Sophia Monté Loebinger

Sophia Monté Neuberger Loebinger (1865–1943) was a Jewish-American singer, philanthropist, women's suffrage activist, orator, writer, and newspaper editor. While often remembered as a suffragist, her brand of pro-suffrage activism adopted both the namesake and political outlook of the British-derived suffragette movement. Like her British predecessors, Loebinger's activism employed more radical and militant tactics than the adjacent American suffragists. Such radicalism made waves in the media both locally and nationally, and helped galvanize a public politics of protest for the American suffrage movement. She was a founding member of the Progressive Woman Suffrage Union and served as both editor and a regular contributor to its newspaper, The American Suffragette.

Biography

Early life Sophia was born in Chicago, Illinois on July 28, 1865, to Jewish immigrant parents, Jacob and Rosalie (Roldene) Neuberger. Born in Germany, her father arrived in the Port of New York on December 23, 1851 before making his way to Chicago where he met Danish-born Rosalie Stein. The two were married in Cook County, Illinois in 1858. While the Neubergers were not a wealthy family, a New York Tribune article from 1920 notes that Jacob Neuberger had associations with Albert Paine, who served as the mayor of New York during the civil war and was a close friend and client of Abraham Lincoln.

After Sophia's birth in 1865, Rosalie had six more children between the 1860s and 1870s, respectively named Isaac, David, Silas, Louis, Minnette (Minnie), and Freedrieka. Upon their arrival, Sophia’s family lived in what was then Manhattan's Nineteenth Ward, before relocating to East 122nd Street in the late 1870s, in what is now East Harlem.

Education In the early 1870s, Sophia attended New York City's Grammar school No. 53, located at Seventy-Ninth Street and Third Avenue, just south of the newly-constructed Central Park. It was not uncommon for classrooms to hold fifty pupils at once, oftentimes having just one window to let in fresh air. Overheating was such a problem that, in an 1883 article, it is reported that one of the teachers fainted in front of her students, causing an hour-long frenzy. Given that Sophia became an advocate for improved education funding and conditions for both students and teachers, it is likely that she endured similarly unfavourable classroom settings during her time as a student.

Despite these conditions, Sophia graduated with first-class honours in 1874, and being awarded a silver medal in German. It was also during this time that she began honing the performance skills for which she would receive great acclaim in the following decade. Already a recognized singing talent, she, along with classmate Rachel Frohman, was chosen to represent her school by performing a duet of Vincenzo Gabussi's "The Fisherman" at their graduation ceremony. Following her education, she briefly taught in the boys' department of Grammar School No. 70 on East 122nd Street.

Singing career Prior to her career as a philanthropist and activist, Sophia (still Neuberger at the time) received high praise as an operatic soprano. Before making her professional stage debut, it was Sophia's intention to move abroad for her musical study and training. In support of this desire, a charitable concert was held at Steinway Hall in April 1881, the proceeds of which were to go towards financing Sophia's international education. Singing to an audience of her friends, Sophia received resounding applause with one newspaper outlet writing that "concerts of this kind require no critical comment."

