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\n\u201cWest Hammond has been electrified of late by what a woman\u2014a woman of intelligence, of action and indomitable courage\u2014can accomplish.\u201d
-Munster Times<\/em>, 1911<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\nThe woman described by the Times<\/em> was one Virginia Brooks, also dubbed \u201cJoan of Arc\u201d of the burgeoning village of West Hammond. She was determined to end the mistreatment of vulnerable residents and expel corrupt politicians from West Hammond (now Calumet City)\u2014an Illinois town that overlapped into Indiana. Brooks did this by delivering speeches in barrooms, confronting law enforcement officials, and founding her own publication. After realizing the limitations of protests and the press, Brooks embraced the Women\u2019s Suffrage Movement as means of change, leading the charge alongside suffragists like Ida B. Wells.<\/p>\n
Brooks was in her early 20s and studying music in Chicago when she received a notification that drew her to West Hammond. According to the Indianapolis News<\/em>, upon her father\u2019s death, she and her mother, Flora, inherited property in the village. Alerted to $20,000 worth of special assessments against it, they made a trip to the area to investigate. Virginia was stunned by the dilapidated condition of the village and prevalence of casinos and barrooms. Thus, began her reform work.<\/p>\n
In early 1911, West Hammond was on the precipice of becoming a city, pending a special municipal election. However, Brooks, with the help of her mother, mounted a campaign to maintain its status as a village. Should the area become a city, vice would essentially be institutionalized and corruption amplified. Preventing this would be quite the feat, as the Times<\/em> wrote, \u201cThe political machine was dead against\u201d the women and their allies.<\/p>\n
Brooks gathered locals at Mika\u2019s Hall to discuss the upcoming election. She and organizer August Kamradt spoke to the primarily Polish audience about how city leaders used taxpayers\u2019 money for their own gain, leaving sewers and sidewalks crumbling. Brooks\u2019s sentiments were extremely well-received, and she persuaded attendees to sign a petition asking the State Attorney of Cook County to investigate public officials\u2019 use of tax money.<\/p>\n
West Hammond\u2019s 4,000 residents, many of whom were European immigrants, seemingly had little choice but to pay constantly-increasing rent and \u201cspecial assessments,\u201d which impoverished them further. Despite this, the Huntington Herald<\/em> noted that male villagers were fairly apathetic until \u201cthis young girl. . . . Virginia Brooks has set in motion the levers that work mighty changes.\u201d As the election approached, she spoke at barrooms late into the night, promising that if local efforts failed, she would \u201cappeal to the president and the White House. And if that, too, is useless, she will take the law in her own hands.\u201d<\/p>\n
Chicago Tribune, February 1, 1911, 2, accessed Newspapers.com.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n Brooks\u2019s radical strategies elicited death threats. She laughed these off, although she did appreciate the young men who \u201cformed a bodyguard\u201d around her. On election day, she appealed to voters until the moment they stepped into the voting booth, which was monitored by two deputies Brooks had summoned to prevent fraud.<\/p>\n
Despite the valiant fight, Brooks\u2019s faction lost the election, and voters opted for city government by a vote of 227-196. In a scene seemingly plucked from a movie, just as victors celebrated into the night with a bonfire and parade, detectives from the State\u2019s Attorney\u2019s office infiltrated West Hammond. Brooks\u2019s petition had born fruit. The Chicago Tribune<\/em> reported that the detectives served subpoenas to \u201ckeepers of alleged disorderly houses and places where slot machines were found.\u201d Opponents retaliated with more death threats and libel suits. Brooks was far from alone in her convictions, however. One \u201cTaxpayer of West Hammond\u201d wrote to the Hammond Times<\/em> that \u201cIf \u2018Virginia is crazy,\u2019 the rest of us should \u2018get the bug\u2019 and help to clean things up.\u201d<\/p>\n
