Learn about Framingham’s suffragist history on Sept. 8

While Framingham residents Louise Parker Mayo and Josephine Collins are two of Framingham’s most well-known suffragists, they were just two of many residents who picketed and protested for voting rights. Many of those activists are memorialized at spots throughout the city, some with existing homes now owned by current Framingham residents.

FRAMINGHAM – It was July 14, 1917, and Framingham resident Louise Parker Mayo, then 49, was arrested with 15 other women picketing outside the White House in Washington, D.C., during a demonstration in support of the 19th Amendment.

The former schoolteacher and mother of seven was fined $25, but refused to pay, so she was sentenced to 60 days at the Occoquan Workhouse in Virginia. She was pardoned by President Woodrow Wilson after three days.

“Of course we feel terribly to have mother arrested,” one of her daughters told The Boston Post. “It seems like a disgrace, doesn’t it? But we don’t mind for it’s in a good cause.”

Two years later, in February 1919, Framingham-born activist and local store owner Josephine Collins, then 40, was arrested in Boston for refusing to disperse during a demonstration on Boston Common. She owned and managed the village store at Framingham Center, but encountered backlash from customers when it came to her activism. She was sentenced to eight years at Charles Street Jail.

The women are some of Framingham’s most-recognized suffragists, but they were only two of more than 500 women to have been arrested for demanding voting rights during demonstrations in Boston and Washington. They were also only two of many in Framingham who protested and picketed to secure those rights.

The intersection of Oak Street and Edgell Road in Framingham honors these two women with a sign reading “Mayo-Collins Square.” On Sunday, Framingham History Center member, volunteer and education lecturer at Framingham State University Anita Danker will highlight other historic spots in the city during a discussion titled “In a Good Cause: Framingham & the Fight for Women’s Suffrage.” The talk is scheduled for 2-3 p.m. at the Village Hall Common.

The event, hosted by the Framingham History Center and League of Women Voters of Framingham, will highlight where events of consequence were held to advance the “good cause,” along with the women who stood there.

Some other women to be discussed during this event include:

– Abigail May

• • Submitted petitions in 1853 and 1875 to amend the Massachusetts constitution to allow women to vote

• • Wrote articles for “The Woman’s Journal,” based in Boston, advocating for women’s suffrage

• • In 1879, she became the first woman to register to vote in Concord for school committee elections, as women were not yet allowed to vote in general elections

– Julia Ward Howe

• • Authored the Civil War anthem “Battle Hymn of the Republic”

• • Co-founded the American Woman Suffrage Association

• • Ties to Framingham?: A featured speaker at Harmony Grove, a recreational area that hosted an outdoor amphitheater known for hosting rallies and speeches advocating for reform. There is a plaque representing its prominence today, located at the corner of Franklin and Henry Streets

• • First sung in public at Plymouth Church in Framingham in 1862

– Meta Vaux Warrick Fuller

• • A black artist in Framingham known for civil rights-based sculptures, including one commissioned by W.E.B. Du Bois in 1913 for New York’s 50th anniversary celebration of the Emancipation Proclamation

• • Ties to Framingham?: She sculpted a plaster medallion, commissioned by the Framingham Equal Suffrage League in 1915, a plaque for Framingham Union Hospital and the bronze “Story Time” statue at Framingham Public Library

• • Created the suffrage medallion to sell at fundraising fairs for the Framingham Equal Suffrage League

• • Was involved with St. Andrew’s Episcopal Church in Framingham and helped organize the Framingham Dramatic Society

• • Lived with husband on Warren Road, home is now privately-owned

– Margaret Permain Welch

• • Reproductive rights and environmental activist who grew up on Beacon Hill in Boston

• • Ties to Framingham?: She spent summers at the Pearmain House on Wayside Inn Road in Framingham

• • Her country home – The Nixon House – is still located on Edmands Road

• • Co-founded The Framingham Friends Meeting, a place of worship, with friend Penelope Turton. It’s still located in Framingham today at 841 Edmands Rd.

– Olive Mills Belches

• • Former state chairman of the Massachusetts branch of the National Woman’s Party

• • Ties to Framingham?: Lived in Framingham

• • Was the proprietor of a nursery in Framingham Center that sold apples and flowers

– Mary Ware Dennett

• • Worcester-born reformer and activist who advocated for free availability of birth control and sex education

• • Worked as field secretary for the Massachusetts Suffrage Association and then for the National American Women’s Suffrage Association

• • Was arrested in 1929 for distributing copies of “The Sex Side of Life,” an educational pamphlet about sex, through the mail and was charged with promoting obscenity, according to a dissertation by Rutgers University lecturer Lynn Lederer.

• • Ties to Framingham? She lived on Gates Street, home now privately-owned

– Lucretia Crocker

• • First female supervisor of Boston Public Schools and first women elected to the Boston School Committee

• • Pioneered discovery method of teaching mathematics and natural sciences

• • Ties to Framingham?: Crocker Hall at Framingham State University, built in 1886, is named after her

– Mary Livermore

• • Massachusetts-based journalist, activist and lecturer

• • Was the only female reporter to cover President Abraham Lincoln ’s nomination win for president in 1860

Learn more about these women and other places were changed was enacted in Framingham during the event on Sunday. Tickets are $5 for FHC members and $10 for non-members. To purchase tickets, visit framinghamhistory.org.

Lauren Young writes about immigration, politics, and social issues. Reach her at 315-766-6912 or lyoung@wickedlocal.com. Follow her on twitter at laurenatmilford.