The Little Yellow Auto That Changed America

It was April 6, 1916, and Columbus Circle was buzzing. A crowd had gathered around the tiniest automobile anyone had ever seen on Broadway — a bright yellow Saxon roadster that the New York Tribune playfully called "the little yellow ant." Two women were about to climb inside and drive 10,700 miles across America. For suffrage. With three evening dresses in the trunk.

Carrie Chapman Catt, president of the National Women's Suffrage Association, raised a pint bottle of gasoline to christen the car. Her first blow left a deep dent in the shiny new yellow hood. Driver Alice Burke stifled a groan — then whispered to her partner Nell Richardson with a grin: "We'll keep that dent and show it to all the folks down south, telling them Mrs. Catt did that with her own hands." The second blow broke the bottle, gasoline filled the air, and the Golden Flyer had a name.

At 2 p.m., a teary-eyed woman rushed Alice with a final hug — and pressed a $10 gold piece into her palm. Alice gave a quick lift of her skirt and whisked the coin out of sight. The movie cameras were rolling, the traffic police were cheering, and 100 horns were tooting as the little yellow car swung around Columbus Circle and headed for the 42nd Street ferry. Suffragists kissed the travelers goodbye and divided bunches of jonquils. Someone pressed a new penny into each woman's hand for luck.

What followed was 168 days of mud, desert, broken gear pins, a cat adopted in Alabama, and a bullet hole discovered in Texas. They drank from a well with a dead chicken. They were reported lost in the Arizona desert. They gave suffrage speeches at every stop. Three years later, the 19th Amendment was ratified.

On March 1, 2026 — 110 years after that gold coin disappeared under Alice's skirt — we begin again.

The Golden Flyer II, an original Saxon roadster restored and wrapped in suffrage yellow, will roll out of New York City and into 25 states. Led by former Congresswoman Carolyn Maloney and ERA-NOW.org, Driving the Vote for Equality will retrace the suffragists' route — not to win women the vote, but to demand Congress recognize what is already true: the Equal Rights Amendment has been ratified by 38 states and is the 28th Amendment to the Constitution.

Alice Burke told the skeptics in 1916 not to worry about her tiny car. "This little baby will trot right along regardless of mud and mountains." She was right then. We intend to be right now.

Join the journey. Sign the petition. Drive equality forward.