In February 1919, more than two dozen women boarded a train to share their story of arrest, imprisonment, and brutal treatment for protesting in front of the White House in support of a federal women’s suffrage amendment. 

Although these white women omitted women of color from their claims to the rights of citizenship, their nickname for the train—the “Democracy Limited”—is a reminder that the project of democracy is diminished without full and equal participation of all members of society.