By: Sandra Thompson, NFBPWC’s Immediate Past President  

I am sure you all know who Alice Paul is, but do you know much about her.   She was a suffragist, feminist, and political strategist.  I thought I would share a little about her since at our Biennial Meeting in July on Friday afternoon, we will be visiting her house.  This trip is included in your registration.  If you are like me, 

you enjoy visiting old houses and finding out about the people who lived there.   Especially ones who did so much to advance women’s rights. 

Alice Paul was the architect of some of the most outstanding political achievements on behalf of women in the 20th century. Born on January 11, 1885, to Quaker parents in Mount Laurel, New Jersey, Alice Paul dedicated her life to the single cause of securing equal rights for all.  

A leader in the fight to ratify the 19th Amendment in 1920 to extend voting rights to women, Alice Paul authored the Equal Rights Amendment 1923 and spent the rest of her life fighting for its ratification to ensure the U.S. Constitution protects women and men equally. 

Alice Paul attended a Quaker school in nearby Moorestown. She graduated first in her class in 1901.  As Paul said years later, “When the Quakers were founded…one of their principles was, and is, equality of the sexes.  So, I never had any other idea…the principle was always there.”  The Quaker belief that women and men were equal, something of an anomaly for the time period, undoubtedly accounts for the number of Quakers active in the fight for suffrage.  Both Susan B. Anthony and Lucretia Mott, leaders of the early suffrage movement, were Quakers whom Paul admired and considered role models. 

After spending some time in England, Paul returned to the United States imbued with the radicalism of the English suffrage movement and a determination to reshape and re-energize the American campaign for women’s enfranchisement.  She joined the National American Women’s Suffrage Association (NAWSA), one of the leading national organizations working for women’s suffrage.  

In 1912, Alice Paul joined her NAWSA colleagues Lucy Burns and Crystal Eastman in a move to Washington, D.C. With little funding and in true Pankhurst style, Paul and Burns quickly got to work organizing a publicity event guaranteed to gain maximum national attention.  The well-matched pair designed a massive and elaborate parade for thousands of women to march up Pennsylvania Avenue on March 3, 1913, the day prior to the inaugural parade of President-elect Woodrow Wilson. 

Although both NAWSA’s president Carrie Chapman Catt and Alice Paul shared the goal of universal suffrage, their political strategies greatly differed.  Where NAWSA concentrated a majority of its effort upon state campaigns, Paul wanted to focus all energy and funding to advance a constitutional amendment. 

The divergent strategies led to tension between Alice Paul and NAWSA leadership and in 1914, after initially forming a semi-autonomous group called the Congressional Union, Paul and those who supported the strategy for a constitutional amendment severed ties to NAWSA. Two years later, in 1916, Paul and her supporters formed a new party, the National Woman’s Party (NWP). The NWP moved quickly to organize public events to bring attention to their work.  In 1917, the NWP organized the first public picketing in front of the White House in the nation’s history. Until that moment, no one had dared to publicly protest the President of the United States in such a manner. 

 

Called the “Silent Sentinels” because they stood quietly, not speaking or interacting with passersby, groups of women stood outside the gates of the White House, six days per week no matter the weather. 

Over the course of weeks, 168 suffragists were arrested, and sent to jail or prison if they refused to pay the fines or admit guilt. While in jail, Alice and the suffragists demanded to be treated as political prisoners, in accordance with the English suffragette methodology. Officials ignored their request, leading Paul and several suffragists to begin a hunger strike. As she had experienced during her hunger strikes in England, prison officials began brutal forced feedings of the suffragists, sometimes done three times per day. 

Toward the end of 1917, President Wilson, facing increased pressure and growing criticism of the suffragists’ treatment in prison, reversed his position and announced his support for a suffrage amendment as a “war measure.” In the following months, Wilson met with members of Amidst growing support, in 1919, members of the U.S. House of Representatives and the U.S. Senate voted to pass the 19th Amendment and sent it to the states for ratification.  

THE EQUAL RIGHTS AMENDMENT 

Many suffragists left public life and activism after the 19th Amendment was enacted, but Alice Paul was not among them. She believed the true battle for legally protected gender equality had yet to be won. With an eye to championing another constitutional amendment, Paul pursued and earned three law degrees (LL.B., LL.M. and D.C.L.) to better understand how legislation and laws were drafted and passed. With this knowledge, she wrote the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA) in 1923. It was introduced to Congress the same year but has yet to be ratified to the U.S. Constitution.  Current efforts to ratify the ERA center upon passing legislation in both houses of Congress to remove the time limit assigned to the ratification of the ERA in 1972. 

Alice Paul’s life is a vibrant demonstration that one person can truly make a lasting difference. On July 9, 1977, Alice Paul died at the age of 92 in Moorestown, New Jersey, a short distance from her birthplace and family home of Paulsdale.  

On the centennial of her birth in 1985, the Alice Paul Institute (API) was founded to honor her legacy and continue the fight for equality for all. Headquartered at Paulsdale, which is now a National Historic Landmark, API is dedicated to preserving Paulsdale, advancing women’s history, and supporting the next generation of female leaders to develop their unique leadership style. 

The Alice Paul Institute educates and encourages women and girls to be leaders in their communities and leads national advocacy efforts to advance Alice Paul’s vision for constitutionally protected gender equality through the ratification of the Equal Rights Amendment. 

To find out more about the Alice Paul Institute visit their website alicepaul.org.