Her father, John Milholland, was a founding member of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People.

[3][4] Vida Milholland was an ardent suffragist and an active member of the militant National Woman's Party and a political ally of Alice Paul.

Along with her sister Inez, she was also a member of the College Equal Suffrage League of New York State.

[4] Milholland participated in the picketing of the White House during the first World War in support of women's suffrage.

[5] Vida dressed in a white Crusader's costume the way Inez used to appear at a memorial for her sister in New York in 1924.