Charleston Women Summer 2020

www.CharlestonBrides.com | www.ChsWomenInBusiness.com | www.ReadCWomen.com 18 - CW feature an overflow crowd spilling out onto King Street. One of those picketing in Washington was Charlestonian Anita Pollitzer. She and her two sisters had helped to found the state branch of the NWP. Pollitzer was active at the national level and persuaded Tennessee lawmakers to ratify the constitutional amendment, thereby securing the number of votes necessary for it to become law. (The South Carolina legislature overwhelmingly rejected ratification.) Pollitzer’s fight continued as she and Alice Paul lobbied for the Equal Rights Amendment, banning gender discrimination. Her article, “Women and the Law,” published in a magazine called Jewish Woman, asserted that Reform Judaism regards women as equal to men in religious practices — a premise she argued should be followed by society as a whole. In fact, when Pollitzer married in 1928, she kept her maiden name. Pollitzer also called for women’s rights on the international stage. In 1926, she was a delegate to the International Feminists Conference in Paris. She, along with Paul, became vice chair of the World Women’s Party and a member of the International Council of Women. Paul later blamed Pollitzer’s focus on international policy for discord within the NWP, causing the organization to split when Pollitzer became its national chair in 1946. Pollitzer’s sister Mabel was state chair of the NWP for nearly 40 years and a staunch supporter of the ERA. Mabel Pollitzer taught in Charleston’s public schools, including the city’s all-female Memminger High School, where she initiated student council, taught sex education in her biology classes and developed a family relations course for high school seniors. She pushed for a free county public library, a hope that was finally realized in 1930. In 1965, Mabel Pollitzer was inducted into the National Council of Jewish Women Hall of Fame. Like her two sisters, Carrie Pollitzer was dedicated to promoting equal rights for women. Through her dogged efforts, the College of Charleston accepted its first female students in 1918. She also devoted herself to promoting early childhood education, as well as furthering parents’ awareness of their role in their children’s education. Susan Pringle Frost was another local leader in the women’s movement, founding the Charleston Equal Suffrage League in 1915 and serving as its first president. She resigned in 1917 to form a local branch of the NWP and joined in one of the many demonstrations at the White House, even burning a copy of Woodrow Wilson’s final speech to Congress. In Charleston, her group was less militant and brought the conversation to street corner information booths. Frost’s persuasive powers even led some men to pledge their support — she was particularly pleased with Mayor John P. Grace in that regard. Frost, an eighth generation Charlestonian, is also known for establishing the Preservation Society of Charleston. A Massachusetts transplant, Laura Bragg, was also part of the suffragist movement in Charleston. Although not an activist, she is recognized for setting a new standard for Anita Pollitzer and Alice Paul (kneeling) at the grave of prominent suffragist Susan B. Anthony in Rochester, N.Y. Credit: Library of Congress, Records of the National Woman’s Party Collection hdl.loc.gov/loc.mss/mnwp.276047.