Alice Elizabeth Locke Park (; February 2, 1861 – October 17, 1961) was an American

suffragist Suffrage, political franchise, or simply franchise, is the right to vote in public, political elections and referendums (although the term is sometimes used for any right to vote). In some languages, and occasionally in English, the right to v ...

and a longtime defender of women's rights. She served as associate director of the

Susan B. Anthony Susan B. Anthony (born Susan Anthony; February 15, 1820 – March 13, 1906) was an American social reformer and women's rights activist who played a pivotal role in the women's suffrage movement. Born into a Quaker family committed to s ...

Memorial Committee of California.

Early life

On February 2, 1861, Alice Elizabeth Locke was born in

Boston Boston (), officially the City of Boston, is the state capital and most populous city of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, as well as the cultural and financial center of the New England region of the United States. It is the 24th- mo ...

, Massachusetts. In 1884, she married Dean W. Park; they had two children. Her husband died in 1909.

Career

In the late 1870s, Park became interested in the suffrage movement and attended conventions in

Providence, Rhode Island Providence is the capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Rhode Island. One of the oldest cities in New England, it was founded in 1636 by Roger Williams, a Reformed Baptist theologian and religious exile from the Massachusetts Bay ...

in 1877 and 1879. In 1894, she joined the International Feminist Movement. Park became a

pacifist Pacifism is the opposition or resistance to war, militarism (including conscription and mandatory military service) or violence. Pacifists generally reject theories of Just War. The word ''pacifism'' was coined by the French peace campaign ...

in 1898. She was also a socialist and a

vegetarian Vegetarianism is the practice of abstaining from the consumption of meat (red meat, poultry, seafood, insects, and the flesh of any other animal). It may also include abstaining from eating all by-products of animal slaughter. Vegetarianism m ...

. She framed two pieces of California state legislation: the 1909 California Bird and Arbor Day Act legislated the protection of trees and birds and established a day for school children to be instructed in these environmental issues; and the bill which ensured equal guardianship of minor children to both parents. In the 1910s, she was State Chairman of the Literature Committee of the Political Equality League. She was a member of the Women's Suffrage Association for 60 years. Once women's suffrage was legalized in California in 1911, she was a speaker at the

Seventh Conference of the International Woman Suffrage Alliance The Seventh Conference of the International Woman Suffrage Alliance met in Budapest, Hungary, June 15–21, 1913. As had been the case with all the preceding conferences, the location had been chosen to reflect the status of woman suffrage: a place ...

Budapest Budapest (, ; ) is the capital and most populous city of Hungary. It is the ninth-largest city in the European Union by population within city limits and the second-largest city on the Danube river; the city has an estimated population ...

, Hungary, in 1913. In 1914, she declared: "I sympathize deeply with the tactics of the militants in London. I am tired of the English women being blamed for crudeness and for their violence. To them a great deal of credit is due for getting the votes for women in California, in giving publicity to the cause. If they did not destroy property and do things out of the ordinary, no one would pay any attention to them, and their action would be a pure loss." She quit the Unitarian society over its failure to oppose

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

. She was a Delegate to International Women's Congress for Peace and Freedom at the Hague in 1915; in 1915 she was a member of

Ford Peace Ship The Peace Ship was the common name for the ocean liner ''Oscar II'', on which American industrialist Henry Ford organized and launched his 1915 amateur peace mission to Europe; Ford chartered the ''Oscar II'' and invited prominent peace activists t ...

; she was a leader of the

Women's International League for Peace and Freedom The Women's International League for Peace and Freedom (WILPF) is a non-profit non-governmental organization working "to bring together women of different political views and philosophical and religious backgrounds determined to study and make kno ...

(WILPF). She founded Palo Alto Women's Peace Party in 1915. She protested

Stanford University Stanford University, officially Leland Stanford Junior University, is a private research university in Stanford, California. The campus occupies , among the largest in the United States, and enrolls over 17,000 students. Stanford is consider ...

’s establishment of a female quota for women and battled for women's rights. In her homes (at 611 Gilman and 510 Hamilton streets in Palo Alto) she held meetings for a pacifist group called the American Union Against Militarism. This later became the

American Civil Liberties Union The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) is a nonprofit organization founded in 1920 "to defend and preserve the individual rights and liberties guaranteed to every person in this country by the Constitution and laws of the United States". T ...

Animal rights

Park was a supporter of the

Humanitarian League The Humanitarian League was a British radical advocacy group formed by Henry S. Salt and others to promote the principle that it is wrong to inflict avoidable suffering on any sentient being. It was based in London and operated between 189 ...

, a British animal rights organization, and visited schools to give talks on animals. She won the praise of the organization's founder

Henry S. Salt Henry may refer to: People *Henry (given name) * Henry (surname) * Henry Lau, Canadian singer and musician who performs under the mononym Henry Royalty * Portuguese royalty ** King-Cardinal Henry, King of Portugal ** Henry, Count of Portugal, ...

for printing a card, in 1920, that stated: "Be Kind to Animals, For You Are One Yourself."

Death and legacy

Park died on October 18, 1961, at her home in

Palo Alto, California Palo Alto (; Spanish language, Spanish for "tall stick") is a charter city in the northwestern corner of Santa Clara County, California, United States, in the San Francisco Bay Area, named after a Sequoia sempervirens, coastal redwood tree kno ...

. She was 100 years old.

References

External links