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Suffrage parade in New York, October 1915, retrieved from Library of Congress.

I am a first-generation high school graduate, meaning that I am the first in my family to earn my high school diploma. I feel honored to be walking the stage because this is one of my highest accomplishments thus far. So, I wanted a meaningful and symbolic dress for my graduation ceremony. 

I was unaware of the white dress tradition until I was searching for senior picture inspiration on Pinterest. I noticed that a majority of the girls were wearing unique styles of white dresses, and I began to look into the significance. 

Upon further research, I realized that wearing white has been a symbol of empowerment, new beginnings, and achievement throughout history. 

Suffragists

Like the coordinating grad caps, gowns, soles, and cords, it is believed that wearing white to graduation serves as another step towards uniformity. This effect is created intentionally to elevate the celebration and the ceremony. 

However, unlike the coordinating graduation regalia, white was worn by suffragists to stand out against crowds wearing darker clothing and the black pavement of the streets while protesting. 

There was never an official list of colors for suffragists, but white, green, and purple were often worn after the Women’s Social and Political Union (WSPU) led a women’s rights protest in Britain in 1908. Thirty thousand participants attended the protest and showed their support by wearing white.

Various suffrage activist groups in the United States adopted white, following the WSPU’s lead. Today, white is the most commonly associated color with suffrage due to its visual contrast and to represent the belief that women were respectable and would better society and our government. 

White was not just impressionable, but also practical, too. The white fabric was accessible at affordable rates. 

Women’s suffragists in the United States also commonly wore yellow or gold. This began in 1867 in Kansas, where the state flower is a sunflower. Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony were advocating for the state of Kansas to allow its people to vote for suffrage. When officials said no, protests broke out across the state, and many suffragists rebelled by accessorizing with yellow. 

Previously in 1853, Stanton and Anthony created the Women’s State Temperance Society (later known as the Women’s Christian Temperance Society, or WCTU) to support the 18th amendment and abstinence from alcohol. White ribbons were worn by temperance advocates as a symbol of purity. 

The two women created a petition to pass a law lessening the percentage of alcohol sold for legal consumption in New York, but it was rejected because the petition was mostly signed by women and their children. The Prohibition era also brought more awareness to alcohol-induced domestic violence.

Additionally, black feminists wore white during the 1917 Silent Protest Parade, organized by the NAACP to fight against Jim Crow and racial violence amidst the Great Migration. Many black people who previously lived in rural areas migrated to urban areas to improve living conditions and quality of life. They knew that urban areas had better job opportunities, paid high wages, and brought better chances at success and rising above poverty and previous circumstances. 

However, the Great Migration led many searching for a better life to more racially motivated hatred. The response of the white locals, especially in the south, was negative, and often violent. The white outfits worn during the Silent Protest Parade played a symbolic role in the peaceful protest, saying, “We’re here, and here to stay.” 

Significance Today

Since the suffrage movement, women in the United States government have worn white during symbolic events in women’s history. 

Hillary Clinton commonly wore white throughout her 2016 campaign, such as when she accepted the Democratic Nomination for president. During the 2016 election, voters posted on Instagram under #wearwhitetovote. 

Clinton also wore white while attending her opponent, Donald Trump, ’s first inauguration in 2017, and Democratic Congresswomen wore white during Trump’s State of the Union address in the same year.

“Tonight, our democratic #womenwearwhite in support of women’s rights — despite a @POTUS who doesn’t,” shared Nancy Pelosi, who was the first female speaker of the house and House Minority leader, on X.

When Kamala Harris gave her victory speech in 2020 after being the first black woman to win Vice President of the United States, she wore a white pantsuit to honor women’s suffrage. 

Harris made further tribute to women’s suffrage by recognizing the generations of women who fought for equal rights and representation, saying, “All of the women who have worked to secure and protect the right to vote for over a century: One hundred years ago with the 19th Amendment, 55 years ago with the Voting Rights Act, and now, in 2020, with a new generation of women in our country who cast their ballots and continued the fight for their fundamental right to vote and be heard.”

My Dress 

Most of my wardrobe is thrifted items and hand-me-downs, but it felt important to me to buy something new for this occasion.

I was unsure if I would finish high school. I messed up my GPA in my freshman year, and I didn’t believe that I would be able to recover. The first semester of my senior year, I didn’t think college would be a possibility due to my financial situation, so I began to look into the military. 

I quickly realized that I shouldn’t give up on my dreams because of money. Even if I have to take out loans to make it possible, which originally felt like the end of the world, I will make my dreams a reality. I will work hard to put myself in a career where I can pay them back easily. If not, it’ll still be worth it because I finished what many believed I couldn’t. 

So, I will be wearing white to honor my four years of hard work toward breaking generational barriers. Not just for me today, but for the little girl in me who wasn’t so sure if she was capable. I hope to one day earn a doctorate and become a master of my subject. 

Because to me, a degree is so much more than the key to a new career, it’s proof of my continual resilience to build a better life.