Following the election, Brooks leveraged another tool in her fight\u2014the media. She established a semi-weekly publication called the Searchlight<\/em>. Brooks told the Chicago Tribune<\/em> that she would only publish articles that were backed by evidence, with the goal to \u201cfight the grafters primarily and promote the interests of the working people who make up the bulk of the population.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Inter Ocean (Chicago), April 6, 1911, 3, accessed Newspapers.com.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n In addition to leveraging the press, Brooks engaged in physical confrontation as a means to effect change. In March of 1911, she and her \u201cbroom brigade,\u201d composed of about twenty women, halted a paving project at One Hundred and Fifty-Fifth Street. With municipal contract in hand, Brooks and her squadron\u2014equipped with mops, rolling pins, and brooms\u2014sat on piles of bricks, refusing to move for hours. They sat in protest of the city\u2019s decision to hire laborers to install \u201cgraft bought\u201d bricks of poor quality five inches too low. Not only that, but the city charged tax payers an exorbitant amount to do so. When workers\u2019 attempts to appeal to the women failed, they summoned the police. Local newspapers reported, perhaps somewhat sensationally, that a fight for the ages ensued. The Indianapolis News<\/em> relayed:<\/p>\n
\nWhen the women refused to leave, the police tried to drive them off with clubs, and a hand-to-hand conflict followed. Several of the women were put out of the battle with slight injuries and their male supporters, who came to their aid when the police attacked, were badly beaten.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n
After combat and bloodshed, the police left and returned with arrest warrants. Virginia Brooks gladly went to jail, hoping her arrest would engender more support for the cause. She was correct, as the Hammond Times<\/em> reported that the following day, \u201cbroad shouldered, firm mouthed women\u201d returned to the work site and resumed the stand-in.<\/p>\n
The intensity of the fight carried over to Brooks\u2019s April 3rd trial, for which she was charged with disturbing the peace. According to the Times, <\/em>the courtroom floors and walls were lined with observers, many of whom were women who \u201cshoved and crowded among the men\u201d to take in every word. Officer John Okraj testified that Brooks had struck him in the face after being placed under arrest. The Times<\/em> reported that Brooks, \u201can excellent witness in her own behalf,\u201d testified that Officer Okraj likely didn\u2019t know his own strength, and that he hurt her when he forcefully grabbed her neck. Her response was \u201cbut a primitive action, an instinctive motion, which anyone would make when attacked from the rear.\u201d<\/p>\n
Ultimately, the jury found Brooks guilty, but she was fined only $1. Just as jurors convicted her, she received word that State Attorney Wayman pledged to investigate graft charges in the village. This investigation likely spurred the indictment of City Clerk Martin Finneran in May. He was charged with collecting and depositing taxes from the Michigan Central Railroad into his personal account one week after he was dismissed from the office of West Hammond village collector. And, just a few months after Brooks\u2019s trial, her battle against exploitation and \u201cexorbitant special assessments\u201d paid off. The Hammond Times<\/em> reported that a county circuit court judge ruled in her favor regarding the work at One Hundred and Fifty-Fifth, resulting in a 30% reduction \u201cof the original cost and an extra assessment of about $5,000.\u201d<\/p>\n
