in fall 1912, shepherded the group’s lobbying efforts, aided by IESA legislative director Elizabeth Knox Booth, Chicago lawyer Antoinette Leland Funk, and the politically astute Ruth Hanna McCormick, daughter of Republican party leader Mark Hanna and wife of Medill McCormick, Progressive Party leader in the House. By 1913, IESA had organized nearly every legislative district in the state with local groups prepared to pressure lawmakers. As the legislative session began, however, suffragists’ efforts were muddled by competing factions clustered around Trout and McCulloch, and the introduction of multiple suffrage bills in the General Assembly. After maneuvering to keep alive the most promising Senate bill, the suffrage lobbyists spent months in Springfield building support among lawmakers. Trout would later explain how, rather than publicly attacking or overwhelming them with dramatic
demonstrationsbybackers,theselobbyistsworkedto quietlyconvertopponentstothecause.Thiscalculated, low-keyapproachsetbyTroutprovedeffectivebutalienatedsomelongtimesuffragecampaigners.
ThebillpassedtheSenateonMay7andmovedinto theHouse,whereitsurvivedmultipleeffortstodefeatit. WiththefinalvotesetforJune11,suffragistsmobilized toensurethesupportofHousespeakerWilliamB. McKinleybyorganizinga“telephonebrigade.”Whenhe returnedhometoChicagotheweekendbeforethefinal vote,hereceivedphonecallseveryfifteenminutesfrom menandwomenexpressingsupportfortheproposed law.Onthedayofthevote,Troutkeptpostoutsidethe Housedoor,watchfulforopposinglobbyistsseeking entranceaswellasany“friendly”lawmakerstryingto leaveduringrollcall.WithBoothandMcCormickkeeping tallyfromthegalleryandFunkprovidingupdatestoTrout ontheproceedings,McKinleycastadecisivefavorable vote,securingthemajorityneededforthelaw’spassage.46
Suffragists in various groups encouraged women’s political participation by educating and registering voters. Many groups offered civics classes. The Woman’s City Club called for creation of a publication to guide this work. A Handbook for the Women Voters of Illinois (1913). PublishedbytheChicagoSchoolofCivicsand Philanthropy with help from IESA, it assisted women “in preparing for their exercise of their new political power.” Meanwhile, labor organizers went to work “gathering in the girls for suffrage,” as bootmaker and union leader Emma Steghagen put it. Within months of the state suffrage law’s passage, women from twenty-two trades had joined the Wage Earners’ Suffrage League (WESL) organized by Steghagen. Among them were labor leaders and
trade unionists from the eighthour-day fight: Maloney, with more than four hundred waitresses, Nestor and hundreds of glove workers, and laundry workersallpledgedmembership. Russian immigrant and strike leader Bessie Abramowitz and three thousand garment workers, along with countless others, also joined. The WESL registered voters and educated working women about labor and politics so their votes could “become a power in Illinois.”47
CommentingonthesharedinterestsofsuffragistsandProgressives,the ChicagoExaminer claimed“[PresidentialcandidateTheodore] Roosevelt is now equipped with an elaborate system for campaigning through the kitchens of America.” Despite advocating women’s right to vote and other reforms, however, the Progressive Party failed to include a proposed racial equality plank.
TheAlphaSuffrageClub,withmorethanahundred membersandworkingtorecruitmore,metweeklyatthe NegroFellowshipLeague,hostingavarietyofinformationalprograms.Reformersandcityleadersspokeon politicalissues.Electionofficialsdemonstratedtheuseof votingmachines.“CountyCommissioners’Night”and “MunicipalJudges’Night”gaveprospectivevotersa chancetomeetcandidatesfortheseoffices.In1914,the AlphaSuffrageClubandotherBlacksuffragistsinthe
city’sSecondWardprovedaforcetobereckonedwithas theyregisteredvotersandcampaignedduringahighly contestedcitycouncilrace.TheireffortstoactivateBlack women’svotingpowerattractedattentionfrom Republicanmachinerepresentatives,who,inreturnfor thewomen’ssupportthatyear,nominatedOscar DePriestforthenextopenseat.In1915,AlphaSuffrage Clubmemberscanvassedblockbyblocktoelect DePriest,thecity’sfirstBlackalderman.48
AlphaSuffrageClub memberssuchasclub officerSadieLewis Adamsembracedvoting rightsgrantedbythe1913 suffragelaw,canvassing Chicago’sBlack wards to register voters. Their efforts to activate women’s voting power helped elect Oscar DePriest, the city’s first Black alderman in 1915.
By 1913, Chicago women had achieved limited yet powerful voting rights. In the wake of the Illinois law’s passage, they registered and educated voters, campaigned for candidates, ran for local office, voted in local elections in 1914 and 1915,andorganizedtodefendthelawagainstcontinued legal challenges from opponents. They also continued to work for full enfranchisement. Suffragists such as Trout and McCulloch employed different strategies while pursuing state constitutional routes. At the same time, Chicago and its activist women were poised to play important roles in the continued push for women’s voting rights nationwide. The Illinois law energized renewed efforts for a federal amendment. The achievement of nearly full suffrage in the populous state provided a model for suffragists elsewhere and empowered Illinois women to influence national elections.49
In“suffragestates”likeIllinois,wherewomencould voteforpresidentandotheroffices,AlicePaul’s CongressionalUnionwantedwomentousethosevotes topressurecandidatestosupportafederalsuffrage amendment InspiredbyBritishsuffragettes’militanttactics,PaulformedtheCongressionalUnionforWoman Suffrage(CU)in1913.Disagreementsoverleadership andstrategyeventuallysplitthisgroupfromthemore moderateNationalAmericanWomanSuffrage Association,whichsincethe1890shadfocusedprimarilyonastate-by-stateapproachtosuffrage.These riftsexacerbatedgrowingtensionsamongChicagoarea suffragistsaswell.
Ella Berry (above), Ida B. Wells-Barnett, and Ada Denison McKinley campaigned for Republican Charles Evans Hughes in 1916, opposing the Democratic incumbent Woodrow Wilson, who had presided over an expansion of Jim Crow in the nation’s capital.
Inspring1916,theCUralliedwomenvoterstoattend aJuneconventioninChicagotoformaNational Woman’sParty.OnApril10,CUenvoysmadeChicago theirfirststopinafive-weektourto“appealtothevoting womenofthewest,”urgingthemtoattendthethree-day eventplannedtocoincidewithRepublicanPartyand ProgressivePartyconventionstakingplacethere.For months,thecitywasabuzzwithpreparations.Suffragists gavestumpspeechesbeforecrowdsassembledonthe cornerofMichiganAvenueandWashingtonStreet,where localorganizersopenedaCUinformationbureau.On StateStreet,amannequindeckedoutinCUregaliaina CarsonPirieScott&Co.departmentstorewindow remindedpassersbyofthehistoricsuffragegathering abouttotakeplace.Meanwhile,NAWSAwasalsoconveningmembersandorganizingamassiveparade,hoping toconvinceRepublicanstodeclaresupportforsuffrage. Plannersstrungbannersovercitystreetsannouncingthe paradeandoperatedarecruitmentstationtosignup marchers.Womenorganizeddaynurseriestoprovide childcareformotherswhowishedtomarch.
OntheeveningofMonday,June5,ChicagoanMabel LambersonSippy,chairoftheIllinoisbranchoftheCU, calledtheconventiontoorderattheBlackstoneTheater.
The following day’s Tribune announced the “Birth of the Woman’s Party . . . Mothered by the Aggressive Congressional Union.”The new party sought immediate passage of a federal suffrage amendment, threatening to mobilize women’s votes against Democrats in upcoming Novemberelectionsunless“thepartyinpower”supported the measure. NAWSA leaders, mindful of the likely need for bipartisan support to pass and ratify an amendment, instead appealed to Republicans only to affirm the principle of women’s suffrage. On June 7, NAWSA president Carrie Chapman Catt formally asked the Republican platform committee to include a plank declaring the party in favor of women’s suffrage. Catt spoke on behalf of more than five thousand rain-soaked marchers, their flags and banners blown asunder by high winds, who braved a heavy downpour with enthusiasm as they splashed to the Coliseum. The GOP responded by endorsing women’s suffrage while recognizing “the right of each state to settle this question for itself.”50
TheNationalWoman’sPartyannounceditsentryintopoliticsby declaring “Our Hat’s in the Ring.” The expression, used by Progressive Party presidential candidate Theodore Roosevelt in 1912, came from boxing, where a contender threw his hat into the ring to signal a challenge. Suffragists could purchase CU hats like the one pictured to show support for the cause.
GirlsandyoungwomenleadaparadedownMichiganAvenue,joiningsuffragistsindemonstrationsnationwideonMay2,1914,urging Congress to pass federal suffrage legislation. Disagreement among Chicago suffrage leaders over support for national organizations NAWSA and CU kept some from participating in the parade.
ThissuffragepinannouncedtheJune1916march organizedbytheNationalAmericanWoman SuffrageAssociationduringtheRepublican NationalConventioninChicago.Evenafter achievingsubstantialvotingrightsin 1913,Chicagoactivistwomencontinued topressforfullsuffrage.
