death_date birth_place birth_date article_title name occupation
1945 1869 augusta , maine 29 october 1869 florence brooks whitehouse
 florence brooks whitehouse suffragist , novelist
florence brooks whitehouse

florence brooks whitehouse -lrb- october 29 , 1869 - 1945 -rrb- was an american suffragist , activist and novelist from maine .
in 2008 , whitehouse was inducated to the maine women 's hall of fame .
she was an early feminist who was considered radical for her support of alice paul and the tactics of the national women 's party .
she was born into a wealthy and prominent family augusta , maine and attended augusta public schools and st. catherine 's hall boarding school .
in 1892-93 , whitehouse traveled to southern europe and middle east .
in 1894 , she married robert treat whitehouse , a lawyer from augusta and the couple moved to portland , maine .
she and robert wrote , directed , and acted in several plays before their first child -lrb- william penn -rrb- arrived in 1896 .
robert treat , jr. was born in 1898 and brooks in 1904 .
she wrote two romance novels based in the middle east ; `` the god of things '' -lrb- 1902 -rrb- and `` the effendi '' -lrb- 1904 -rrb- , which were both published by little , brown and company .
she illustrated her first book herself , but the second one was illustrated by i.h. caliga .
she became active in the suffrage movement in 1913 after hearing a lecture delivered by mrs. morill hamlin , an anti-suffragist -lrb- `` anti '' -rrb- .
she initially joined the maine woman suffrage association -lrb- mwsa -rrb- which was affiliated with the national american woman suffrage association -lrb- nawsa -rrb- .
in 1915 she helped launch the maine branch of the national woman 's party -lrb- nwp -rrb- , and was asked to serve as its chairman , a role she played for at least the next 13 years .
she also served for a time on the nwp 's national advisory committee .
in the service of the nwp she picketed president woodrow wilson , and organized wyoming voters to vote against wilson in his 1916 re-election campaign .
she was the nwp 's most active and vocal supporter in maine , and her allegiance earned her the enmity of her former colleagues in mwsa , who considered it too radical .
mwsa eventually forced maine suffragists to choose between their organization and the nwp ; florence chose the latter .
in 1918-1919 florence led the effort in maine to put pressure on us senator frederick hale to vote in favor of the federal amendment that would enfranchise women .
eventually the federal amendment was approved by the us house , and there were only a handful of votes needed to get it through the senate .
hale was on the short list of senators who might be persuaded to support the amendment , and florence organized letter writing campaigns , delegations , speeches and a variety of other efforts to get him to change his mind .
ultimately , the missing vote was found elsewhere ; hale voted against it but , when it was safely passed , changed his vote to `` yay '' so he would be on record as having supported it .
once suffrage was won florence continued to work with alice paul and the nwp on the equal rights amendment .
she also dedicated herself to working for world peace ; she joined the national council on prevention of war , chaired the government and international cooperation committee of the maine league of women voters , served as the state chairman of government and international cooperation for the maine federation of churches , and represented the state peace commission on the world unity council .
she also had a weekly radio program on peace on wgan .
more information and photos can be found on www.florencebrookswhitehouse.com .