Pamphlet, \u201cMiss Virginia Brooks: 20th Century Joan of Arc,\u201d 1913, Redpath Chautauqua Collection, University of Iowa Libraries Special Collections Department, Iowa City, accessed Wikipedia.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n Overjoyed taxpayers organized a band concert in celebration. Her widely-publicized achievements attracted love interests and generated about fifty marriage proposals, according to the Chicago Tribune<\/em>. She responded \u201c\u2018I wouldn\u2019t marry the best man alive’\u201d because \u201cpolitics comes before love with me.\u201d<\/p>\n
Instead, Brooks focused on ousting the old village leadership to ensure that the newly-dubbed city would be managed by reputable councilors. According to the Evansville Press<\/em>, in August 1911, she threatened the village council president that if he refused to convene a municipal election she would \u201cexpose the whole outfit.\u201d The paper reported tellingly that immediately after her threat, the \u201cpresident announced that he was sick and would have to go to the hospital for a couple of months.\u201d<\/p>\n
While awaiting word of a municipal election, Brooks led the charge in another election. She convened a mass meeting at Mika\u2019s to persuade residents to vote against a new proposal by the village board. It would tax residents to build a private power line, which would solely benefit the Interstate Electrical Company. Despite being issued \u201cmutilated ballots,\u201d indignant voters managed to defeat the board\u2019s proposal. The Indianapolis News<\/em> noted that Brooks hired carriages to take voters to the polls, resulting in the \u201cbiggest vote ever known in the city\u2019s history.\u201d In fact, local papers suggested that such a resounding defeat could result in her nomination for mayor of West Hammond.<\/p>\n
The Times (Munster, IN), April 2, 1912, 2, accessed Newspapers.com.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n Realizing that this could never be achieved without the female vote, Brooks embraced the women\u2019s suffrage movement, which she had previously dismissed as unnecessary. Mass meetings and protests could only go so far without women\u2019s voting rights. In the spring of 1912, she infiltrated Chicago restaurants to lay out the urgent need for enfranchisement. The Munster Times<\/em> noted \u201cinstead of waiting until her audience came to her she took her speech to the places where sufficient numbers of persons were gathered to make audiences for her.\u201d Her speeches were met with resounding applause from diners.<\/p>\n
Immediately after this brief crusade, organizers asked Brooks to speak at the Indiana\u2019s Women\u2019s Franchise League annual convention in Indianapolis. Of the prominent Hoosier suffrage leaders, like Dr. Amelia Keller<\/a> and Grace Julian Clarke<\/a>, the Indianapolis News<\/em> reported that Brooks \u201ceasily attracted the most attention at the convention.\u201d She described for her fellow suffragists how she had mobilized for reform, gripping them with the story of hand-to-hand combat in West Hammond. However, she had recently embraced a strategy more familiar to audience members\u2014many of whom were upper-middleclass women\u2014 lobbying state senators. Brooks told convention-goers, \u201cThe women need the ballot, and the country needs women voters . . . We don\u2019t want to mix in the dirty politics of the men, but we do want to work with them to make things better.\u201d<\/p>\n
Dr. Hannah Graham, president of Indiana\u2019s other major suffrage organization, the Equal Suffrage Association (ESA), invited Brooks to speak at an ESA meeting, along with union leader Frank Hayes, Indianapolis Mayor Lew Shank<\/a>, and prominent Black attorney F.B. Ransom<\/a>. Perhaps this meeting of the minds and exchange of ideas inspired Brooks to pursue law. According to the Indianapolis Star<\/em>, Brooks told Dr. Graham, \u201cI have property, and in my fights against corrupt politicians a knowledge of law certainly would help me.\u201d Dr. Graham revealed that she was currently studying at the Indiana Law School and suggested the two drive there that very day. Brooks took her up on the suggestion and met with faculty, telling them she wanted to study law to aid the \u201cpoor Polish people in West Hammond.\u201d She became the third woman to enroll in the junior class.<\/p>\n