After completing her training, Sophia made a name for herself in the entertainment world, being chosen to accompany the renowned violinist Camilla Urso on an extended concert tour in 1883. Their tour was heavily advertised in newspapers at the time, and stopped in a variety of cities including Philadelphia and Freeport, Illinois. She made her official New York stage debut on December 11, 1884, in a revival performance of "Der Bettlestudent" at the Thalia Theatre. Though critics report that both Sophia's singing and acting that night suffered from a palpable nervousness, the performance was received favourably overall. before gaining high acclaim in the European operatic circuit where she performed under the stage name Mlle. Monté. Her talent was so highly regarded that, on September 24, 1886, she was chosen to be the lead soprano in an operatic performance put on by the city of Metz in honour of the Crown Prince Frederick William’s visit. According to critics, the performance, in particular Sophia's singing, was met with great applause. The two were married in Manhattan on November 27, 1889, making Sophia a baroness. Once married, the Loebingers moved to a more affluent Jewish neighbourhood in Manhattan, where they lived at 32 Edgecombe Avenue in one of New York's trademark brownstones They welcomed their first and only child, Julia (Jewel) Inez Loebinger, into the world on October 20, 1891. Like her mother, Jewel had a talent for music, becoming a noted cellist and student of Max Gegna following her education at Washington Irving High School. Their relief efforts focused primarily around distributing food and clothing to those in need, as well as providing monetary aid and, on occasion, helping those fit for employment find and secure work opportunities. Although no preference was given to particular districts or creeds, the charity's weekly ministrations were frequented by the sweatshop workers living in the overcrowded tenement walk-ups of the Lower East Side. As a result of this organized leadership, much of which depended on Loebinger, membership in the society grew so rapidly that it had to relocate to a larger meeting space within its first year. While historians typically credit Harriot Stanton Blatch and the Equality League of Self-Supporting Women with being the first militant suffrage organization in the United States of America, it was Loebinger and her comrades who, taking inspiration from the British suffragettes of the Women's Social and Political Union (WSPU), first took on the suffragette title and began militantly campaigning for "Votes for Women." the PWSU, hoping to make equal suffrage a burning political topic from coast to coast, expanded to be a national organization, opening new branches in Brooklyn, Harlem, East Orange County, New Jersey, and Stamford, Connecticut. In April 1909, Loebinger was appointed chairman of the PWSU's Harlem branch, In July 1910, the Union again changed their name to The United Suffragettes of America (U.S.A.), taking up the motto, "In Union There Is Strength."

The PWSU Constitution Objects:

To ensure the complete political enfranchisement of women and an equality of right and opportunities between the sexes.

Methods:

This Union shall seek to obtain its objects by:

Action entirely independent of all political parties. Vigorous, forceful, aggressive agitation on lines justified by the position of outlawry to which women are at present condemned. The organizing of women all over the country to enable them to give adequate expression to their desire for political freedom. Education of public opinion by all methods which appear to be advisable, such as public meetings, debates, distribution of literature, newspaper correspondence and deputations to public representatives.

Members:

Women and men of all shades of political opinions, and in particular all women, whether of the home, the shop, or the office, are eligible to membership. This gave the PWSU the opportunity to create a newsprint mouthpiece for the Union, aptly titled The American Suffragette. While the main purpose of this periodical was to give the suffragettes a space to make their political ideas known and heard, it also provided a source of revenue for the Union. With its members taking on the role of newsies, they took to the streets to sell their paper, accompanied by a cacophony of tambourines, hurdy-gurdies, and exclamations of "Buy The American Suffragette." The spectacular nature of these tactics drew such large crowds that police intervention was not an uncommon occurrence. On one such occasion, while selling their paper on the Brooklyn Bridge, Loebinger and her suffragette companions were asked by the police to move away from the bridge when their boisterous activities began impeding the flow of traffic. After an attempt to relocate to City Hall Park, the suffragettes were met with further police intervention, after which all but Loebinger scattered. Staying behind to argue with Policeman Donnelly, Loebinger initially stood her ground, asserting that she wanted to continue selling her papers. It was only once Donnelly insisted that her actions were illegal that she reluctantly backed down. Rather, Loebinger saw the task of the American Suffragette as showcasing "an expression of woman's natural ability to be something more than a kitchen utensil," In response to such critique, Loebinger asserted that she had lost neither her womanliness nor her love for her husband through her actions. As if to prove as much, Loebinger continued to dress "womanly" during many of her public demonstrations, wearing furs, roses, glove-fitting black dresses, and a big hat.

Operating as the "official organ of The National Progressive Woman Suffrage Union," the American Suffragette served as a second physical body through which Loebinger presented a carefully curated image of womanhood that combined politics and intellect with more traditionally "feminine" interests, all of which were captured in the periodical's diverse genres including essays, poetry, polemics, and domestic-oriented advertisements.[ This editorial strategy served as a powerful and pointed contestation of the popular idea that the suffragettes were unladylike and aggressive, While the open-air tactics used by the PWSU were a daring rejection of gendered social spheres,

Issues

1909

June – Volume 1, Issue 1 August – Volume 1, Issue 3 September–October – Volume 1, Issue 4 November – Volume 1, Issue 5 December – Volume 1, Issue 6 February – Volume 1, Issue 8 March – Volume 1, Issue 9 May – Volume 1, Issue 10 July – Volume 1, Issue 11 November – Volume 2, Issue 3 December – Volume 2, Issue 4