The creation of the National Woman’s Party (NWP) sparked controversy among suffragists in Chicago and beyond, drawing criticism from those concerned its political approach would alienate potential allies. After the reelection of Democratic President Woodrow Wilson, who favored state rather than federal action to enfranchise women, the NWP adopted more militant tactics. Such actions as picketing and burning the president’s speeches, in turn, stoked fears among moderates that suffrage militancy would turn supporters against the movement. Yet, these actions and the harsh reprisals they drew kept the matter of suffrage before the public and eventually galvanized support for the Nineteenth Amendment.
On January 10, 1917, a dozen women carrying suffrage banners and wearing sashes of purple, white, and
gold, stationed themselves outside the White House. Among this first group of “silent sentinels” was Gertrude Crocker of Hinsdale, Illinois, an assistant treasurer for the NWP who had helped establishthelocalCUofficein Chicago. In the months that followed, as protestors kept up their daily vigils, she and her sister Ruth Crocker were both arrested and imprisoned for picketing.After the US entered World War I, White House ickets continued to challenge Wilson for promoting democracy abroad while failing to ensure it at home. These demonstrators faced frequent attack by angry mobs as well as arrest, technically for “obstructing traffic.” In August, amid days of attacks that injured suffragists and destroyed more than two hundred banners and flags, Chicagoans Madeline Upton Watson and Lucy Ewing were arrested, while those who assaulted suffragists went unchecked by police. In fact, a Chicago sailor on duty in Washington, DC, won praise and made headlines for tearing from Watson and other suffragists a protest banner likening Wilson to German autocrat Kaiser Wilhelm. After refusing to pay fines, Watson, Ewing, and four others were sentenced to thirty
MembersoftheNationalWoman’sPartyprotestpresidentWoodrowWilson’srefusaltosupportfederalactiononwomen’ssuffrage.Signs asking, “How Long Do You Advise Us To Wait?” pressed Wilson to urge lawmakers to pass a women’s suffrage amendment, first introduced in Congress in 1878. Wilson was speaking at the Chicago Auditorium Theatre on October 19, 1916, during a reelection campaign stop
daysatOccoquanWorkhouse,aDistrictofColumbiajail facilityinLorton,Virginia.Theywereamonghundreds arrestedandscoresimprisonedbetween1917and1919 duringNWPdemonstrationsattheWhiteHouseand nearbyLafayetteSquare.51
Inprotestoftheirunjustsentences,imprisonedsuffragistsdemandedbutwererefusedpoliticalprisoner status.Theyenduredbrutaltreatment,includingbeatings,solitaryconfinement,andforce-feeding.InFebruary 1919,morethantwodozensuffragists,includingLucy Ewing,embarkedonwhattheycalledthe“Prison Special”tour.ThesewomentraveledtheUSonatrain nicknamedthe“DemocracyLimited”tosharetheirstoriesofimprisonmentbyagovernmentthatdeniedthem avoiceinthepoliticalprocess.Bythen,Wilsonhad endorsedthesuffrageamendment,butmoresupport wasneeded.Duringthetour,suffragistsworerecreated prisongarbandspokeoftheneedforwomen’svoting rightstocrowdsinfifteencities.Thegrouparrivedin ChicagoonMarch5foramassmeetingattheCongress Hotel.There,NWPleaderLucyBurnsdescribedthe“terribleexperience”offorciblefeedinginflictedonhungerstrikingsuffragists.52
Publicoutrageovertheirordeal,alongwithheightened pro-suffragesentimentignitedbywomen’swartimecontributions,helpedgatherthefinalsupportneededfor CongresstopasstheNineteenthAmendmentinJune
“thrown
“intelligent
1919.Illinoislawmakersracedtoratifyitfirst.Other states soon followed. In February 1920, Chicago hosted the final meeting of the National American Woman Suffrage Association at the Congress Hotel. The Chicago participants included Ida B. Wells-Barnett, Margaret Haley, Margaret Dreier Robins, Agnes Nestor, Catharine Waugh McCulloch, and Jane Addams. The program for what was billed as a “Victory Convention” announced “there is every reason to believe that this Convention will celebrate the ratification of the Federal Suffrage Amendment in the necessary thirty-six states.” During the convention the NAWSA disbanded, and a new national organization, the League of Women Voters, took its place. But by June, a vote for ratification from a 36th thirty-sixth state had yet to materialize. The National Woman’s Party again made Chicago a focal point for their actions during the Republican National Convention. “Republicans, We Are Here. Where is the 36th State?” demanded banners carried by picketers in protest of the stalled ratification process. Finally, in August, Tennessee joined the ranks of ratified states, and the amendment became law on August 26, 1920. That fall, members of
the Illinois Equal Suffrage Association and Chicago Political Equality League prepared to reconstitute these groups into Illinois and Chicago branches of the League of Women Voters.53
The inclusion of the Nineteenth Amendment in the US Constitution was an undeniable victory for activists who worked long and hard to achieve it. Even as many Chicago women looked ahead to the November presidential election, however, discriminatory laws and practices meant that many people would continue to be excluded from the electorate. Black women in the South were soon disfranchised through the same methods long used to prevent African American men from voting. Black leaders turned to Congress, but lawmakers failed to pass legislation addressing racially motivated restrictions aimed at Black women voters. The League of Women Voters permitted Black women to voice their concerns at a national convention but failed to act. And the National Woman’s Party, chaired by Alice Paul, who had sanctioned white southern racism by trying to limit Black women’s participation in the 1913 Woman’s Suffrage Procession in Washington DC, refused to help. Demonstrating their narrow vision of equality for white women, NWP leaders reasoned that Black women’s disfranchisement was a problem of racial discrimination, not an issue of women’s rights, and therefore not a matter to be taken up by the NWP. For much of the twentieth century, such tactics as poll taxes, literacy tests, and intimidation would continue to keep people of color and poor people from the polls. The Nineteenth Amendment did not enfranchise women in Puerto Rico, despite their US citizenship. Like Catharine Waite a half century earlier, suffragists such as Genera Pagán attempted to vote anyway, hoping the courts would decide in their favor.
Women in Puerto Rico were enfranchised in
In1968,FannieLouHamerwasseatedasaMississippidelegateto the Democratic National Convention in Chicago. The recognition came four years after she was denied the chance to represent her state’s Black voters as a member of the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party, formed to challenge the state’s whites-only Democratic party. Hamer was evicted from her home after trying to register to vote. During years of s uffrage activism, she endured arrest, brutal beatings, and death threats.
Intheearly1920s,Zitkála-Šá, or Gertrude Simmons Bonnin (Yankton Sioux), addressed Chicago’s women’s clubs about US citizenship and voting rights for Indigenous people. Native peoples survived and resisted centuries of genocidal policies and practices at the hands of European and American colonizers. For Zitkála-Šá, citizenship and voting rights were keys to Native peoples’ sovereignty and continued resistance to damaging US policies. ZitkálaŠá welcomed US citizenship for Native people and traveled widely to educate and register Native voters.
1929 by Puerto Rico’s legislature. In 1920, laws that excluded some groups from citizenship prevented many people from voting, including Asian immigrants and US women who married noncitizens. Only in the mid-twentieth century were laws overturned that barred Asian immigrantsfromnaturalizedcitizenshipandrestricted voting. Many Indigenous people in 1920 were also still not able to vote. Congress extended citizenship in 1924 to all Native peoples in the US, regardless of their wishes. Many states, however, passed restrictive laws that continued to prevent Indigenous people from voting. The 1965 Voting Rights Act barred literacy tests and provided for federal oversight of voting in locales with a history of discrimination. However, since 2013 many states have enacted registration and voting laws that continue to place barriers before marginalized and vulnerable people, limiting who can partake in democracy.54
Chicagowomen’sreformandsuffrageactivismhighlightswomen’sextensivepoliticalactivitybeforewomen
ever had the vote. This history is also a reminder that women were not “granted” suffrage; they had to fight for it, achieving success only bit by bit. Chicago women gained entry into a community of voters; yet, the vote was only partially transformative. For example, as Flanaganpointsout,gendercontinuedtoshapeChicago women’s relationship to politics. Women’s assistance was welcomed by entrenched political parties, but they were not received on equal footing with men. And party leaders intent on sustaining power looked askance at women candidates who challenged the status quo of a party’s agenda.55 Manyreformersandsuffragistsclaimed spacefortheirpublicactivitiesbydescribingthatwork asanextensionofwoman’s“natural”maternalrole. Theywonsupportforsuffragebyemphasizingthevote asameansofbringingwomen’sspecialvirtuestobear uponpolitics.Sucharguments,whileeffective,endorsed traditionalviewsofgender,upholdingideasabout “male”and“female”qualitiesandconcerns,evenasthey legitimizedwomen’sfurtherentryintothepolitical sphere.Furthermore,theysustainedanormative,binary viewofgenderthatinsocial,legal,andcivicrealmscontinuedtoexcludenonbinaryandgendernonconforming people.IssuesofracialinjusticeaddressedbyBlack activistsinthewomen’sclubandsuffragemovements alsopersisted.Nordidthevotechangeattitudestoward womenorthecircumstancestheyfacedonthejob:barrierstotraining,employment,andadvancement;getting paidlessthanmen;sexualharassment.Manycontinued tolackworkplaceprotectionsagainstdiscriminationand unfairorabusivetreatment.Suchongoinginequalities mayintersectwithdiscriminationbasedonrace,immigrationstatus,sexualorientation,genderexpression,and disabilitytodeepenworkplaceandeconomicinequality.
