The following is republished with permission from WAPUSH Wednesday, part of the campaign to get a Women’s AP US History course in high schools. It was written by Serene Williams.
Born: Unknown, United States (assumed)
Died: Unknown
Country most active: United States
Also known as: Betty Connelly
Betty Connolly was a working class suffragist from Newton Highlands, Massachusetts who was affiliated with the National Woman’s Party. She was especially involved in the suffrage campaign in Boston in 1919 when President Woodrow Wilson arrived. He came to that city after traveling to Europe to promote the League of Nations at the end of World War I. During this major protest, Connolly was arrested and sent to jail. At the time of her arrest, Connolly was working as a maid for Ruth Small’s family, another NWP suffragist who was arrested in the same demonstration. Connolly was fined $5 and refused to pay the fine. She was ultimately released from prison with a small group of suffragists from the NWP who had their fines paid by a man they did not know. Connolly was released from jail with Katherine Morey and Ruth Small, two other notable suffragists from Massachusetts. These women publicly protested leaving jail against their will and told the press they did not believe the man who was listed as paying their fine, Mr. E. J. Howe, even existed. They thought they were being released from jail against their will to decrease the negative press this event received. According to Historian James J. Kenneally, very little about Connolly’s political work is known outside her participation in the 1919 Boston protest. Hopefully in the future historians will spend time researching Connolly’s story after the ratification of the 19th Amendment so a fuller picture of her political work can be well known.
Works cited
The Boston Globe. “Suffragettes on Hunger Strike: Sixteen Jailed after Refusal to Pay $5 Fines for Actions Here.” February 26, 1919.
The Boston Globe. “Three ‘Suffs’ are Forced to Quit Jail, Violently Protesting.” February 27, 1919.
The Indianapolis Star. “Militant ‘Suffs’ Give Themselves Badges of Merit.” March 23, 1919.
Kenneally, James. “‘I Want to Go to Jail’: The Woman’s Party Reception for President Wilson in Boston, 1919.” Historical Journal of Massachusetts 45, no. 1 (2017).
The Springfield Daily Republican. “Suffragists Are Thrown out of Jail.” February 27, 1919.