Organized by suffragist Alice Paul, the parade drew thousands of spectators, many of them hostile, and descended into chaos as crowds jeered and jostled marchers while police largely failed to intervene. Cavalry troops eventually restored order, and the resulting public outrage over the treatment of the marchers generated sympathetic press coverage that boosted the suffrage movement's momentum toward the 19th Amendment.
Alice Paul deliberately scheduled the march for the day before Wilson's inauguration to maximize the crowds already gathering in Washington and to force the new administration to confront the suffrage question from its very first hours in office.
The parade featured elaborate floats, marching bands, and women on horseback, including lawyer Inez Milholland leading the procession dressed in white robes atop a white horse—an image that became one of the movement's most enduring icons. But the spectacle quickly turned ugly: male spectators, many of them drunk, surged into the street, spat on marchers, and hurled insults while District police stood by or actively participated in the harassment.
A cavalry unit from nearby Fort Myer eventually cleared a path, but not before roughly 200 women were injured badly enough to require hospital treatment. The ensuing Senate investigation and newspaper outrage over the police's failure gave the suffrage cause a surge of sympathetic publicity, helping build momentum toward the 19th Amendment's ratification seven years later.