Josephine Collins

Josephine Collins (1879 – May 1, 1961) was a suffragist fighting for a woman's right to vote. She was the first born daughter of Irish immigrants Cornelius Collins and Catherine Horrigan Collins. She had one sister and five brothers. The family lived in Framingham, Massachusetts.[1]

Josephine Collins
OccupationSuffragist 

Suffrage movement

Collins joined the National Woman's Party in 1918.[2][3]

Collins and other women rallied on February 24, 1919 to greet President Woodrow Wilson on Boston Common. Wilson was traveling from Versailles, where he had World War I peace talks, to Washington DC and the protesters were there to protest the fact that Wilson did not give his opinion on suffrage. Holding signs which demanded the suffrage's amendment, Collins's sign read “Mr. President, how long must women wait for liberty?”. The women were warned of arrest by the police if they did not leave. Collins along with twenty-two other women were arrested and then taken to the House of Detention for Women.

Collins and others women refused the court's request to give their real names and to pay a five dollar fine. Collins and the group were then transferred to the Charles Street Jail where they were to serve their jail sentence for eight days.[4][5][6] Collins was released early when a brother paid her bail.[7]

Livelihood

Collins, who was single, owned a dry goods store in Framingham. She experienced boycotting of her store because of her stance on suffrage for women.[8] She also owned a tea shop where women gathered without companions and discussed issues freely.[9] Collins died unmarried in Framingham, Massachusetts in 1961.[10]

References
  1. "1910 US Census". Ancestry.com. Retrieved August 18, 2018.
  2. "National Woman's Party Suffragists". National Woman's Party Suffragists. May 21, 2016. Retrieved August 19, 2018.
  3. Stevens, Doris (1920). Jailed for Freedom. Boni and Liverigh. pp. 357. collins.
  4. "Framingham History Center".
  5. Stevens, Doris (1920). Jailed for Freedom. Internet Archives: Boni and Liveright.
  6. "Another Suffragette is Ejected from Jail". Boston Evening Globe. February 27, 1919.
  7. "Source Framingham". Retrieved August 19, 2018.
  8. "Suffrage Prisoners" (PDF). Center for the Historical Study of Women and Gender. Binghamton Univ SUNY. p. Appendix 4, Page 357.
  9. "Framingham woman gives live lesson of suffrage movement". WickedLocal.com. Retrieved August 19, 2018.
  10. "Massachusetts, Death Index, 1901–1980". Ancestry.com. Ancestry.com. Retrieved August 19, 2018.
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