Howard University sorority asks about marching in the suffrage parade

The president of Alpha Kappa Alpha at Howard University, a historically black university, wrote this letter to Alice Paul, the chair of the committee organizing the Woman Suffrage Procession in Washington, D.C. The sorority president affirmed: “We do not wish to enter if we must meet with discrimination on account of race affiliation. Can you assign us to a desirable place in the college women’s section?” Despite this request, Black suffragists were told to march in the back when they arrived.