"Black Friday" (nov 18, 1913 – nov 18, 1913)
Description:
At the trashing of the Reform Bill, the WSPU marched to Parliament to see the MPs and Ministers, but were held back by police “who were sick of controlling crowds of self-righteous women. The first true suffragette riot ensued: Nothing quite like it had been seen before in the precincts of Parliament. ‘For six long, violent, sometimes brutal, hours there raged in Parliament Square what can only be described as a battle between the police and not the unemployed, the homeless or the destitute but middle- and upper-class women of all ages.’” “The police were no longer skittish about how to treat women.” Emmeline Pankhurst reported “‘One woman I saw thrown down with violence three or four times in rapid succession. Every moment the struggle grew fiercer.’” The police arrested the rioters, but they were not prosecuted, for the government feared further demonstrations if they did.
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