1st Women's Suffrage Parade: Boone, IA, October 1908

First Unitarian Church Women's Unity Circle under the leadership of Rev. Eleanor E. Gordon who was also the President of the Iowa Equal Suffrage Association [IESA] and the Des Moines Political Equality Club with the Boone Equality Club organized and lead the first suffrage parade at the October 1908 annual meeting of the Iowa Equal Suffrage Association.

National Equal Suffrage Association President, Anna Howard Shaw, headliner for the conference, participated in the parade including making a speech even though, as late as October 14, she scorned the need for such demonstrations as she had witnessed in London earlier in the year.

Parade Pictures

Newspaper Coverage

Boone News Leader

New York Times "IOWA SEES SUFFRAGETTES.; 600 Led by the Rev. Anna Shaw Parade for Boone's Benefit."
Friday, October 30, 1908

In Her Own Words...

Rev. Eleanor Elizabeth Gordon
Reminisces from 1928
[from the IA Historical Society]

Selected Participating Organizations & People

Anna Howard Shaw, [Opinion expressed 10/14/1908 after witnessing London parade of June 13, 1908] NY Times, 10/15/1908
...National American Equal Suffrage Association

Boone Equality Club, started by Rowena Stevens

Des Moines Political Equality Club became the Iowa League of Women Voters in 1920

First Unitarian Church, Unity Circle

Iowa Equal Suffrage Association, Minutes from the 37th Annual Convention, Boone, Iowa, Oct. 27, 1908

Mrs Mary Jane Coggelshall

Iowa Equal Suffrage Association

Was the 1908 Boone Parade the First Woman Suffrage Parade in the Nation?

PRO

CON

Other Contenders

Related Stories...