1911

January – Volume 2, Issue 5 February – Volume 2, Issue 6 April – Volume 2, Issue 7 Believing that the only way to truly prove that pro-suffrage women meant business was to use "militant methods," Loebinger set out to turn the fight for suffrage into the battle it needed to be. staging innovative public spectacles, covering amusement parks in vibrant yellow banners, or slinging newspapers to the masses to the tune of disharmony, Loebinger's militancy and political dedication took her on a campaign through the streets of New York City, collecting crowds, coins, and converts along the way. Loebinger began her career as an orator by ascending a ladder platform wrapped in the PWSU emblematic yellow banner, an item that would become synonymous with Loebinger in the years to come. Delivering speeches in both English and German, Loebinger became known, even by those who were not interested in the suffrage cause, for her "quickness at repartee, her unfailing good humour, her Paquin frocks and her fearlessness in expressing her opinion on any subject or any person." With "fiery" enthusiasm and sharp intellect, Loebinger would spend her years as a PWSU activist delivering rousing public speeches to enormous crowds of intrigued men, women, and children. These open-air meetings were such a powerful tool for Loebinger and the PWSU that she and her band of "noisy" women became known to the public as the "fresh air suffragettes." Though police protection did improve over time and their efforts were regularly interrupted– and often thwarted– by jeers, hisses, and laughter from crowds of anti-suffrage boys and men. One such incident in July 1909 nearly caused a riot in City Hall Park when, while selling papers, Loebinger and her comrades founds themselves at the centre of such a crush that they had to shriek for police intervention. The publicity surrounding their Union also led to frequent burglaries of their headquarters, with one such incident leaving the Union at a loss of over $600– in today's market, the equivalent of nearly $18,000. Adorned with a signature yellow "Votes for Women" button, Loebinger mounted her portable soap box to deliver an earnest oration of the objects of the suffrage movement. While her speech was received with much warmth, her PWSU comrade, Martha Klatchman, was met with an insulting question from 13-year-old Edward Goldberg. Taking it upon herself to stand up for Klatchman and send a strong message about the suffragettes' tenacity, Loebinger had the boy arrested and charged with disorderly conduct.

On August 14, 1909, Loebinger– accompanied by other New York suffragettes as well as a number of suffragists from New Jersey– took to Palisades Amusement Park to campaign for the vote, obtaining thousands of signatures on a petition that was to be presented to Congress. Taking turns shaking their tambourines, grinding the hurdy-gurdy, and shouting "Buy the American Suffragette" to passersby, During this raid, Loebinger and Saunders also managed to sell numerous copies of The American Suffragette, the proceeds of which went to the newsboys' Christmas dinner fund later that month.

1910 In the early months of 1910, senator Edgar T. Brackett proposed a new bill, entitled the Brackett Bill, which called for an election in which women could voice their support for or against their enfranchisement. With the goal being simply to ascertain where the majority of women stood on the matter, the Brackett Bill did not propose giving women the right to vote in any real political elections. Strategically, it also neglected to make the women-only "election" a holiday, greatly impeding both the number and classes of women who would be able to participate. Naturally, this bill was met with public backlash from pro-suffrage activists who deemed it a waste of time and financial resources that would ultimately lead to no political change. Stepping out of a car driven by a chauffeur dressed all in yellow, Loebinger and Coleman worked their way through a crowd of men towards the chairman of the board of Electors, Walter Bunnell. Having discovered that the chairman resided in Orange, New Jersey, not Harlem, Loebinger posed as a saleswoman at the very same Harlem bakery from which Bunnell had tried to have her removed the previous month.

Non-suffrage activism

Meat boycott In 1910, Loebinger became involved in the meat boycott that was making its way across America. Born in Cleveland, the 1910 Meat Boycott began as a workingman's movement protesting the high cost of meat through pledges to abstain from consuming any meat for at least thirty days. After becoming involved in the boycott in late-January of that year, Loebinger– alongside several of her fellow PWSU members who were likewise interested in the cause– began holding open-air demonstrations in places like Union Square and Madison Square where they passed around petition pledges declaring their intent to boycott meat consumption until prices lowered. Beyond these mass spectacles, Loebinger took to canvassing from house to house, obtaining hundreds of pledges from households claiming they would abstain from meat for sixty days.

