Black Friday (1910)

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Black Friday was an event on 18 November 1910 when approximately 300 suffragettes campaigned outside the British House of Commons when the Liberal government of Herbert Asquith failed to pass a Conciliation Bill which would allow some women to vote in General Elections for the first time.

Although the Bill got to its second reading, Herbert Asquith indicated that there would be no more Parliamentary time for the Bill. In response, the Women's Social and Political Union (WSPU) sent a delegation of around 300 women who were assaulted when they attempted to run past the police. Many suffragettes reported being assaulted and manhandled by the police and well over 100 were arrested; Asquith's car was vandalised in reaction to this treatment. The event caused some embarrassment to Winston Churchill who was Home Secretary at the time.

[edit] The aftermath of Black Friday

The events of Black Friday were a public relations disaster for the government, as the press took the side of the Suffragettes, printing pictures of police assaulting unarmed women protesters. The actions of the police were criticised.^[1] After Black Friday, Asquith stated that if the Liberals were elected at the next general election, they would include a Suffrage Bill that could be amended to allow women to vote. The WSPU rejected this believing that it was an attempt to delay reform. The events of Black Friday were damaging to the suffrage campaign as they caused MPs to distance themselves from the campaign.

This was the first premeditated violent oppression of a Suffragette protest, it was generally supported by the population however, who at the time were relatively opposed to women's franchise. Two women died by police violence and two hundred women were arrested. ^[2]