Brooks\u2019s experience mobilizing at the local and state level served her well at the famed National American Woman Suffrage Association parade<\/a> in Washington, D.C. She joined thousands of women from across the country on March 3, 1913, the day before President Woodrow Wilson\u2019s inauguration. Hoping to draw widespread attention to the need for enfranchisement, the women paraded throughout the nation\u2019s capital, some in costume and others hoisting banners.<\/p>\n
Virginia Brooks and Ida B. Wells at the 1913 National American Woman Suffrage Association parade, courtesy of Chicago Daily Tribune, March 5, 1913, 5, accessed Newspapers.com.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n Brooks and Belle Squires led the Illinois delegation. According to Ron Grossman\u2019s 2020 Chicago Tribune<\/em> article<\/a>, organizers ordered Brooks\u2019s friend and anti-lynching activist Ida B. Wells<\/a> to march at the back of the parade with the other Black suffragists. Rather than concede, Wells opted to sit out altogether, despite Brooks\u2019s insistence that they march together. At the last minute, Wells ran towards Squires and Brooks, and the three women flanked the head of the delegation. Despite violence perpetrated against some of the marchers, the 1913 parade catalyzed public support for women\u2019s suffrage and reinvigorated the movement.<\/p>\n
The parade may have been the zenith of Brooks\u2019s activism. Just one month later\u2014despite her earlier pronouncements about marriage\u2014she wed Chicago Tribune<\/em> photographer Charles Washburne and the couple relocated to Chicago. Brooks said of West Hammond, \u201c\u2018The fight is over there, and I guess we have won. We are going to settle down.’\u201d She went on to write for the Tribune<\/em>, volunteer at the Hull House<\/a>, and lecture at chautauquas<\/a>. She drew upon her experiences to author books about social issues like My Battle With Vice<\/em><\/a> and The Little Lost Sister<\/em><\/a>. Around 1918, Virginia relocated to Portland, Oregon with her mother and son, Brooks. After months of illness, she passed away at the age of 42, just a few months before the stock market crash<\/a>. She likely would have agitated relentlessly for relief like Hoosier reformer Theodore Luesse<\/a> did during the Great Depression. Despite a life cut short, Brooks demanded accountability and fearlessly effected change in The Region.<\/p>\n
Sources:<\/h6>\n
\u201cThe Right Sort of Courage,\u201d The Times<\/em> (Munster, IN), January 5, 1911, 4, accessed Newspapers.com.<\/p>\n
\u201cVillagers Swarm to Gathering,\u201d The Times<\/em> (Munster, IN), January 26, 1911, 1, accessed Newspapers.com.<\/p>\n
\u201cMiss Virginia Brooks, West Hammond\u2019s Joan of Arc,\u201d The Times<\/em> (Munster, IN), January 28, 1911, 1, accessed Newspapers.com.<\/p>\n
\u201cVirginia Brooks Politician,\u201d Huntington Herald<\/em>, January 31, 1911, 6, accessed Newspapers.com.<\/p>\n
\u201cDeath Threats Against Girl,\u201d Fort Wayne News<\/em>, January 31, 1911, 10, accessed Newspapers.com.<\/p>\n
\u201cGirl is Defeated in Reform Fight,\u201d Chicago Tribune<\/em>, February 1, 1911, 2, accessed Newspapers.com.<\/p>\n
\u201cVillage is to Become City in May,\u201d The Times<\/em> (Hammond, IN), February 1, 1911, 1, accessed Newspapers.com.<\/p>\n
\u201cSued by City Officials,\u201d News-Democrat<\/em> (Paducah, KY), February 4, 1911, 1, accessed Newspapers.com.<\/p>\n
Editorial by \u201cA Taxpayer of West Hammond,\u201d \u201cOught to Clean Up,\u201d The Times<\/em> (Hammond, IN), February 6, 1911, 4, accessed Newspapers.com.<\/p>\n
\u201cVirginia Brooks Starts as Editor to Rid Her Town of Election Frauds,\u201d Bridgeport Times and Evening Farmer<\/em>, February 13, 1911, 5, accessed Newspapers.com.<\/p>\n