This1970flyerannounceda“women’sstrike”andralliesat the Civic Center Plaza and Grant Park on the fiftieth anniversary of the Nineteenth Amendment’s inclusion in the Constitution, calling attention to just some of the unfinished business of achieving gender equity at work, in education, and in the political process.
Intheyearsbeforesuffrage,Chicagoactivistwomen facedthechallengeofseekingchangeandempowerment inasocietythatexcludedthemfromformalchannelsof politicalpower.ForNestor,disempoweredworkersand exploitivelaborpracticeswenthandinhand,andthose withoutvotestogivewentunnoticedbylawmakers.As sheputit,“Publicofficialshavejustgottenintothehabit ofoverlookingwomen’sneedswhenwomenarenotable tovoicethemforthemselves.”Likewise,forreformer FlorenceKelley,proddingandpetitioning,whileuseful, wereinefficientmethodsofaffectingchange.Asshe lamented,“Itwouldmakeavastdifferenceifwomenin Americancitiescouldenforcetheirwillandconscience bytheballotinsteadofbytheindefinitelyslowworkof persuasion.”IdaB.Wells-Barnettarticulatedthesignificanceoftheballotinstarkerterms.Wheredisfranchisementandlynchingbothservedtoreinforcewhite supremacy,andviolencecouldbeinflictedwith impunitywhenpublicofficialsremainedunaccountable toBlackvoters,sheexplained:“Withnosacrednessof
the ballot there can be no sacredness of human life itself. For if the strong can take the weak man’s ballot, when it suits his purpose to do so, he will take his life also.” 56 Howeverimperfectandincompleteasaninstrumentof change,Chicagoactivistwomenbelievedtheexpression of political voice through the ballot was essential to their ongoing struggles for justice.
ElizabethFraterrigoisAssociateProfessorofHistoryatLoyola UniversityChicagoandcuratorofDemocracyLimited:Chicago WomenandtheVote,aChicagoHistoryMuseumexhibitiontransformedintoadigitalexperienceduetotheCovid-19pandemic.
ILLUSTRATIONS |AllimagescourtesyofChicagoHistory Museumunlessotherwisenoted.Page22,MonroeA.Majors, NotedNegroWomen:TheirTriumphsandActivities(1893), NewYorkPublicLibraryhttps://digitalcolle ctions.nypl.org/ items/ 510d47df-755b-a3d9-e040-e00a18064a99. 23, ICHi064360. 24, top left: Division of Rare and Manuscript Collections, Cornell University Library, REX022_034.001; top right: National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution. 25, ICHi-022144. 26, (top) ICHi-062628; (bottom) ICHi-067444. 27, ICHi-009585; Charles D. Mosher, photographer. 28, Courtesy of Access Living. 29, (top left) ICHi-177304A; (bottom right) ICHi-029415. 30, ICHi-039673. 31, (clockwise from top left) ICHi-177354; ICHi-040212; ICHi-007019. 32, STM038523458, Pablo Martínez Monsiváis/Chicago Sun-Times. 33, (top) ICHi-064245; (bottom) ICHi-063063. 34, (clockwise from top left) ICHi-177324; New York Age Print, 1892, New York Public Library Digital Collection, http://digitalcollections.nypl.org/ items/868f8db7-fa74-d45 1-e040-e00a180630a7; Courtesy of Mujeres Latinas en Acción. 25, (left) ICHi-177323_01; (right) Steve Schapiro/Corbis via Getty Images. 36, (clockwise from top left) Chicago Tribune , March 5, 1913; Courtesy of Apna Ghar; ICHi-062268. 37, ICHi-176750-E1. 38, (top) ICHi-035457; (bottom) Library of Congress, Manuscript Division, Records of the National Woman's Party, http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.mss/ mnwp.153003. 39, (clockwise from top left) ICHi-177361A; ICHi-177301A; Photo 040, Box 346, Rev. Addie and Rev. Claude Wyatt Papers, Vivian G. Harsh Research Collection of AfroAmerican History and Literature, Chicago Public Library; Chicago Tribune, January 29,1900. 40, ICHi-177311. 41, (left) ICHi-067687; (right) Chicago Examiner, February 10, 1914; 42, DN-0056132, Chicago Daily News collection. 43, (top) Scott Olson via Getty Images; (bottom) Scott Olson via Getty Images. 44, DN-0008359, Chicago Daily News collection. 45, DN0059234, Chicago Daily News collection. 46, Chicago Tribune, July 10, 1910. 47, (top) Library of Congress, Manuscript Division, Records of the National Woman's Party, http:// hdl.loc.gov/loc.mss/mnwp.154004; (bottom) ICHi-177291. 48, (top to bottom) ICHi-032106; ICHi-175957; ICHi-178181. 49, (top) The Omaha Daily Bee, May 15, 1904, Library of Congress; (bottom) Chicago Examiner , August 6, 1912. 50, (top) ICHi-
036849;(bottom)ICHi-178179.51,(top)ICHi-177303A; (bottom)ICHi-177302A.52,(top)ICHi-026348;(bottom)DN0062620,ChicagoSun-Times/ChicagoDailyNewscollection. 53,(top)ICHi-061937;(bottom)RecordsoftheNational Woman'sParty,ManuscriptDivision,LibraryofCongress.54, (top) ChicagoTribune,August19,1917;(bottom)TheSuffragist, 1917.55,(left)MississippiFreedomDemocraticPartydelegate, attheDemocraticNationalConvention,AtlanticCity,NJ,August 1964,WarrenK.Leffler,photographer,LibraryofCongress, https://www.loc.gov/item/2003688126/;(right) AmericanIndian Stories ,Washington:HayworthPublishingHouse,1921. 56,ICHi-177306-01.57,ICHi-014104.58,JoshuaLott/AFPvia GettyImages.
FORFURTHERREADING |StevenM.Buechler, The TransformationoftheWomanSuffrageMovement:TheCaseof Illinois1850–1920 (RutgersUniversityPress,1986);CathleenD. Cahill,“Our DemocracyandtheAmericanIndian:Citizenship, Sovereignty, and the Native Vote in the 1920s,” Journal of Women’s History (Spring 2020); Faye E. Dudden, Fighting Chance: The Struggle Over Woman Suffrage and Black Suffrage in Reconstruction America (Oxford University Press, 2011); Maureen A. Flanagan, Seeing with Their Hearts: Chicago Women and the Vision of the Good City, 1871–1933 (Princeton University Press, 2002); Frances Willard House Museum, Truth-Telling: Frances Willard and Ida B. Wells, www.willardandwells.org; Jennifer Harbour, Organizing Freedom: Black Emancipation Activism in the Civil War Midwest (Southern Illinois University Press, 2020); Wanda A. Hendricks, Fannie Barrier Williams: Crossing the Borders of Region and Race (University of Illinois Press: 2013); Sue Ellen Hoy, “Sideline Suffragists,” C hicago History (Summer 2013); Martha S. Jones, Vanguard: How Black Women Broke Barriers, Won the Vote, and Insisted on Equality for All (Basic Books, 2020); Alexander Keyssar, The Right to Vote: The Contested History of Democracy in the United States (Basic Books, 2009); Anne Knupfer, Toward a Tenderer Humanity and a Nobler Womanhood: African American Women’s Clubs in Turn-of-theCentury Chicago (New York U niversity Press, 1996); Lisa G. Materson, For the Freedom of Her Race: Black Women and Electoral Politics in Illinois, 1877–1932 (University of North Carolina Press, 2009); Catherine H. Palczewski, “The 1919 Prison Special: Constituting White Women’s Citizenship,” Quarterly Journal of Speech (March 2016); Allison L. Sneider, Suffragists in an Imperial Age: US Expansion and the Woman Question, 1870–1929 (Oxford University Press, 2008); Rosalyn Terborg-Penn, African American Women in the Struggle for the Vote, 1850–1920 (Indiana University Press, 1998); Lisa Tetrault, The Myth of Seneca Falls: Memory and the Women’s Suffrage Movement, 1848–1898 (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2014); Ida B. Wells, Crusade for Justice: The Autobiography of Ida B. Wells , 2nd edition, eds. Alfreda M. Duster and Michelle Duster (University of Chicago Press, 2020); Marjorie Spruill Wheeler, New Women of the New South: The Leaders of the Woman Suffrage Movement in the Southern States (Oxford University Press, 1993).
1. “The Women,” Chicago Tribune, February 13, 1869, 4, and “A Colored Woman’s Voice,” The Revolution, March 4, 1869, 139.
2. “Male vs. Female Suffrage,” Chicago Tribune, March 6, 1869, 4.
3. “The Women,” Chicago Tribune, February 12, 1869, 4.
4. The Workingman’s Advocate, February 6, 1869.
5. United States. Office of Indian Affairs, Annual Report of the Commissioner of Indian affairs, for the year 1872 [1872], 9.
6. “Chicago Woman Suffrage Convention,” Chicago Legal News, February 20, 1869, 164.
