For too long the history of how American women won the right to vote has been told as the visionary adventures of a few iconic leaders, all white and native-born, who spearheaded a national movement. In this essential reconsideration, Susan Ware uncovers a much broader and more diverse history waiting to be told. Why They Marched is the inspiring story of the dedicated women--and occasionally men--who carried the banner in communities across the nation, out of the spotlight, protesting, petitioning, and demonstrating for the right to become full citizens.-- Provided by publisher.

Prologue : A walk through suffrage history -- Part One. Claiming citizenship : The trial of Susan B. Anthony and the "Rochester Fifteen" -- Sojourner Truth speaks truth to power -- Sister-wives and suffragists -- Alice Stone Blackwell and the Armenian crisis of the 1890s -- Charlotte Perkins Gilman finds her voice -- Part Two. The personal is political : The shadow of the Confederacy -- Ida Wells-Barnett and the Alpha Suffrage Club -- Two sisters -- Claiborne Caitlin's suffrage pilgrimage -- "How it feels to be the husband of a suffragette" -- The farmer-suffragettes -- Suffragists abroad -- Part Three. Winning strategies : Mountaineering for suffrage -- Hazel MacKaye and the "allegory" of woman suffrage -- "Bread and roses" and votes for women too -- Cartooning with a feminist twist -- Jailed for freedom -- Maud Wood Park and the Front Door Lobby -- Tennessee's "Perfect 36" -- Epilogue : "Leaving all to younger hands".