\u201cOne Girl\u2019s Sunday Fight to Clean Up \u2018The Rottenest Town in the Country,’\u201d Chicago Sunday Tribune<\/em>, March 5, 1911, 47, accessed Newspapers.com.<\/p>\n
\u201cGirl Routs Paving Gang,\u201d Chicago Tribune<\/em>, March 25, 1911, 3, accessed Newspapers.com.<\/p>\n
\u201cRiot in Village; Girl is Jailed,\u201d The Times<\/em> (Hammond, IN), March 25, 1911, 1, accessed Newspapers.com.<\/p>\n
\u201cGirl Leader of Mob Thrown in Jail After Day of Bloodshed,\u201d Inter Ocean<\/em> (Chicago), March 26, 1911, 1, accessed Newspapers.com.<\/p>\n
\u201cComedy Injected in Trial,\u201d The Times<\/em> (Hammond, IN), April 4, 1911, 1, accessed Newspapers.com.<\/p>\n
\u201cVirginia Brooks is Fined by Jury,\u201d Chicago Tribune<\/em>, April 6, 1911, 9, accessed Newspapers.com.<\/p>\n
United Press, \u201cVillage Joan of Arc After the Grafters,\u201d Evansville Press<\/em>, August 16, 1911, 5, accessed Newspapers.com.<\/p>\n
\u201cVirginia Brooks Still Active,\u201d South Bend Tribune<\/em>, May 25, 1911, 14, accessed Newspapers.com.<\/p>\n
\u201cMiss Virginia Brooks Wins Another Battle,\u201d The Times<\/em> (Hammond, IN), July 11, 1911, 1, accessed Newspapers.com.<\/p>\n
\u201cMiss Brooks vs. Woman Suffrage,\u201d The Times<\/em> (Hammond, IN), August 14, 1911, 4, accessed Newspapers.com.<\/p>\n
\u201cNew War Stirs West Hammond,\u201d Chicago Tribune<\/em>, August 14, 1911, 6, accessed Newspapers.com.<\/p>\n
\u201cMass Meeting Across the Line,\u201d The Times<\/em> (Hammond, IN), November 1, 1911, 1, accessed Newspapers.com.<\/p>\n
\u201cBond Issue in Fought,\u201d The Times<\/em> (Hammond, IN), November 7, 1911, 1, accessed Newspapers.com.<\/p>\n
\u201cVirginia Books Wins Fight Against Bonds,\u201d Indianapolis News<\/em>, November 8, 1911, 1, accessed Newspapers.com.<\/p>\n
\u201cMiss Brooks of Hammond,\u201d Indianapolis Star<\/em>, November 15, 1911, 6, accessed Newspapers.com.<\/p>\n
\u201cSettlement was Nicely Remembered,\u201d The Times<\/em> (Munster, IN), January 5, 1912, 5, accessed Newspapers.com.<\/p>\n
\u201cMiss Virginia Brooks Campaigning,\u201d Fort Wayne Sentinel<\/em>, January 10, 1912, 12, accessed Newspapers.com.<\/p>\n
\u201cSuffrage \u2018Joan of Arc\u2019 Speaking to Restaurant Guests,\u201d The Times<\/em> (Munster, IN), April 2, 1912, 2, accessed Newspapers.com.<\/p>\n
\u201cNew Constitution Desired by Women,\u201d Indianapolis News<\/em>, April 4, 1912, 1, accessed Newspapers.com.<\/p>\n
Betty Blythe, \u201cMiss Brooks, Suffrage \u2018Joan of Arc,\u2019 Tells How She Rules West Hammond,\u201d Indianapolis Star<\/em>, April 4, 1912, 9, accessed Newspapers.com.<\/p>\n
\u201cGraft is Scored by Miss Brooks in Ballot Plea,\u201d Indianapolis Star<\/em>, April 4, 1912, 1, accessed Newspapers.com.<\/p>\n
\u201cWomen Ignored by \u2018Constitution,’\u201d South Bend Tribune<\/em>, April 4, 1912, 1, accessed Newspapers.com.<\/p>\n
\u201cMan Thrown into Ditch,\u201d Indianapolis News,<\/em> April 23, 1912, 1, accessed Newspapers.com.<\/p>\n
\u201cWarm Supporter Cause of Suffrage,\u201d Indianapolis News<\/em>, April 24, 1912, 5, accessed Newspapers.com.<\/p>\n
\u201cMiss Brooks Plans to Study Law Here,\u201d Indianapolis Star<\/em>, April 25, 1912, 10, accessed Newspapers.com.<\/p>\n
Chicago Daily Tribune<\/em>, March 5, 1913, 5, accessed Newspapers.com.<\/p>\n
Virginia Brooks, My Battles with Vice<\/em> (Macaulay Co., 1915), accessed Archive.org<\/a>.<\/p>\n
\u201cMrs. Virginia Washburne, Writer, Lecturer, is Dead,\u201d Oregon Daily Journal<\/em>, July 15, 1929, 7, accessed Newspapers.com.<\/p>\n
\u201cProminent Woman Dies,\u201d The Oregonian<\/em>, July 18, 1929, 14, accessed Newspapers.com.<\/p>\n
Ron Grossman, \u201cFlashback: Fighting for the Vote and Against Vice: Virginia Brooks was the Chicago Area\u2019s Own \u2018Joan of Arc,’\u201d Chicago Tribune<\/em>, August 21, 2020, accessed chicagotribune.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n
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