On March 3, 1913, protesters parted for the woman in white: dressed in a flowing cape and  sitting astride a white horse, the activist Inez Milholland was  hard to miss. She was riding at the helm of the  Women’s Suffrage Parade- the first mass protest for a woman’s  right to vote on a national scale. After months of strategic planning  and controversy, thousands of women gathered  in Washington D.C. Here, they called for a constitutional  amendment granting them the right to vote. By 1913, women’s rights activists had  been campaigning for decades. As a disenfranchised group, women had no voice in the laws that  affected their– or anyone else’s– lives. However, they were struggling to secure  broader support for political equality. They’d achieved no major victories  since 1896, when Utah and Idaho enfranchised women. That brought the total number of states which recognized a women’s right to vote to four. A new, media-savvy spirit arrived  in the form of Alice Paul. She was inspired by the British  suffragettes, who went on hunger strikes and endured imprisonment in the early 1900s. Rather than conduct costly campaigns  on a state-by-state basis, Paul sought the long-lasting impact  of a constitutional amendment, which would protect women’s voting  rights nationwide. As a member of the National American  Women Suffrage Association, Paul proposed a massive pageant to whip  up support and rejuvenate the movement. Washington authorities initially  rejected her plan- and then tried to relegate the march  to side streets. But Paul got those decisions overturned and confirmed a parade for the day  before the presidential inauguration of Woodrow Wilson. This would maximize media coverage and grab the attention of the  crowds who would be in town. However, in planning the parade, Paul mainly focused on appealing to  white women from all backgrounds, including those who were racist. She actively discouraged African  American activists and organizations from participating- and stated that those who did so  should march in the back. But black women would not be  made invisible in a national movement they helped shape. On the day of the march, Ida B. Wells-Barnett, a ground-breaking investigative journalist and anti-lynching advocate, refused to move to the back and  proudly marched under the Illinois banner. The co-founder of the NAACP,  Mary Church Terrell, joined the parade with the 22 founders  of the Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, an organization created by female  students from Howard University. In these ways and more, black women persevered  despite deep hostility from white women in the movement, and at great political and physical risk. On the day of the parade, suffragists assembled to create a  powerful exhibition. The surging sections of the procession  included international suffragists, artists, performers and business-owners. Floats came in the form of golden  chariots; an enormous Liberty Bell; and a map  of enfranchised countries. On the steps of the Treasury Building, performers acted out the historical  achievements of women to a live orchestra. The marchers carried on even as a  mob blocked the route, hurling insults and spitting at women,   tossing cigars, and physically  assaulting participants. The police did not intervene, and in the end,  over 100 women were hospitalized. Their mistreatment, widely reported  throughout the country, catapulted the parade into the public eye—  and garnered suffragists greater sympathy. National newspapers lambasted the police, and Congressional hearings investigated  their actions during the parade. After the protest, the "Women’s Journal"  declared, “Washington has been disgraced. Equal  suffrage has scored a great victory." In this way, the march initiated a surge of support for women’s voting rights that endured in the coming years. Suffragists kept up steady pressure  on their representatives, attended rallies, and petitioned  the White House. Inez Milholland, the woman on  the white horse, campaigned constantly throughout  the United States, despite suffering from chronic  health problems. She did not live to see her efforts  come to fruition. In 1916, she collapsed while giving a  suffrage speech and died soon after. According to popular reports, her last words were, “Mr. President, how long must women  wait for liberty?” Though full voting inclusion  would take decades, in 1920, Congress ratified the  19th amendment, finally granting women the right to vote.