Zelie Emerson

Zelie Passavant Emerson (1883 — March 1969) was an American suffragette in England. She suggested and then founded the Workers' Dreadnought newspaper with Sylvia Pankhurst, and she was injured by London police in a suffrage riot in 1913.

Zelie Passavant was born in Jackson, Michigan, the daughter of Hubbard Rufus Emerson and Zelie Passavant Emerson. Her grandfather was a Lutheran minister, William Passavant; her great-grandmother Fredericka "Zelie" Basse Passavant was the inspiration for the town name of Zelienople, Pennsylvania. Zelie Emerson's mother Zelie Passavant was linked romantically with Andrew Carnegie as a young woman, and remained a friend and correspondent of the industrialist into later life.

Zelie Emerson was active in the labor movement in Chicago for several years, and worked at the Northwestern University Settlement house, before she met Sylvia Pankhurst and moved to England. She was active in the Women's Social and Political Union in London, and in the breakaway group, the East London Federation of Suffragettes. In 1912, she joined Sylvia Pankhurst in opening the organization's headquarters in Bow Road in East London. Pankhurst and Emerson were arrested for violent demonstrating in February 1913, and sentenced to six weeks in Holloway Prison. Out on bail, they demonstrated again, and were sentenced to two months' hard labor. Emerson was released after a hunger strike, forced feeding, solitary confinement, and a suicide attempt, after seven weeks. Her widowed mother was in London to advocate for her release. American senator Charles E. Townsend also worked for Emerson's release.

Emerson served on the Committee for the Repeal of the Prisoners' Act in 1913. In November 1913, Emerson was injured by London police in a suffrage riot. She was found to have a concussion, but within a month was arrested again for rioting. Charges against her in this incident were dismissed.

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