Loebinger's involvement in the boycott helped push its political agenda further when she, with the help of the PWSU, began petitioning New York's Board of Health to investigate the cold storage warehouses where meat was being stored. Having discovered that it was being stored long after it had begun to decompose, Loebinger began advocating for date stamps to be added to meat packages before being put into these storage warehouses and that all meat older than 60 days should be confiscated and condemned. Her concern with public health and welfare in relation to the sale of unfit and expired meat led to the formation of the Gotham Beef Party, named in memory of the Boston Tea Party. Fed up with the lack of effort she saw from the Board of Health, Loebinger declared on January 31 that she and her Beef Party "want[ed] no more talk about investigation, [they] want[ed] action from the Board of Health" In addition to this claim, Loebinger stated that the larger goal was to prepare and publish a series of meat-free recipes, and that she and her fellow Beef Party members were ready and willing to go directly to people's homes to show them how to cook "good food without meat." Despite her actions during the 1910 Meat Boycott– and subsequent founding of the Gotham Beef Party movement– by 1912, Loebinger's political views had shifted towards more radical and far-reaching solutions to the rising cost of living, particularly its impacts on the poor. After 1910, when her protesting and petitioning had failed to stifle rising living costs, Loebinger came to believe that "no good can be done by the occasional meat riots, the blacklisting of certain shops and markets," for "such agitations are ridiculous and harmful" to the small business owners who end up suffering the most. Naturally, this political espousal was met unfavourably by a large number of married men. Sympathizing with these Jewish women's struggles to making a living wage under decent conditions, Loebinger promised that she and the suffragettes would help them gain what they justly demanded by continuing to fight for women's enfranchisement. She also voiced her active support of the female teachers who intended to use their voting rights to advocate for "equal pay for equal service."

Miscellaneous society work In 1912, Loebinger founded the Junior Park Protection League, a neighbourhood group made up of children between the ages of four and eighteen. According to her account, the idea arose after the construction of new tenement buildings on Edgecombe Avenue, which she associated with increased poverty, vandalism, gang activity, and other crime in the area. Loebinger stated that many local children received little supervision because their parents worked long hours, and she sought to provide guidance for them. She described her approach as combining sympathy, equality, compassion, and instruction, with the aim of making the participants, in her words, useful citizens of their neighbourhood. Members of the League were given golden badges, though these carried no legal authority. Loebinger credited the group with cleaning public spaces in the St. Nicholas Park area, helping to prevent hold-ups, and encouraging members to look after their surroundings.

Later years Following the ratification of the 19th Amendment in 1920, Loebinger's activities ceased being a regular topic of interest for newspapers the way they had been during her fiery suffragette years. Still, her philanthropic spirit continued long after the fight for enfranchisement had met its triumphant end. With her undying love for the stage, she became a member of the Actors' Fund Fair– a charitable organization that gave relief to the destitute and ill of the theatrical profession– and continued to attend society entertainments throughout the 1920s and 1930s.

In August 1924, Loebinger's husband, then 61 and suffering from illness, was arrested and detained over suspected involvement in a $7000 robbery plot involving bond fraud. Just shy of one year later, he died on June 28, 1925, leaving Sophia a widow. She never remarried.

Death and legacy

Sophia Loebinger died on March 7, 1943.

Upon her death, David M. Neuberger put together a brochure titled "The Works of Sophia Loebinger," in which he compiled some of her best writing to give to a dozen of her closest friends and family.

Despite such high praises from those with whom Loebinger was close, the legacy of her activism remains complicated. As noted by Pamela S. Nadell, Loebinger's rigorous efforts to separate herself from the conservative suffragists have been all but forgotten by the dominant historical narrative of American women's suffrage. For the purposes of consistency, this page keeps the spellings used by Sophia's parents (Sophia Neuberger) and by Loebinger herself in the American Suffragette (Sophia Monté Loebinger).

Other individuals named in this page, whose documented names bear archival discrepancies, have been noted through the use parentheses containing their alternate name(s)/spelling(s)– e.g., Julia (Jewel) Inez Loebinger.