7. Debates and Proceedings of the Constitutional Convention of the State of Illinois, Volume II (Springfield: E. L. Merritt and Brother, 1870), 1291 309.
8. Monroe A. Majors, Noted Negro Women: Their Triumphs and Activities (1893), 82–86; “A Colored Woman on the Race Problem,” The Woman’s Tribune, March 22, 1890, 93; “Colored Women Want Suffrage,” San Francisco Chronicle, July 28, 1896, 9; “Fight for Freedom,” San Francisco Call, August 1, 1896, 8;Naomi Anderson, “Where I Stand,” People’s Friend (Wichita, KS), July 20, 1894.
9. Mary A. Livermore, The Story of My Life: The Sunshine and Shadow of Seventy Years (Hartford: A.D. Worthington & Co., 1897), 479.
10. Lana Ruegamer, “Livermore, Mary,” Women Building Chicago (WBC), 512 14; Steven M. Buechler, The Transformation of the Woman Suffrage Movement: The Case of Illinois 1850 1920 (New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 1986), 65–67; Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Susan B. Anthony, and Matilda Joslyn Gage, eds, History of Woman Suffrage, Volume II, 1861–1876 (HWS) (New York: Fowler and Wells, Publishers, 1882), 373; “The Women,” Chicago Tribune, February 12, 1869, 4.
11.Theresa Cora De Langis, “Jones, Mary Jane Richardson,” WBC, 444–46; Christopher Reed, Black Chicago’s First Century, Volume I, 1833 1900 (Columbia: University of Missouri Press, 2005), 66–68; Jennifer Harbour,
Organizing Freedom: Black Emancipation Activism in the Civil War Midwest (Carbondale: Southern Illinois University Press), 106–7.
12. Buechler, Transformation of Woman Suffrage Movement, 62–65, 75.
13. Nancy T. Gilliam, “A Professional Pioneer: Myra Bradwell’s Fight to Practice Law,” Law and History Review 5, no. 1 (Spring 1987): 105–33.
14. “Woman’s Suffrage,” Chicago Tribune, October 4, 1871, 4; “Not Totally Destroyed,” Chicago Tribune, February 7, 1872, 2; “Superior Court: The Right of Women to Vote,” Chicago Tribune, November 21, 1871, 4.
15. Carole Dianne Smith, “Waite, Catharine,” WBC, 922–24.
16. Lisa Tetrault, The Myth of Seneca Falls: Memory and the Women’s Suffrage Movement, 1848–1898 (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2014), 57–59; Allison L. Sneider, Suffragists in an Imperial Age: US Expansion and the Woman Question, 1870–1929 (New York: Oxford University Press, 2008), 44–45; Melanie Gustafson, Women and the Republican Party, 1854–1924 (Champaign: University of Illinois Press, 2001), 51–53.
17. “Ladies, You Can’t Vote,” Chicago Tribune, Jan 13, 1872, 4; Alexander Keyssar, The Right to Vote: The Contested History of Democracy in the United States (New York: Basic Books, 2009), 147.
18. Wanda A. Hendricks, Fannie Barrier Williams: Crossing the Borders of Region and Race (Champaign: University of Illinois Press: 2013), 61–62, 64–67, 86–92, 157–58.
19. Fannie Barrier Williams, “The Colored Woman and Her Part in Race Regeneration,” in Booker T. Washington, A New Negro for a New Century, 392; Hendricks, Fannie Barrier Williams, 114–18; “Minutes of the Second Convention of the National Association of Colored Women,” August 14–16, 1899.
20, Adlean Harris, “Davis, Elizabeth Lindsay,” WBC, 212–14; Elizabeth Lindsay Davis, Lifting as They Climb, National Association of Colored Women, 1933; Hendricks, Fannie Barrier
Williams, 154; Anne Knupfer, Toward a Tenderer Humanity and a Nobler Womanhood: African American Women’s Clubs in Turn-of-the-Century Chicago (New York: New York University Press, 1996), 81–84; Elizabeth Lindsay Davis, “Votes for Philanthropy,” The Crisis, August 1915, 191.
21. Alfreda M. Duster, ed., Crusade for Justice: The Autobiography of Ida B. Wells (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1970), 121–24.
22. Duster, Crusade for Justice, 47–67, and Bederman, Manliness and Civilization, 45–76.
23. Paula J. Giddings, “Wells-Barnett, Ida Bell,” WBC, 955–60; Duster, Crusade for Justice, 299–307; “Appeal to the Supreme Court in behalf of ‘Chicken Joe’ Campbell,” Negro Fellowship League, CHM.
24. Giddings, “Ida Bell Wells-Barnett”; Wanda A. Hendricks, “Ida B. WellsBarnett and the Alpha Suffrage Club of Chicago,” in Marjorie Spruill Wheeler, ed., One Woman, One Vote: Rediscovering the Woman Suffrage Movement (Tillamook, OR: NewSage Press, 1995), 263–75.
25. Dickinson, quoted in Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Susan B. Anthony, and Matilda Joslyn Gage, eds, History of Woman Suffrage, Volume 3, 1876–1885, 568.
26. Carolyn De Swarte Gifford, “Frances Willard,” WBC, 968–74 and Suzanne M. Marilley, Woman Suffrage and the Origins of Liberal Feminism in the United States, 1820-1920 (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1996), 100–23.
27. Gifford, “Frances Willard,” and Jane L. McKeever, “The Woman’s Temperance Publishing Association,” Library Quarterly 55 (October 1985), 368.
28. Marjorie Spruill Wheeler, New Women of the New South: The Leaders of the Woman Suffrage Movement in the Southern States (New York: Oxford University Press, 1993), 118; Keyssar, Right to Vote, 161; Rosalyn Terborg-Penn, “African American Women and the Woman Suffrage Movement,” in Wheeler, One Woman, One Vote, 148–50.
29. Carol Mattingly, Well-Tempered Women: Nineteenth Century Temperance Rhetoric
(Carbondale: Southern Illinois University Press, 1998), 75–95, and Frances Willard House Museum, TruthTelling: Frances Willard and Ida B. Wells (website), www.willardandwells.org.
30.Willard quoted in Mary Earhart, Frances Willard: From Prayers to Politics (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1944), 206
31. Maureen Flanagan, Seeing with their Hearts: Chicago Women and the Vision of the Good City, 1871–1933 (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2002).
32.Addams and Kelley quoted in HWS, volume V, 178, 164.
33. Sue Ellen Hoy, “Sideline Suffragists,” Chicago History (Summer 2013), 7–17.
34. Women’s Trade Union League of Chicago, “The Eight Hour Fight in Illinois by the Girls Who Did the Work,” (Chicago, Women’s Trade Union League of Chicago, 1909).
35. Susan E. Hirsch, “Nestor, Agnes,” WBC, 624; “City Mourns Death of Mrs. Irene Goins,” Chicago Defender, March 16, 1929, 3; “School Opened to Tell Duties of Citizenship,” Chicago Defender, September 15, 1923, 5; Liette Gidlow, The Big Vote: Gender, Consumer Culture, and the Politics of Exclusion, 1890s–1920s (Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2004), 60; Agnes Nestor, “The Working Girl’s Need of Suffrage,” [1913?].
36. Flanagan, Seeing with Their Hearts, 109–114; “Girl Strikers in Riot with Police,” Chicago Examiner, February 10, 1914; Robins quoted in Paula Tompkins Pribble, “Margaret Dreier Robins,” in Karlyn Kohrs Campbell, ed., Women Public Speakers in the United States, 1800–1925 (Westport, CT: Greenwood, 1993), 174.
37. HWS 4, 600, 602; Buechler, 149–50, 153.
38. Lisa G. Materson, For the Freedom of Her Race: Black Women and Electoral Politics in Illinois, 1877–1932 (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2009), 25–33, 39–50.
39. Flanagan, 75–76.
40. “Women of Chicago! Register,” flyer, CHM, ICHi-014326.
41. Flanagan, 75–83; [List of speakers] and
letter from Ella S. Stewart and Catharine W. McCulloch, Nestor Papers, Box 1, Folder 4, CHM.
42. Buechler, 174–75.
43. Grace Wilbur Trout, “Side Lights on Illinois Suffrage History,” Journal of the Illinois State Historical Society 13 (July 1920), 146–48; “Band Wagon of Lecturing and Vote-Getting Suffragists Will Be a Speedy Sixty Horse Power Motor Car,” Chicago Tribune, May 15, 1910; “Suffragists Off On Tour of State,” Chicago Tribune, June 27, 1910, 5; “Grafters Scored by Suffragists,” Chicago Daily Tribune, June 28, 1910, 3; “Pledges Support to Suffragettes,” Chicago Tribune, July 3, 1910, 7; “Suffragists Get Snub by Official,” Chicago Tribune, June 29, 1910; “Vote Pilgrimage Gains Converts,” Chicago Tribune, July 2, 1910.
44. “Suffragists Win Test Vote,” Chicago Tribune, March 14, 1912; “Chicago Limit for Suffrage Test,” Chicago Tribune, March 19, 1912; “Suffrage Force Calls at Homes,” Chicago Tribune, March 30, 1912; “New Rule an Aid to Suffrage Vote,” Chicago Tribune, April 6, 1912, “Women Invade West Side,” Chicago Tribune, March 29, 1912; “Women in Loop Boost Candidates,” Chicago Tribune, March 24, 1912; Flanagan, 84.
