page_title: Black Friday (1910)
section_title: Women's Social and Political Union
hierarchical_section_title: Black Friday (1910) / Background / Women's Social and Political Union
caption_attribution_description: English: Suffragette Banner
context_page_description: Black Friday was a suffragette demonstration in London on 18 November 1910, in which 300 women marched to the Houses of Parliament as part of their campaign to secure voting rights for women. The day earned its name from the violence meted out to protesters, some of it sexual, by the Metropolitan Police and male bystanders.
  During the January 1910 general election campaign, H. H. Asquith—the Prime Minister and leader of the Liberal Party—promised to introduce a Conciliation Bill to allow a measure of women's suffrage in national elections. When he was returned to power, a committee made up of pro-women's suffrage MPs from several political parties was formed; they proposed legislation that would have added a million women to the franchise. The suffrage movement supported the legislation. Although MPs backed the bill and passed its first and second readings, Asquith refused to grant it further parliamentary time. On 18 November 1910, following a breakdown in relations between the House of Commons and House of Lords over that year's budget, Asquith called another general election, and said that parliament would be dissolved on 28 November.
context_section_description: The Women's Social and Political Union (WSPU) was formed in 1903 by the political activist Emmeline Pankhurst. From around 1905—following the failure of a private member's bill to introduce the vote for women—the organisation increasingly began to use militant direct action to campaign for women's suffrage. According to the historian Caroline Morrell, from 1905 "The basic pattern of WSPU activities over the next few years had been established—pre-planned militant tactics, imprisonment claimed as martyrdom, publicity and increased membership and funds."
  From 1906 WSPU members adopted the name suffragettes, to differentiate from the suffragists of the National Union of Women's Suffrage Societies, who employed constitutional methods in their campaign for the vote. From 1907 WSPU demonstrations faced increasing police violence. Sylvia Pankhurst—the daughter of Emmeline and a member of the WSPU—described a demonstration in which she took part in February that year:
  Parliament was guarded by an army of police to prevent the women approaching its sacred precincts. The constables had their orders to drive them away, making as few arrests as possible. Mounted men scattered the marchers; foot police seized them by the back of the neck and rushed them along at arm's length, thumping them in the back, and bumping them with their knees in approved police fashion. ... Those who took refuge in doorways were dragged down the steps and hurled in front of the horses, then pounced upon by constables and beaten again. ... As night advanced the violence grew. Finally fifty-four women and two men had been arrested.
  After one demonstration in June 1908 in which "roughs appeared, organised gangs, who treated the women with every type of indignity", Sylvia Pankhurst complained that "the ill-usage by the police and the roughs was greater than we had hitherto experienced". During a demonstration in June 1909 a deputation tried to force a meeting with  H. H. Asquith, the Prime Minister; 3,000 police provided tight security to prevent the women from entering parliament, arresting  108 women and 14 men. Following the police violence used on that occasion, the WSPU began to shift to a strategy of breaking windows rather than attempting to rush into parliament. Sylvia Pankhurst wrote that "Since we must go to prison to obtain the vote, let it be the windows of the Government, not the bodies of women which shall be broken, was the argument".
  At a demonstration in October 1909—at which the WSPU again attempted to rush into parliament—ten demonstrators were taken to hospital. The suffragettes did not complain about the rising level of police violence. Constance Lytton wrote that "the word went round that we were to conceal as best we might, our various injuries. It was no part of our policy to get the police into trouble." The level of violence in suffragette action increased throughout 1909: bricks were thrown at the windows of Liberal Party meetings; Asquith was attacked while leaving church; and roof tiles were thrown at police when another political rally was interrupted. Public opinion turned against the tactics and, according to Morrell, the government capitalised on the shifting public feeling to introduce stronger measures. Thus, in October 1909, Herbert Gladstone, the Home Secretary, instructed that all prisoners on hunger strike should be force fed.
caption: Banner of the Hammersmith branch of the Women's Social and Political Union
exif: {"Image Orientation": "Horizontal (normal)", "Image XResolution": "72", "Image YResolution": "72", "Image ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Image Software": "Adobe Photoshop 7.0", "Image DateTime": "2006:09:20 13:10:32", "Image ExifOffset": "156", "Thumbnail Compression": "JPEG (old-style)", "Thumbnail XResolution": "72", "Thumbnail YResolution": "72", "Thumbnail ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormat": "294", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormatLength": "4317", "EXIF ColorSpace": "Uncalibrated", "EXIF ExifImageWidth": "720", "EXIF ExifImageLength": "490"}