Something is brewing in Oakland that I'm so excited about!
Individuals and groups are coming together to re-enact a suffrage parade that took place in Oakland in 1908-the FIRST suffrage parade in California! Suffrage didn't pass for another three years, in 1911...but women fought hard for decades to get it through.
We want to honor those women who struggled so valiantly to get us the right we take for granted today. Can you imagine if women couldn't vote now?!! Yet only 100 years ago it was the case all across the country with the exception of four states: Idaho, Wyoming, Colorado and Utah.
The parade takes place Sunday, Oct. 2. Gather at the Lakeside Park bandstand, march up Grand Avenue to the pergola, and return through the park. It's free.
If you want to spend money, buy a $10 commemorative sash, or donate to help defray expenses for things like street closure permit and the requisite police officers to monitor the event. Visit this website to learn more and to get your sash/donate.
Here is a photo of the 1908 parade. In the background is the (now gone) Masonic Temple at 12th and Washington. The woman on the right is mother to the woman in the center, which makes my heart swell. I somewhere also came across a photo of a woman pushing her child in the stroller. Women working together across the generations: beautiful.
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