45. Carrie Chapman Catt and Nettie Rogers Shuler, Woman Suffrage and Politics: the Inner Story of the Suffrage Movement (New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1926), 191; Buchler, 178.
46. Buechler, 176–79; Adade Mitchell Wheeler, “Conflict in the Illinois Woman Suffrage Movement of 1913,” Journal of the Illinois State Historical Society 76 (Summer 1983), 95–114; Trout, “Side Lights.”
47. Handbook for the Women Voters in Illinois (Chicago School of Civics and Philanthropy, 1913), 4–5; “House Maids Join Voting League,” Chicago Tribune, July 1, 1913; Flanagan, Seeing with Their Hearts, 124–29; Hoy, “Sideline Suffragists,” 25–26.
48. “The Alpha Suffrage Club,” Broad Axe, July 19, 1913; November 11, 1913; October 17, 1914; Materson, For the Freedom of Her Race, 86–87, 94–96.
49. Buechler, 180–81; Catt and Shuler, 192–93.
50. “Birth of the Woman’s Party,” Chicago Tribune, June 6, 1916, 5; “Clothing Wet, Ardor Undampened, 5,000 Women March,” Chicago Tribune, June 8, 1916; Gustafson, Women and the Republican Party, 163.
51. Katherine H. Adams, After the Vote Was Won (McFarland & Company, Inc., 2010), 11 35; The Suffragist, August 25, 1917, 5 8; The Suffragist, September 8, 1917, 5, 8; “First Spoils of War, Chicago Tribune, August 19, 1917, 8; “Jailed for Wilson Heckling,” Chicago Tribune, August 20, 1917, 7; Doris Stevens, Jailed for Freedom (New York: Boni and Liveright, 1920).
52. “Prison Special of Suffragists Reaches Chicago,” Chicago Tribune, March 6, 1919; Catherine H. Palczewski, “The 1919 Prison Special: Constituting White Women’s Citizenship,” Quarterly Journal of Speech 102, no. 2, 107–32.
53. Catt and Shuler, 344–45; Keyssar, 175; Program for Victory Convention (1869 1920) of the National American Woman Suffrage Association and League of Women Voters Congress, Chicago History Museum, ICHi-177297; “News of the Chicago Woman’s Clubs,” Chicago Tribune, February 8, 1920, Flanagan, Seeing with Their Hearts, 147; International Film Service Co., Chicago. Party members picketing the Republican convention in Chicago, June. United States Illinois Chicago, 1920. June. Photograph. https://www.loc.gov/item/ mnwp000308; “Equality Won, Let Equality League Die,” Oct 3, 1920, 5.
54. Keyssar, 183, 199–200; Terborg-Penn, “African American Women and the Woman Suffrage Movement,” 151–54; Sneider, Suffragists in an Imperial Age, 129–34; Cathleen D. Cahill, “Our Democracy and the American Indian: Citizenship, Sovereignty, and the Native Vote in the 1920s,” Journal of Women’s History (Spring 2020), 41–51.
55. Flanagan, Seeing with Their Hearts,143–44.
56. Nestor, “Working Girls’s Need of Suffrage”; Kelley, quoted in HWS, volume 5, 197; Ida B. Wells-Barnett, “How Enfranchisement Stops Lynchings,” Original Rights Magazine (June 1910), 45.
TheopeningoftheShirleyRyanAbilityLabin2017inauguratednot onlyanewhospitalinChicagobutanewerainAmericanhealth care.Formorethanfourdecades,ShirleyWelshRyanhasbeena nationally-recognizedadvocateofearlyinfantdetectionandinterventioninmotor,sensory,andcommunicationdevelopment.In1985,Ryan cofoundedPathwaysAwarenessCenter,anoutpatientpediatrictherapyclinic. In1988,shepioneeredoutreachthroughdirectmailandfounded Pathways.org,apathbreakingmedical,educational,andsocialmediawebsite. Duringthe1990s,shewasappointedbytwoUnitedStatespresidentstothe NationalCouncilonDisabilityinWashington,DC,whichadvisesCongress ondisabilityissues.1 Ryan’sforty-yearadvocacyforearlyinfantdevelopment andphysicalinterventionculminatedinher collaborationwithDr.JoanneSmith.Together theytransformedtheRehabilitationInstitute ofChicagointotheShirleyRyanAbilityLab withauniquevision:tobetheglobalsource ofscience-drivenbreakthroughsinhuman abilityandearlyinfantdevelopment.2
ShirleyWelshRyanwasbornin1939in Gary,Indiana,thethirdoffourchildrenof RobertJamesWelshSr.andCatherineVolk Welsh. 3 RobertWelshmigratedfroman IndianafarmtoGaryafterWorldWarI.He workedinvariousmillstoacquirecapitaland openedhisowngasstationin1925.When Welshdiedin1968,heownedanoilcompany,twenty-eightservicestations,fourreal estatecompanies,twotruckingcompanies, andanautosupplycompany.Atdifferent times,WelshservedaspresidentoftheGary ChamberofCommerceandtheGary IndustrialFoundation.4 CatherineVolkwas theeldestofeightchildrenwhosefamily migratedtoGaryfromPennsylvaniaand becamearegisterednurse.5 WhenshemarriedRobertWelsh,shewasthesupervisorof thepediatricflooratalocalhospitalandpursuingapostgraduatedegreeinpublichealth.6
TheWelshfamilyinitiallyresidedinGary, 7 beforemovingtoOgden Dunes. 8 YoungShirleyattendedneighborhoodschools,firstHolyAngels GradeSchoolfrom1945to1953,andthenHoraceMannHighSchool,from whichshegraduatedin1957.9 Shefondlyremembersatightly-knitneighborhood:“Acrossfromuswasthedoctor,headofpublichealth.Nexttouswas thedoctorwhodeliveredme.Acrossthestreetwasthewomanwhoplayed theharp.”Herchildhoodwasfullofartisticeducation.“Ilovedclassical music,”Ryanrecalls.“Iwasgiventenyearsofclassicalpiano,balletlessons, dancinglessons.”Notsurprisingly,shesummarizes:“Ihadarichchildhood, emotionallyandculturally.”10
ShirleyRyanadmiredherparents.“Mymotherwasaverywise,witty woman.Shewasverypragmatic,veryclassicallydriven,andareallycaring lady,”sherecounts,addingthat“itwasahappyfamily.”TheWelshfamily had“verystrongprinciples,”inherwords.“Envelopesweresetevery SaturdaynightbeforewewenttochurchonSundaywithourdonationtothe church.Prayerbeforeandaftermeals.Faithwasabigdealinourfamily,and todayit’sstillabigdeal.”Athome,Ryanwasimbuedwiththevalueofpublic serviceandpublichealth.Theselessonsandthediversityinherschooling, shebelieves,“wasagifttolearnthegiftsofothers.”11
ShirleyWelshmatriculatedtoNorthwesternUniversityforcollege.In 1959,shemetaseniorbythenameofPatrickRyanduringaserviceatSheil Chapel.12 AftergraduatingfromNorthwesternin1961,Welshspentayearin Paris,studyingattheLouvre.13 UponreturningtoChicago,sheworkedfor fouryearsinthecitybeforereconnectingwithPatrick.14 “Butthistime,itwas magical,”shestates.“Wesharedvisionsandvalues.Welaughedalot together.”15 Thecouplemarriedatherchildhoodparish,theCathedralofthe HolyAngels,in1966.16
Ryan’sinterestinearlychildhooddevelopmentsharpenedin1978after thebirthofherthirdsonCorbett.Ryanwasconfoundedbysomeearlymotor, sensory,andcommunicationdelaysinCorbett’sdevelopmentasaninfant.“I wasn’tgettinganyanswerstowhyourson—whowasintelligent—wasn’t
turning over,’” Ryan complains. “I was getting ‘don’t worry, dear, children develop at different times.’” At eight months, Ryan and her son began a fiveday-a-week therapy program at Children’s Hospital in Chicago.17
Ryansoughtoutthemostadvancedapproachesandtreatmentsinthe world.In1980,shetravelledwithhermotherandCorbetttoBern, Switzerland, and spent several months working with physiotherapist Mary Quinton and Dr. Elsbeth Köng at the Center for Cerebral Motor Disturbances. Both were early pioneers in the treatment of cerebral palsy, developing neurodevelopmental treatment courses, and applying their research findings to early infants.18 EventuallyCorbettRyangrewinability,graduating magnacum laude fromtheUniversityofNotreDamein2005.19
“ThiswasahugemissedideainAmerica,”Ryanremembersthinking. “Earlydetectionandearlyinterventionatonetothreemonths,”shepoints out,weresimplynotinthetreatmentplansofAmericanpediatricians.20 In fact,inthe1980ssuchearlyinterventionswereconsideredradicalin addressingchildhoodneurologicalproblems.
