Museum of Resistance and Resilience

Suffragists marching through New York City on May 3, 1913, lobbying for the right to vote by organizing parades marches.

In the early 1900s, the women’s suffrage movement grew in the U.S. and Britain as women lobbied for the right to vote, organizing parades and marches not unlike the ones we see today, and in the process, establishing three identifying colors to wear to events.

Purple represented loyalty, gold was a nod to the sunflowers of Kansas where Susan B Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton campaigned (although in Britain they used green to signify hope), and white to represent purity and virtue

These 3 colors became emblematic of the women’s suffrage movement at large. Suffragettes would wear purple and gold/ green sashes over a white dress at public events.

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