Thanks for reading the March 2026 issue of This Awful Awesome Life. I hope you try the recipe for Oatmeal Apple Carrot Cake in our “Twelve Months of Grain.” Previous issues of This Awful Awesome Life are available to read on our website.
Go to www.thisawfulawesomelife.com and start scrolling or you can enter specific search criteria.
Our April 2026 issue will focus on spring and nature.
Orlando Bartro, Tony Valerino, and I will be back with more interesting articles for you.
Our featured author with an April birthday will be Sue Grafton.
We’re moving some of our regular features around to shake things up a bit and keep you on your toes. I’m also hoping to expand our Artist Page to feature more talented creatives. Some people manage to elevate their work to the level of an artform, and we want to support their efforts.
I’ll have more streaming and reading recommendations. “What’s in a Word?” will be back but we’ll be alternating some of our content. We’ll continue the monthly quizzes to exercise our brains, and we’ll continue reviewing books.
For the time being, I’m holding off on a new subscription-based Patreon account featuring short stories and chapter installments of my books as I write them. I also hoped to provide opportunities for book discussions and narrations of short stories. It’s something I want to do, but pesky life keeps getting in the way. When and if this happens, it will remain separated from our online magazine which will always be free and available to everyone. I’m considering the Patreon option because traditional and Indy publishing have changed so drastically in recent years. Now that AI has entered the equation, more changes are coming.
Stay safe. Stay well. You are important, and you are loved.
All my best,
Fran
Answers to The March 2026 Suffragists and Their Allies Quiz:
Ethel C. Mackenzie was a white suffragist from California. I 1909, she married a Scottish national. Under a 1907 law, the Expatriation Act, women lost their American citizenship if they married non-American men. In 1915, Mackenzie challenged that law.
Arrested for Lucy Burns fought for women’s rights in the U.S. and the U.K. and worked closely with Alice Paul. She spent more time in prison, where she led hunger strikes and was force fed, than any other American woman suffragist.
Florence Luscomb – was one of the first ten women to graduate from M.I.T. She was an architect who advocated for women’s rights, civil rights, labor, and peace movements during the 20th century.
Dr. Me-lung Ting risked her own safety to improve medical care for women, children, and refugees.
Rosika Schwimmer was a Hungarian peace activist, suffragist, and feminist. She was originally denied U.S. citizenship when she refused to sign the citizenship application asking new citizens if they were willing to take up arms to protect the country. Officials labeled her pacifist views as disloyal and a lack of commitment to the U.S. Constitution, Schwimmer’s challenge to their decision went before the SCOTUS in 1929.
Rose Schneiderman was a union organizer, suffrage campaigner, labor law reformer, and socialist activist After the 1911 Triangle Shirtwaist Fire, she became a prominent voice for women workers in the Women’s Trade Union League in NYC. Working with Eleanor Roosevelt, she also had a major role crafting labor legislation during the New Deal Era.
Sarah J. Garnet, the first Black female principal of a New York City public school, was active in the suffrage movement. She, along with other Black suffragists, believed securing women’s voting rights were critical to establishing justice and equality for Black people.
Victoria Woodhull, a women’s suffrage leader from Ohio, ran for the U.S. presidency in 1872. Her run was symbolic because according to the U.S. Constitution, she would have been too young to be elected.
Nellie Bly, a journalist at the New York World, was a pioneer in the field of investigative journalism. She went undercover to expose the abuses taking place in insane asylums. She also advocated for women’s rights, suffrage, and championed social justice for working class women.
Esther Hobart Morris was the first woman to serve as Justice of the Peace in the U.S. She was appointed in Wyoming after the previous Justice of the Peace resigned in protest after Wyoming Territory passed a women’s suffrage amendment in December 1869.
Jane Addams was a suffragist, social activist, and author. She co-founded Hull House to provide social services to the poor and immigrant population in Chicago, Illinois.
Carrie Chapman Catt was a suffragist, peace activist, and co-founder of the League of Women Voters.
Septima Poinsette Clark was an educator and civil rights activist who worked to register African American voters.
Frederick Douglass, formerly enslaved, was an abolitionist, suffragist, publisher, and author.
The first act of the newly formed Territorial Legislature of Alaska in 1913 was to grant women the vote.
Dolores Huerta is a labor organizer and co-founder of the National Farm Worker’s Association. She works to register agricultural workers who are U.S, citizens to vote.
Alice Paul was a suffragist, strategist, and activist for women’s rights. Though often physically abused during her participation in suffrage demonstrations, she advocated for nonviolence.
Jeannette Rankin was a suffragist and the first woman elected to the U.S. Congress.
Dr. Mary Edwards Walker was a physician, women’s suffrage advocate, Civil War veteran, and the only woman to receive the U.S. Medal of Honor.
Ida B. Wells-Barnett was an anti-lynching advocate, suffragist, author, and founder of the Alpha Suffrage Club in Chicago.
Mary Church Terrell was an African American suffragist, anti-lynching advocate, and educator who worked to help African Americans have greater access to education and job training. After Jim Crow laws were enacted, she launched a campaign to reinstate anti-discrimination laws using tactics such as boycotts, picketing, sit-ins, and lawsuits.
Robert Purvis was a wealthy southerner. His father was an English immigrant, and his mother was a second generation African American. After attending Amherst College, he moved to Philadelphia and dedicated his life to abolitionism, women’s rights, and helping the African American community.
At twenty-two years old, Harry T. Burn was the youngest member of the Tennessee General Assembly in 1918. He cast the deciding vote to ratify the 19th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.
As a leader of Boston’s Black community, Lewis Hayden advocated for members of his community by assisting freedom seekers, fighting injustices, and supporting women’s suffrage.
Frances Perkins was a suffragist; she advocated for worker safety and the creation of child labor laws. She was appointed Secretary of the Department of Labor by President Franklin D. Roosevelt. She became the first woman in the United States to hold a cabinet position.