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Regal Young Woman Rode into History on a Magnificent White Horse
A cool, breezy afternoon in March 1913. A crowd of drunk, rowdy men stares in astonishment as Inez Milholland approaches on a magnificent white horse, wearing a gold crown and a flowing white cape. Milholland is a 26-year-old lawyer, labor activist, and advocate for the poor who has become a heroine of the suffragist movement. She is there to lead a procession of 5,000 women through Washington, D.C. for the nation’s first major suffragist parade.
As Milholland and the marchers approach, the men assault them with curses, spit on them, and strike some in the face. The police stand by idly, doing nothing. The only group that steps in to defend the women is a Boy Scout troop.
Milholland’s flair for the dramatic and her public speaking skills ultimately put the suffragist movement on America’s front pages. However, she never lived to see the ratification of the 19th Amendment in 1920, which gave women the right to vote.
Inez Milholland’s story is intertwined with that of Sharon McMahon, a former high school government teacher who has championed the unsung heroines of American history through her book “The Small and the Mighty.” Like Milholland, McMaster highlights the fortitude and determination of ordinary people who changed America despite having minimal power.
The book begins with the story of Julia Ward Howe, who authored the lyrics to “The Battle Hymn of the Republic,” and continued with the stories of figures like Virginia Randolph, “the Mother of the Mississippi,” who taught thousands of Black students in the 19th century, even in the face of formidable obstacles.
McMaster identifies the key to success that these individuals shared: humility and a willingness to choose hope. “They (the small and mighty) weren’t waiting for hope to be a feeling that descends upon us from the heavens like a beam of light,” she argues. “They knew that hope was a choice they made. It was a choice to believe that things could be better.”
At a time when many feel disillusioned with American society, McMaster’s book, “The Small and Mighty,” offers a powerful inspiration for ordinary people to participate in shaping the country.
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