State Secretary of the National Woman’s Party for Massachusetts, Secretary of the Citizens’ National Sacco and Vanzetti Committee

Written by Serene Williams

Jessica Cox Henderson, also known as Mrs. Walter B. Henderson, was a suffragist from Massachusetts who was active in the women’s movement as early as 1899. She was married to Walter B. Henderson and one of their daughters, also named Jessica, was a suffragist involved in numerous political campaigns alongside her mother.

In 1919, Henderson participated in a notable direct action protest planned at the same time as the arrival of President Woodrow Wilson in Boston. Wilson chose to travel to Boston after a trip abroad in Europe marking the end of World War I and suffragists from the National Woman’s Party (NWP) organized a protest to raise awareness about his lack of support for a constitutional amendment. Alice Paul, the leader of the NWP, planned this event. During the protest, suffragists carried suffrage banners as well as an American flag and an NWP flag. As a result of her participation in this protest, Henderson was arrested. Her husband soon paid her fine which released her from jail because he stated she was needed at home with her children. 

After the 1919 protest, Henderson remained active with the National Woman’s Party. She was quoted as saying,

“If you are tired of us, if you will see that the ayes have it when the bill comes before the legislature, we will not come here again.”

She traveled to an NWP convention in 1921 as part of the Massachusetts delegation to discuss what to work on after the suffrage amendment was ratified. Agnes Morey, who had been a prominent leader in the 1919 Boston protest, presided over this meeting and Henderson’s daughter, also named Jessica Henderson, attended with her mother. Henderson was an early supporter of the Equal Rights Amendment and advocated for its passage during the 1920s. In 1924, she was pictured as part of a delegation of women from the National Woman’s Party who formed a “Valentine’s Day deputation” to put pressure on the president to support constitutional gender equality. 

In addition to her work on suffrage and on behalf of the Equal Rights Amendment, Henderson also worked as a public advocate for Nicola Sacco and Bartolomeo Vanzetti. Sacco and Vanzetti were Italian anarchists who were arrested in the 1920s and convicted of murder. Henderson served as Secretary for the Citizens’ National Sacco and Vanzetti Committee, where she advocated for their rights and drove Sacco’s sister to visit him in prison. Henderson passed away in 1952.

Bibliography

Boston Evening Transcript. “Lyman Abbott Objects to Suffrage for Massachusetts Women.”
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Boston Evening Transcript. “Tax Paying Women: They Ask for an Extension of Suffrage.” February
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Boston Evening Transcript. “Woman’s Rights Discussed in Arlington.” April 12, 1899.

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Boston Globe. “Features of Boston Labor Day Parade.” September 8, 1914.

Boston Globe. “$500,000 Failed to Reach Sacco Committee.” August 31, 1927.

Boston Globe; 28 Nov 1952; http://www.newspapers.com/image/433564645/?article=5f7eb7a2-e5c9
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Boston Globe. “19 Suffragettes Spend Night in Jail.” February 25, 1919.

Boston Globe. “Sister near Collapse as She Greets Vanzetti.” August 20, 1927.

Boston Globe. “Three ‘Suffs’ are Forced to Quit Jail, Violently Protesting.” February 27, 1919.

Cassidy, Tina. Mr. President, How Long Must We Wait?: Alice Paul, Woodrow Wilson, and the Fight
for the Right to Vote. 37th ed. New York, 2019.

Congress would give full consideration to the Equal Rights Amendment. They formed a Valentine’s
Day deputation to the President. The[y] are L to R- Mrs. Jessica Henderson, Brookline, Mass.;
Mrs. Anne Archbold, Maine; Mrs. Wm. Draper, Maine; Sallie Hovey, New Hampshire; Hazel Mac
Kaye, Mass.; Ga. 1924. Photograph. https://www.loc.gov/item/mnwp000198/.

Kenneally, James. “‘I Want to Go to Jail’: The Woman’s Party Reception for President Wilson in
Boston, 1919.” Historical Journal of Massachusetts 45, no. 1 (2017).

The Springfield Daily Republican. “Suffragists Are Thrown out of Jail.” February 27, 1919.