Since today is November 11—the end date of World War One—I couldn’t help looking for photos marking the occasion. The holiday was known as Armistice Day up until 1954, and the date still honors the end of that global conflict.
Not all Americans were in favor of going to war in 1917, and the US government struck back at dissenters particularly hard. Just after the United States’ entry into the war, the government passed the Espionage Act that made it a crime for anyone to interfere with recruitment by the military. Thousands of objectors were thrown in prison, including many whose only offense was speaking out against the war. Hundreds remained in jail even after the war had ended.
This photo, taken November 11, 1922, shows a group of men and women requesting amnesty for men still in jail. They were part of a nation-wide movement. See more photos and an explanation here. Unfortunately, there is no precise information on the source of this image. I’m assuming it comes from the archive of the Washington DC newspaper Evening Star.
The three women are bundled up against the cold. Note their different coat lengths. It is the early 1920s, and skirts were already on their way up. All of these coats are on the long side for the time. Only the woman in the middle—the youngest of the trio–shows the slightest nod to current fashions. The woman on the right is identified as Abby Scott Baker, a long-time advocate of women’s suffrage and no stranger to protests.
