Issue and Opponent: Like parades, suffrage pageants, and tableaus had deep historical roots, which the suffragists tapped into when looking for ways to attract publicity and new members. Some suffragists liked the idea of linking artistic inclinations with political activism. Others preferred performing on a stage or assisting behind the scenes rather than marching in a parade. Hazel MacKaye, the best-known of all pageant directors, created four pageants for the Congressional Union for Woman Suffrage (CU) and National Woman’s Party (NWP) between 1913 and 1923. By making women the central figures in these plays, MacKaye and other pageant organizers empowered the participants and the women who watched these tableaus. On the eve of President Woodrow Wilson’s inauguration, the Congressional Committee of the National American Woman Suffrage Association (NAWSA) staged its first major event to demand an amendment to the U.S. Constitution enfranchising women. Dilemma Action: A critical component of the first national suffrage parade on March 3, 1913, in Washington, D.C., was the elaborate tableau, “The Allegory,” produced by pageant designer Hazel MacKaye. Through sheer persistence and moxie, Alice Paul secured permission from government officials to use the grand steps of the Treasury Building during working hours to mount a feminist pageant. The performance included 100 classically costumed women and children representing ideals such as Freedom, Justice, Peace, Charity, Liberty, Hope, and outstanding female historical figures, including Sappho, Joan of Arc, and Elizabeth of England. More than 20,000 people reportedly watched the pageant, including a reporter from the New York Times who gushed that it was “one of the most impressively beautiful spectacles ever staged in this country.” Outcome: The pageant performers shivered on the steps for much longer than anticipated because “a horrible, howling mob” of spectators streamed onto Pennsylvania Avenue, blocking the procession and bringing everything to a halt. Pageants outlived parades as a publicity tool and were brought forward into the NWP’s equal rights campaign. MacKaye’s final two pageants for the NWP were held respectively in July and September 1923 in Seneca Falls, New York, and in Colorado Springs, Colorado. Both pageants celebrated the 75th anniversary of the first women’s rights convention in Seneca Falls in 1848 and sought to attract new members to the party as it prepared to have the equal rights amendment introduced in Congress.