Women’s Suffrage
The Lucy Burns Museum in Lorton, Virginia, tells the remarkable story of Lucy Burns and Alice Paul and six months that changed history. The imprisonment of women suffragists from June to November 1917 was so outrageous that opposition to their long struggle crumbled. Burns, Paul, and many others had been protesting peaceably in front of Woodrow Wilson’s White House for months, carrying such signs as “Mr. President, How long must women wait for liberty?” Then one day, they were charged with “obstructing sidewalk traffic” and brutally thrown in the DC Jail’s Workhouse, 20 miles south of DC in Occoquan, Virginia. When they went on a hunger strike, they were force fed. Finally, news reports of their treatment turned public opinion around. The 19th Amendment was passed by Congress, ratified by 36 states, and became part of the U.S. Constitution on August 26, 1920.
When my friend Nina and I visited this Museum on June 1, 2016, it was just a small part of the decommissioned and refurbished Workhouse. Though the museum was about to close for the day, we were lucky to get a private tour by a very knowledgeable docent. With the Norton’s Women Modernists fresh in my mind, I was eager to learn about political activists who were the artists’ contemporaries. These photos tell just some of the story. I bought a Scholastic book, Women’s Right to Vote by Elaine Landau that tells more.
In 2017, I visited the Belmont-Paul Women’s Equality National Monument with my friend Mary Walter. Alice Paul and Lucy Burns worked closely together, but only Lucy was imprisoned at Occoquan. In time for the 100th anniversary of Women’s Suffrage, August 26, 2020, the Lucy Burns Museum was renovated and improved.
During the 2020 pandemic, I wrote a post about Abigail Scott Duniway, a suffragist in Oregon. Just recently, Lilli, Violet, and I worked a puzzle about Women Suffragists that Marjo sent us. It included Abigail Scott Duniway, Lucy Burns, Alice Paul, and many other leaders of this long fight for women to get the vote. Lilli and I were proud to vote for a President that would respect for Women at all levels of society.
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