Ryanwasnotdissuaded.“Ilearnedhowtherapeuticinterventionbuilds newpathwaysinthebrain,”shesaysofherexperiencesinSwitzerland.“They canteachtypicalmovementthroughtherapy,synapses,”Ryanexplains.“At thatpointIcalledthempathways,andIbelievedthattherapeuticinterventionteachesandcreatesthepathwaywhichwasotherwiseeliminated.”Ryan realizedthatifsuchtreatmentshadbeenavailablein1978intheUS,herson Corbettcouldhaveenjoyedearliertherapy.Ryanwasinspiredtospreadthe word.“ItwasourmessagetobringthisadvancedknowledgetotheUS,”she recounts,“andtoempowerinfantmotordevelopmentforothers.”21
Ryanthusbeganherforty-yearcampaigntopromotethestudyand treatmentofearlychildhoodneurologicaldevelopment.Butsheencountered resistancewhenshechallengedstandardtreatmentsinearlychildhood neurology.WiththehelpofChicagorealestateentrepreneurArthurRubloff, whowasactiveintheUnitedCerebralPalsyAssociation,22 Ryanorganizeda presentationbyMaryQuintonwiththeCEOsofeightChicagohospitals.Still theywereunconvinced.Ryanrememberstheircollectiveresponse:“Where’s thedata?”23
Butonephysician,Dr.HenryBetts,thenthemedicaldirectorandfuture CEOoftheRehabilitationInstituteofChicago,wasimpressed.“Shirley,I knowwhatyou’redoingisright,”hetoldRyan.BettsconcededthattheUS medicalsysteminthe1980shadnostructureorprogramstotrain,muchless employ,infanttherapists.“StartaclinicintheNorthShoreandnorthwest suburbsandtrainbabytherapists,”BettsadvisedRyan.24
Shedid.In1985,RyancofoundedthePathwaysPediatricClinicinGlenview, Illinois.InRyan’swords,themissionwassimple:“Teachdoctorsconvincingly whyearlyinterventionwasimportantforbabies.”Ryanexplainsthatpediatricianswereunawarethatthree-month-oldbabies“usingtheirnecktojerkwasa latedetection”foraneurologicalproblem.“Physiciansnowrecognizethatinfant toneandsymmetryarekeytotypicalmotormovement,”sheexplains.“Using coremusclesthroughsupervisedtummytimedailyisimportant.”
Theclinicquicklyexpanded.AccordingtoRyan,Pathwaystherapistssoon movedto“helpingchildrenwhowerenoteating.”Evenspeechpathologists, sherecounts,weretrainedin“strengtheningthetongue,thetighteningofthe lips,andsensoryregulation,sincethey’realltiedtomotorskills.”Intheend, “thebarriersweretoeducatethephysicians,”Ryanreiterates.“They’dnever hadacourseinmedicalschoolaboutthedevelopmentofinfants—never.” ThefirstcreditedcurriculumwaseventuallycreatedbyLurieChildren’s HospitalandtheNorthwesternSchoolofMedicine.25
Ryanspeaksatthe1996Pathways.orgThat AllMayWorshipConferenceoninclusionin worshipministry,withMargaretDaley.
Ryan was also instrumental in founding the Pathways Awareness Foundationto promote early detection and intervention to ensure infant physical and sensory development. In 1988, Ryan created the Pathways Medical Round Table, composed of the best pediatric practitioners in Chicago, to guide and distribute new discoveries in infant care and development.26 The Pathways.org guide to typical and atypical motor development was soon endorsed by the American Academy of Physicians. By 2010, the foundation had provided more than 8,000 pediatric therapists with postgraduate training.27
Ryanalsoprovedtobeadigitalinnovator.In1996,thePathways.org websiteprovidedcontenttotheAmericanAcademyofPediatricsforits continuingmedicaleducationprograms.28 Today,Pathways.organnually reachesninemillionindividuals,approximately25,000daily,andprovidesfree videoandeducationalmaterials,tools,andbestpracticesguidelinesinorder tomaximizechildren’smotor,sensory,andcommunicationdevelopment.29
ThePathwaysorganizationsmadeShirleyRyananationalfigure.In the1990s,shewasinvitedtoserveontheNationalCouncilonDisability byPresidentsGeorgeH.W.BushandBillClinton.Inthewakeofthepassage oftheAmericanswithDisabilitiesActof1990(ADA),Ryanwasmotivated toexpandthemeaningoftheADAtoincludechildren’srighttotheir localschools.30
Again,Ryanencounteredresistancetoincludingchildren’sbarriersinto theADA.ShevividlyrecallsherfirstmeetingswiththeNationalCouncil. Ryanquicklyrealizedhowchildrenwithadisabilityweresegregated:“They wouldgotoaseparateschool.”31
RyaneventuallyfoundanallyinNationalCouncilchairpersonMarca Bristo.BristoagreedwithRyanthattheADAshouldcoverchildren’srightsat
In1997,Ryanwashonoredwiththe August W. Christman Award from Mayor Daley’s Office for People with Disabilities. Marca Bristo is in front on the right.
their local school. Previously children with any difference, any disability, anything ranging from impaired hearing, vision, or physical mobility were often required to attend “a separate and equal school,” in Ryan’s words. “By the time I left, it was the children [who] had the right to be included in their own local school with their supports from the government following them through theireducation,”Ryanremembers.“Theycalleditmainstreaming;Icallit inclusion.”32
Ryan’sexperienceontheNationalCouncilonDisabilityconvincedherthat Americansneededtorespondtotheconceptof“disability”inanewway.“I learnedsomethingintheNationalCouncil:theneedforpeople-firstlanguage— apersonwithadisabilityordifference,notahandicappedordisabledperson.”33
Chicagohaslongbeenaninternationalcenterforphysicalmedicine,rehabilitation,anddisabilitytreatment.In1954,orthopedicsurgeonPaul MagnusonfoundedtheRehabilitationInstituteofChicago(RIC)inaNear NorthSidewarehouse.Almostadecadelater,Dr.HenryBettsjoinedtheRIC, andinamatterofyearsnotonlytransformedthatinstitutionbuttheentire fieldofphysicalmedicineandrehabilitation.34 Forthirtyyears,beginningin 1991,theRICwasrankedby U.S.News&WorldReport astheleadinginstitutioninphysicalmedicineandrehabilitationintheUnitedStates.Itremains theonlyhospitalofitskindtoholdthisdistinction.35
ShirleyRyanmetRICpresidentandCEOJoanneSmithin2010.Smith wasraisingmoneyforthenewRICbuilding.“IwenttovisitPatRyanearlyin thefundraisingcampaignandaskedifhewouldliketobethenaming
Thisprogramfrom2004honorsRyanasthe first recipient of the Sacred Heart Schools Goal Award for exemplifying a social awareness which impels to action.
donor,”Smithrecalls.“Andhesaidthankyouverymuch,buthewasn’tinterestedthen.”ButSmithpersistedandcontinuedtoshareinformationabout theRICbuildingproject.Soon,shenoticed“atwinkleinPat’seye,buthe neverreallyletusknowthatnothinghadeverbeennamedafterShirleyinall oftheirextraordinarilygenerousphilanthropicactivity,”Smithexplains. “Theyalwaysdidthingstogether,ortheydidthingsfortheirparents,butthey nevernamedsomethingafteroneofthem.”36
ShirleyRyanandJoanneSmithquicklyfoundcommonground.Smithhas nothingbutpraiseforRyan:“She’sabeautifullifementor,aspiritualsister,a partnerinPathwaysandinvisionofwhatshewantstodowithchildren.She wantstochangetheworldforchildrenwhoarebornwithimpairmentsand congenitalordevelopmentalimpairments.”37
RyanadmiresSmithasavisionaryandsoulmate.“Iwasthrilled”by Smith’svision,remembersRyan.“Researchtoadvancetheunderstanding— it’saperfectmarriagebecauseyouneedthattypeofvoiceintheworldof medicine.”38 In2016,ShirleyandPatRyanpresentedtheRICwiththesingle largestgifttheyevergavetoanyorganizationtocompletethenewfacility, whichwastoberenamedtheShirleyRyanAbilityLab.39
Theconstructionofsuchamedicalfacilitywaswithoutprecedent.No architecturalordesignmodelexistedthatintegratedtherapeuticandclinical servicestotheseverelydisabled,state-of-the-artmedicalresearch,andthe widerangeofmedicalandphysiatricprofessionalsinonephysicalspace. Suchahybridprogramrequiredmultiplearchitectsanddesigners.The humandomaindesignfirmIDEOofSanFranciscowasinitiallycommissionedtotesttheconceptandthenmovedtoarchitecturalfirmsHDRof Omaha,Nebraska,GenslerofChicago,CliveWilkinsonofCulverCity, California,andtheLosAngelesofficeofEGG.Adesignconsensuswas
reachedinwhichresearchactivitywasnotisolatedbut,rather,fullyintegrated withpatientcareandthephysicalclinicalenvironment.Patientsweretobe directlyengagedintheresearchprocessineachofthefive“abilitylabs,” researchlaboratories,andtherapeuticspaces. 40 WhentheShirleyRyan AbilityLabopenedin2017,the$550million,1.2-million-square-footstructurewasanewkindofmedicalfacility:thefirst“translational”researchhospital.TheShirleyRyanAbilityLabintegratesresearchers,clinicians, technologists,patients,andfamiliesinsharedspacesthatstimulatecollaboration,surroundspatients,discoversnewapproaches,andapplies,or“translates,”researchinrealtime.41 Thedesignincludedatleast250,000square feetof“softspace”forfutureexpansionandnewprograms.42
RyanandSmithacknowledgedthatthe“ShirleyRyanAbilityLab”name wasatleastanunconventional,ifnotradical,departure.Butthedisruption wasdeliberate.Bothbelievedthatwordsmatter,recognizingtheneedto changethevocabularyof“disability.”Ryanremembersanearlyconversation withSmith:“Joanne,youandIareonthesamepage.”Thereafter,according toRyan,“abeautifulfriendshipgrew.”43
Instead,theyadoptedtheword“ability”over“cure”becauseabilitycan becustomizedorindividualized.TheShirleyRyanAbilityLabmarksa“pivot fromthe process ofrehabilitationto deliveringontheabilities,oroutcomes,our patientsmostwant,”accordingtoSmith.“Let’sditchthe‘Dis’andfocuson what’sthereinallofus—Ability!”44 By2020,theAbilityLabhadservedmore than50,000patientsannuallyfromaroundtheworld.45
ThearchitectureanddesignworldrecognizedtheShirleyRyanAbilityLab asapathbreakingstructure.Thefacilityhasreceivedmorethanthirty-five architectureanddesignawards,includingsomeofthemostprestigious:the AmericanArchitectureAwardfromtheChicagoAthenaeum,meritawards fromtheChicagoBuildingCongressandtheIllinoisChapteroftheAmerican SocietyofLandscapeArchitects,andsixfromvariouschaptersofthe AmericanInstituteofArchitects.46
ShirleyRyan’sactivismonbehalfofchildrenhasbeenonlypartofher broadcivicengagement.Shehasservedasatrusteeandinnovatoronawide rangeofboards:theLyricOperaofChicago,theChicagoCouncilonGlobal Affairs,theAlainLockeCharterAcademy,theArtInstituteofChicago,
Dr.JoanneSmith(left)andShirleyRyan (right)atthe2009annualdinnerfor Pathways.org.
