On this day 100 years ago Dr. Marie Equi, out lesbian and political radical, marked the start of her term in San Quentin prison. She was charged with sedition for giving a speech protesting the U.S. entry into WWI. Here's a brief excerpt from my biography of her, catching her in Richmond, CA after her train trip from Portland, OR.
"Equi's train stopped the next day in Richmond, a city north of Oakland, where she and her escorts boarded a ferry to San Quentin State Prison on the western shore of San Francisco Bay. During the half-hour crossing, the stark white prison buildings, standing isolated on a short stub of a peninsula loomed ahead. Three large cell blocks formed a solid horseshoe shaped front close to the shore. In the interior of the arc stood the desolate building that had housed female inmates since 1856. From the San Quentin dock, the US marshal transferred Equi to the custody of prison officials. She was registered as inmate number 34110 on October 19, 1920, marking the start of her term. She was finger-printed, measured at five foot three inches, weighed at 165 pounds, photographed from the front and side."
Equi named San Quentin "The Palace of Sad Princesses" in letters to her 5 year old daughter. Equi was the only "political" among the "princesses". She served for ten months.
In the last few years Equi was been honored across the nation, in New Bedford MA, Equi's hometown in a exhibit Lighting the Way: Historic Women of the Southcoast; in Portland, OR's Walk of the Heroines, and San Francisco's Rainbow Honor Walk with bronze plaque placed in a Market Street sidewalk.
"Equi's train stopped the next day in Richmond, a city north of Oakland, where she and her escorts boarded a ferry to San Quentin State Prison on the western shore of San Francisco Bay. During the half-hour crossing, the stark white prison buildings, standing isolated on a short stub of a peninsula loomed ahead. Three large cell blocks formed a solid horseshoe shaped front close to the shore. In the interior of the arc stood the desolate building that had housed female inmates since 1856. From the San Quentin dock, the US marshal transferred Equi to the custody of prison officials. She was registered as inmate number 34110 on October 19, 1920, marking the start of her term. She was finger-printed, measured at five foot three inches, weighed at 165 pounds, photographed from the front and side."
Equi named San Quentin "The Palace of Sad Princesses" in letters to her 5 year old daughter. Equi was the only "political" among the "princesses". She served for ten months.
In the last few years Equi was been honored across the nation, in New Bedford MA, Equi's hometown in a exhibit Lighting the Way: Historic Women of the Southcoast; in Portland, OR's Walk of the Heroines, and San Francisco's Rainbow Honor Walk with bronze plaque placed in a Market Street sidewalk.
 California State Archives, Sacramento, CA |  |
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