Josephine Day Bennett

Josephine was the daughter of George and Katherine Beach Day. Her father was an executive at Pope Manufacturing and her mother was a well-known suffragist and civil rights activist.

Suffragist

In 1911, Josephine made her first public speech, on the subject of women’s suffrage, at the Connecticut State Capitol.

Three years later, she was one of the organizers of a large suffrage parade of more than 1,000 women in Hartford.

In the following years, she lectured on suffrage and feminism throughout the U. S. and Europe.

National Woman’s Party

In her fight for women’s suffrage, Josephine was best known for her involvement in protests in Washington D. C.

A member of the National Woman’s Party, Josephine was arrested on January 8, 1919 for burning President Woodrow Wilson’s speeches in front of the White House.

Refusing to pay a $5 fine (for violation of park regulations), she was jailed for 5 days. While in jail, she went on a hunger strike.

The national attention drawn to imprisoned suffragists, such as Josephine, added pressure in Washington. The 19th Amendment passed the House in May 1919 and the Senate the following month. In August 1920, the Amendment was ratified.

Other Causes

In 1913, Josephine was one of the founders of the Hartford Equal Franchise League. The League advocated not only for voting rights, but better pay and working conditions, a federal ban on child labor, education reform and more.

In 1919, she was one of the organizers of the Connecticut Farmer-Labor Party, an affiliate of the American Labor Party. She ran (unsuccessfully) for several political positions including Secretary of the State and U. S. Senate.

In 1921, Josephine and her first husband M. Toscan Bennett became involved with what would become Brookwood Labor College in Katonah, New York. The institution was the country’s first residential workers’ school. It sought to educate men and women for leadership in what was termed the labor movement.

In 1923, Josephine co-founded the Connecticut branch of the American Birth Control League.