WTTW-PBS, the University of Notre Dame, and the John F. Kennedy Center in Washington, DC. Ryan was the founder of the Women’s Board of the Lincoln Park Zoo and chaired the Chicago Community Trust.47
Ryan’saccomplishmentshavebeenacknowledgedwithmultipleawards: theChicagoCouncilonGlobalAffairsGlobalLeadershipAward(2006),the Northwestern University Alumna Service Award (2013), the Harvard Club of Chicago Statesman Award, the Kids Count Award from the Voices of Illinois Children (1999), and the Bertha Honoré Palmer Making History Award for Distinction in Civic Leadership from the Chicago History Museum (2016). She has received honorary doctorates from the University of Illinois at Chicago, the Catholic Theological Union, the University of Notre Dame, and Northwestern University. 48
ShirleyandPatRyanarearguablythemostgenerousalumnidonorsin NorthwesternUniversityhistory.Thecouplesubsidizedtworenovationsof themaingymnasiuminMcGawMemorialHall,firstin1983andagainin 2017–18.ThefacilitywasrenamedWelsh-RyanArenainhonoroftheirparents.In1996,DycheStadiumwasrenovatedandrenamedRyanFieldin appreciationoftheirserviceinraisinggiftsfromapproximately400alumni.49
Since2000,largedonationsbyShirleyandPatRyanhavecreatedmultipleprogramsandstructuresontheEvanstoncampus:theRyanFamily ScholarshipsenablingNorthwesternstudentstoavoidtakingoutanystudentloans,theRyanFamilyAthleticScholarships,theRyanFamily Fellowshipsforgraduatestudentsinnanotechnology,theCenterfor NanofabricationandMolecularSelf-AssemblyinPatrickG.andShirleyW. RyanHall,theRyanFamilyAuditoriumintheNorrisUniversityCenter,the ShirleyWelshRyanOperaTheaterintheRyanCenterfortheMusicalArts, andtheRyanFieldhouse.50
RyanspeaksatthePathways.org29th anniversary dinner in 2013.
Northwestern’smedicalfacilitiesinChicagohavebeenequallytransformedbytheRyans.InadditiontotheShirleyRyanAbilityLab,anearliergift resultedinthePatrickG.andShirleyW.RyanAtriumintheRobertH.Lurie MedicalResearchCenteratNorthwestern’sFeinbergSchoolofMedicine.51
ForRyan,herphilanthropicinterestsandgenerosityarerootedinherparents,RobertandCatherineWelsh.They“taughtusbytherules,theS-S-S,” explainsRyan.“Youhadtospendathird,saveathird,andshareathird.”52 In theend,“Howdoyoumeasureyourlife?”sheasksrhetorically.“Youmeasure yourlifebyhowmanypeopleyouhaveempowered.”53
TimothyJ.GilfoyleteacheshistoryatLoyolaUniversityChicagoandistheeditorinchiefof the Oxford Encyclopedia of American Urban History (Oxford University Press, 2019).
ILLUSTRATIONS |AllimagescourtesyofShirleyRyanunlessotherwisenoted. Page 61, photograph by Timothy Gilfoyle.
FURTHERREADING |InformationonShirleyWelshRyancanbefoundat Northwestern University Alumni Association, “Patrick G. Ryan and Shirley Welsh R yan,” 2013, accessed March 5, 2016, http://www.alumni.northwestern.edu/s/ 1479/02-naa/naa/naa-interior-2.aspx?sid=1479&gid=2&pgid=6065; “Shirley Ryan, Patrick G. and Shirley W. Ryan Foundation,” Inside Philanthropy , 2014, accessed March 5, 2016, http://insidephilanthropy.squarespace.com/insider-guide-to-programoffic/shirley-ryan-patrick-g-and-shirley-w-ryan-foundation.html; and Susan B. Noyes, “Inspi ration and Transformation: Shirley Ryan AbilityLab Combines Pathways and RIC,” Better, June 24, 2016, accessed Feb. 20, 2020, https://better.net/chicago/ philanthropy/shirley-ryan-abilitylab-ric-pathways/. Useful introductions to the architectural and social design of the Shirley Ryan AbilityLab can be found in Edie Cohen, “Three Major Firms Collaborate on Massive Shirley Ryan AbilityLab in Chicag o,” Interior Design, July 7, 2017, accessed February 10, 2020, http://m.interiordesign.net/ projects/13417-three-major-firms-collaborate-on-massive-shirley-ryan-abilitylab-inchicago/;and Ian Volner, “Shirley Ryan AbilityLab,” Architect , May 2019, accessed Feb. 14, 2020, https://www.architectmagazine.com/project-gallery/shirley-ryan-abilitylab_o. Lists of the many architectural and design honors awa rded to the Shirley Ryan AbilityLab can be found at: “Shirley Ryan AbilityLab,” HDR, 2021, accessed Feb. 20, 2021, https://www.hdrinc.com/portfolio/shirley-ryan-abilitylab; and “Shirley Ryan AbilityLab,” Gensler, 2021, accessed Feb. 21, 2021, https://www.gensler.com/projects/shirley-ryan-abilitylab.
In 2019, Ryan received an Honorary Doctor of Humane Letters degree from Northwestern University.
1.“Our People,” Pathways.Org, 2016, accessed March 21, 2016, https://pathways.org/us/our-people/directors/.
2.“Joanne C. Smith, MD,” Northwestern Medicine Feinberg School of Medicine, 2020, accessed February 6, 2020, https://www.feinberg.northwestern.edu/ faculty-profiles/az/profile. html?xid=16461.
3.United States Manuscript Federal Census for 1940, Lake County, Gary, Indiana, pp. 95–96, available at Ancestry.com, accessed December 15, 2020; Trevor Jensen, “Alice Welsh Skilling: 1941–2008,” Chicago Tribune, February 12, 2008, accessed December 15, 2020, https://www.chicagotribune.com/news/ct -xpm-2008-02-12-0802110531story.html.
4.“Robert Welsh Rites Set for Tomorrow [obituary],” Chicago Tribune, October 11, 1968, section 3, p. 13.
5.Shirley Ann Welsh Certificate of Birth, Indiana State Board of Health, County of Lake, City of Gary, Registered No. 1835, available at Ancestry.com, accessed February 15, 2021, https:// www.ancestry.com/imageviewer/collections/60871/images/40474_35769801854?treeid=&personid=&rc=&useP UB=true&_phsrc=FlY4&_phstart=suc cessSource&pId=4992009; United States Manuscript 15th Federal Census, 1930, Lake County, Gary, Indiana, sheet 12B, available at Ancestry.com, accessed February15, 2021, https:// www.ancestry.com/imageviewer/ collections/6224/images/4584693_0067 8?treeid=&personid=&rc=&usePUB= true&_phsrc=FlY1&_phstart=successS ource&pId=120861830.
6.Shirley Welsh Ryan, oral history interview by Timothy J. Gilfoyle, December 7, 2020, deposited in the collection of the Chicago History Museum (hereafter, Ryan, interview).
7.The family resided at 530 Carolina Street in 1940 and 562 Lincoln Street thereafter. See United States Manuscript 16th Federal Census, 1940, Lake County, Gary, Indiana, pp. 95–96, available at Ancestry.com, accessed December 15, 2020; Ryan interview.
