ROANE WOMAN ARRESTED FOR WEARING PANTS IN 1923

(12/05/2020)

In West Virginia, nothing changed as much in the 1920s as opportunities for women. More women than ever before worked outside the home, attended school, and started professional careers. Teacher Fannie Cobb Carter of Charleston became the first black newspaperwoman in West Virginia and a leader in the fight against illiteracy. In 1922, two years after women received the right to vote, Izetta Jewel Brown, an actress and suffragette from Kingwood, became the first woman in the South to run for the United States Senate. In 1923, a fourteen-year-old girl at Reedy, Roane County was arrested for wearing pants. It was a violation of a local law banning females from dressing in "anything that impersonates males attire." The next day, she and three girlfriends paraded through Reedy in forbidden clothing. Not long after, the issue of "pants or no pants" dominated Reedy's next election. Politicians and church members fought hard to maintain the ordinance, with the voters deciding women could wear pants. Theoretically, following the election, "women could wear the pants in the family."

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