The Buffalo Six: WNY suffragists jailed for picketing the White House

Our speaker Lindsey Lauren Visser, historian and researcher, will discuss the Buffalo Six, a group of suffragists who were jailed for protesting at the White House in 1917 as part of a months-long picketing efforts to protest President Woodrow Wilson’s unwillingness to support women’s suffrage.

They were part of a much larger group of about 500, that decided to push the women’s suffrage movement into high gear. They were locked up in the Occoquan Workhouse where conditions were terrible. Even behind bars, the women continued to protest, going on hunger strikes and being force-fed by the guards.

Lindsey Lauren Visser is a historian and researcher specializing in the history of Western New York. A graduate University Oxford with an MSt Modern History, her primary focus period between 1880 and 1920. She began her career at the Theodore Roosevelt Inaugural Site and worked at The Buffalo History Museum Forest Lawn Heritage Foundation before joining Centro Culturale Italiano di Buffalo. She currently serves as City of Buffalo historian and executive director of the Niagara Aerospace Museum. She is the first woman to serve as historian.

Visser has served on the boards of Buffalo Presidential Center, Niagara Heritage Village, and is currently vice president o membership outreach for Frontier Council Social Studies. Most recently, she was featured on the American Hit podcast with Travel Channel’s Don Wildman. In June, conjunction City Hall, she launched History BUFFalo, video series highlighting history of Buffalo. https://lindseylaurenvisser.com

In March we will be collecting donations for the F.I.N.S. Pantry wish list.

Date: March 5, 2025
Time: Registration/networking: 5:30 PM • Dinner: 6:15 PM

Cost: Cost  $35/member • $40 guest

Dinner:  Chicken Milanese or Ravioli
Location: Rizotto Italian Restaurant, 930 Maple Road, Williamsville, NY 14221