8.Ryan, interview.
9.Ryan, interview.
10.Ryan, interview.
11.Ryan, interview.
12.Teddy Greenstein, “A Humble, ‘Elusive’ Billionaire: Northwestern Donor Pat Ryan Does It His Way,” Chicago Tribune, September 28, 2017, accessed November 30, 2020, https:// www.chicagotribune.com/sports/college/ ct-pat-ryan-billionaire-northwesterndonor-spt-0929-20170928-story.html.
13.Northwestern University Alumni Association, “Patrick G. Ryan and Shirley Welsh Ryan,” 2013, accessed March 5, 2016, http://www.alumni. northwestern.edu/s/1479/02naa/naa/naa-interior-2.aspx?sid= 1479&gid=2&pgid=6065. Ryan spent 1961–62 in Paris. See Shirley A. Welsh, Passenger and Crew List, July 13, 1962, New York State, Passenger and Crew Lists, 1917–1967[database online], Record Group 85, Series NumberA3998, NARA Roll Number: 713, Records of the Immigration and Naturalization Service, 1787–2004, NAI Number: 2848504, available at Ancestry.com, accessed February 20, 2021, https:// www.ancestry.com/imageviewer/ collections/1277/images/42804_ 336701-00133?treeid=&personid= &rc=&usePUB=true&_phsrc=FlY10& _phstart=successSource&pId=7468128.
14.Greenstein, “A Humble, ‘Elusive’ Billionaire.”
15.Ryan, interview; Greenstein, “A Humble, ‘Elusive’ Billionaire.”
16.Ryan, interview. For the 1966 date, see Shirley Ann Welsh, Record of Marriage, Lake County, Indiana, Indiana Archives and Records Administration; Indianapolis, IN; Series Number: 89-204; Year:June 1966; Certificate No. 002781, available at Ancestry.com, accessed February 20, 2021, https:// www.ancestry.com/imageviewer/collections/61009/images/40475_54064100550?treeid=&personid=&rc=&useP UB=true&_phsrc=FlY5&_phstart=suc cessSource&pId=900645091; and Northwestern University Alumni Association, “Patrick G. Ryan and Shirley Welsh Ryan,” 2013, accessed March 5, 2016, http://www.alumni. northwestern.edu/s/1479/02-
naa/naa/naa-interior-2.aspx?sid= 1479&gid=2&pgid=6065.
17.Ryan, interview.
18.Dr. Elsbeth Köng, “Mary Buchanan Quinton, M.B.E. (1912–2000),” St. Ursula Magazine, c. 2000, accessed December 7, 2020, http://www.stursula.ch/Magazine/OLD/ Quinton.html; “2005 Recipient –Dr. Elsbeth Köng, MD,” Pathways.org Pioneer Awards, Pathways.org, 2020, accessed February 19, 2021, https://pathways.org/award/ pathways-pioneer-awards/
19.“Community Advisor – Corbett Ryan,” CP Research Network, 2021, accessed February 18, 2021, https://cprn.org/ community-advisory-committee/community-advisor-corbett-ryan/; “Shirley Ryan, Patrick G. and Shirley W. Ryan Foundation,” Inside Philanthropy, 2014, accessed March 5, 2016, http://insidephilanthropy.squarespace.com/insiderguide-to-program-offic/shirley-ryan-patri ck-g-and-shirley-w-ryan-foundation.html.
20.Ryan, interview.
21.Ryan, interview.
22.On Rubloff and the United Cerebral Palsy Association, see Charles Storch, “Gone,” Chicago Tribune, August 29, 2007, accessed February 18, 2021, https://www.chicagotribune.com/ news/ct-xpm-2007-08-29-0708280920story.html.
23.Ryan, interview.
24.Ryan, interview. On Betts, see Who’s Who in the Midwest, 2003 (New Providence, NJ: Marquis Who’s Who, 2002), 49.
25.Ryan, interview.
26.“Shirley Ryan, Patrick G. and Shirley W. Ryan Foundation,” Inside Philanthropy
27.Pat Vaughan Tremmel, “Undergraduate Humanitarian Honored,” Northwestern University News, May 18, 2010, accessed March 21, 2016, http://www.northwestern.edu/newscenter/stories/2010/05/ryanprize.html#!.
28.“Shirley Ryan, Patrick G. and Shirley W. Ryan Foundation,” Inside Philanthropy
29.“Our Mission,” Pathways.org, 2016, accessed March 21, 2016, https:// pathways.org/us/our-mission/.
30.Ryan, interview.
31.Ryan, interview.
32.Ryan, interview.
33.Ryan, interview.
34.On Magnuson and Betts, see Timothy J. Gilfoyle, “East Coast Transplants: Interviews with Henry B. Betts and Robert V. Remini,” Chicago History, vol. 32, no. 3 (Spring 2004), 48–63; Bob Goldsborough, “Dr. Henry Betts, leader in field of rehabilitation medicine, dies at 86,” Chicago Tribune, January 5, 2015, accessed February 20, 2021, https://www.chicagotribune.com/news/o bituaries/ct-henry-betts-obituary-met20150105-story.html; Henry Betts, “The Rehabilitation Experience,” in Nancy Martin, Nancye B. Holt, and Dorothy Hicks, eds. Comprehensive Rehabilitation Nursing (New York: McGraw-Hill, 1981); Betts, “Sex for the Handicapped,” in The Ann Landers Encyclopedia A to Z (New York: Doubleday, 1978), 977–79; “The Physician and the Handicapped,” Chicago Medicine, 81 (November 1978), 1015–16.
35.Debbie Overman, “Shirley Ryan AbilityLab Ranks #1 for the 30th Consecutive Year,” Rehab Management, July 28, 2020, accessed September 12, 2020, https://www.rehabpub.com/ industry-news/company-news/shirleyryan-abilitylab-ranks-1-for-the-30th-consecutive-year/.
36.Dr. Joanne C. Smith, oral history interview by Timothy J. Gilfoyle, January 19, 2021, deposited in the collection of the Chicago History Museum (hereafter, Smith, interview).
37.Smith, interview.
38.Ryan, interview.
39.On the Ryan gift being the largest single donation at one time to any institution, see Smith, interview. On the renaming of the RIC, see Susan B. Noyes, “Inspiration and Transformation: Shirley Ryan AbilityLab Combines Pathways and RIC,” Better, June 24, 2016, accessed February 20, 2020, https://better.net/ chicago/philanthropy/shirley-ryanabilitylab-ric-pathways/.
40.Ian Volner, “Shirley Ryan AbilityLab,” Architect, May 2019, accessed 14 February 2020, https://www.architectmagazine.com/
project-gallery/shirley-ryan-abilitylab_o.
41.Overman, “Shirley Ryan AbilityLab Ranks #1 for the 30th Consecutive Year.”
42.Volner, “Shirley Ryan AbilityLab.”
43.Ryan, interview.
44.Smith, “Ditching the ‘Dis.’”
45.“Joanne C. Smith, MD,” Shirley Ryan Ability Lab, 2020, accessed February 6, 2020, https://www.sralab.org/ staff/joanne-c-smith-md.
46.The many architectural and design honors awarded to the Shirley Ryan AbilityLab can be found at: “Shirley Ryan AbilityLab,” HDR, 2021, accessed February 20, 2021, https://www.hdrinc.com/portfolio/ shirley-ryan-abilitylab; and “Shirley Ryan AbilityLab,” Gensler, 2021, accessed February 21, 2021, https:// www.gensler.com/projects/shirleyryan-abilitylab.
47.On Ryan’s civic service on boards, see “Our People,” Pathways.Org; “Shirley Ryan, Patrick G. and Shirley W. Ryan Foundation,” Inside Philanthropy
48.On Ryan’s awards, see “Patrick G. and Shirley Welsh Ryan,” Northwestern Alumni Association, 2020, accessed November 30, 2020, https:// www.alumni.northwestern.edu/s/1479/ 02-naa/16/interior.aspx?pgid= 6065&gid=2; Tremmel, “Undergraduate Humanitarian Honored”; “Our People,” Pathways.Org
49.Ryan, interview; “Welsh-Ryan Arena,” Wikipedia, last updated January 8, 2021, accessed Feb. 18, 2021, https:// en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Welsh%E2%80%9 3Ryan_Arena; “Ryan Field (stadium),” Wikipedia, last updated January 5, 2021, accessed February 20, 2021, https:// en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ryan_Field_ (stadium).
50.“Patrick G. and Shirley W. Ryan Hall,” Northwestern Magazine, Fall 2012, available at: http://www.northwestern.edu/ magazine/fall2012/feature/whats-in-aname-sidebar/patrick-g.-and-shirley-w.ryan-hall.html; Greenstein, “A Humble, ‘Elusive’ Billionaire: Northwestern Donor Pat Ryan Does It His Way”; “Ryan Center for the Musical Arts,” Northwestern University Bienen School of Music,
2020, accessed November 30, 2020, https://music.northwestern.edu/ about/facilities.
51.“Patrick G. and Shirley W. Ryan Hall,” Northwestern Magazine
52.Ryan, interview.
53.“Shirley Ryan, Patrick G. and Shirley W. Ryan Foundation,” Inside Philanthropy