Meet Lucy Burns
Lucy Burns. She and Alice Paul were the Stanton & Anthony of the 3d generation. They met in jail in the UK learning from the Pankhursts & bonded over the slugishness of the movement at home. Together they picketed the White House, then jail, hunger strikes, force feeding. 👇 1917
Daily Suffragist
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27/08/2019
Inauguration Day
We used to inaugurate the U.S. president in March, not January. <br /><br />107 years ago today, thousands of women massed on Washington to protest the presidential inauguration and demand equal rights. <br /><br />These women 👇hiked from NYC. Thread. <br /><br />Alice Paul & Lucy Burns were suffrage’s young radicals, just back from England and determined to shake up a moribund movement. They imagined and executed an unprecedented street demonstration on March 3, 1913.<br /><br />(Alice designed the program book. 👀 <a href="https://www.loc.gov/resource/rbpe.20801600/?st=slideshow" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">look inside</a>) <br /><br />It was massive, radical, messy, ugly, and gorgeous. Every major theme of the women’s suffrage movement is contained in that 1 day: the racism of the white women who led the movement, and their willingness to trade Black women’s votes for the dream of southern political approval; conflict about whether more energy should go to state-by-state campaigns or a federal amendment; debate over whether the movement was inherently partisan or committed to holding any party in power responsible; the wisdom of radical street action and possible prison time; and police inaction in the face of anti-suffrage mob violence. <br /><br />It’s all there. And finally, for nearly the first time, the struggle was visible in photographs. <br /><br />@<a href="https://twitter.com/tinacassidy2" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">tinacassidy2</a>’s vivid description of that day, and the weeks leading up to it in “Mr President, How Long Must We Wait?†or <a href="https://t.co/WvAVzWzhon?amp=1" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Mary Walton's</a> earlier Alice Paul biography. #Suffrage100 #CenturyofStruggleÂ
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03/05/2020
Alice Paul's first arrest
Alice Paul was first arrested in London. On June 29, 1907 she joined the Pankhursts storming the House of Commons, frustrated the Prime Minister ignored their demand for action. In the slammer she met Lucy Burns, whose red hair and American flag pin were hard to miss. Thread. <br /><br />On July 30, Alice and 11 other women forced their way into a speech by David Lloyd George. She was sentenced to two weeks in jail, where she refused to eat or wear prison clothes. <br /><br />On September 12, Alice & Lucy broke windows in a hall where Winston Churchill was speaking. <br /><br />Women across the UK were being arrested for disruptive suffrage protests - they spat at police officers, broke windows, shouted down politicians. In jail they refused to eat and were force-fed thru nasal tubes. @<a href="https://twitter.com/tinacassidy2" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">TinaCassidy2</a> describes this vividly in her book.👇Annie Kenney, 1905 <br /><br />In November the radical WSPU escalated its campaign against Churchill, an up-and-coming politician opposed to women’s suffrage. Lucy Burns infiltrated a fancy party, where she accosted him, asking: “How can you dine here while women are starving in prison?†<br /><br />Alice Paul snuck into the party disguised as cleaning staff. When the crowd quieted for a toast, Alice & Amelia Brown smashed a stained glass window and were dragged out shouting “Votes for Women!†Alice spent nearly a month in jail, violently force fed twice a day. #Suffrage100
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30/05/2020
Medals & motivation
Sustaining protest campaigns for months & years is so hard. <br /><br />The UK suffragettes created tangible artifacts to honor their members’ sacrifices and motivate them to keep going. <br /><br />🎖ï¸thread. <br /><br />Women who had served time in prison were awarded a medal “For Valour†by the WSPU, the radical suffragettes. <br /><br />The medal below belonged to Florence Haig. Its three bars commemorate each of her prison terms, plus a medallion for hunger striking. <br /><br />Medals were awarded to each former prisoner in inscribed boxes, presented “By the Women’s Social & Political Union in recognition of a gallant action, whereby through endurance to the last extremity of hunger and hardship, a great principle of political justice was vindicated.†<br /><br />In 1910 the WSPU made a quilt to commemorate the women who had gone to prison, refused food as political prisoners, and been force fed. Each suffragette's signature is embroidered on a panel - find Lucy Burns top left; Alice Paul in the 3rd column. #Suffrage100 #NoJusticeNoPeaceÂ
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13/06/2020
The Original Women's March
The 1913 Woman Suffrage Procession really was the original Women’s March. It called women from around the country to Washington, DC for Inauguration Day. They were there to send a message to the newly elected President, who won his office with a minority of national support.🧵 <br /><br />It wasn’t the first parade down the avenues of our 51st state, but it was the first civil rights protest. As Rebecca Boggs Roberts says in her overview of the march, every cause that has marched on Washington literally followed in their footsteps. <a href="https://www.womensvote100.org/the-suff-buffs-blog/2020/4/1/the-great-suffrage-parade-of-1913" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">https://t.co/jfbzYFjszU</a> <br /><br />Alice Paul & Lucy Burns get credit and blame for nearly every detail of the elaborate planning, its genius as well as its racist exclusions. Two documents @<a href="https://twitter.com/librarycongress" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">LibraryCongress</a> displayed in their lavish exhibit “Shall Not Be Denied†that capture some of the massive planning effort.👇 <br /><br />First, a photo of women leafleting on the street in DC to advertise the march. For so much of the suffrage movement we can only imagine events, not see them. After the turn of the century we begin to have action shots of suffragists at work, which are thrilling. <br /><br />Second, a Pledge to March form, with logistics like timing for special suffrage trains from New York. And at the top, <br /><br />WHY YOU MUST MARCH <br /><br />*Because this is the most conspicuous and important demonstration that has ever been attempted by suffragists in this country. <br /><br />*Because this parade will be taken to indicate the importance of the suffrage movement by the press of the country and the thousands of spectators from all over the United States gathered in Washington for the Inauguration. <br /><br />*Because by marching in Washington you will help the cause of votes for women in every State were suffrage has not yet been won. #Suffrage100 #CenturyofStruggleÂ
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01/07/2020
<p class="BlogItem-title"><a href="https://www.womensvote100.org/the-suff-buffs-blog/2020/4/1/the-great-suffrage-parade-of-1913" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">The Great Suffrage Parade of 1913</a></p>
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A genius for publicity
Had the 1913 march gone flawlessly it would have been less of a success. Alice Paul immediately realized that the violent disruption and police indifference were a gift. <br /><br />On Inauguration Day, suffrage dominated the headlines. 🧵 <br /><br />“WILSON TAKES OFFICE TO-DAY AS 28TH PRESIDENT--Slips Quietly Into the Capital While Suffragists Are Parading†@<a href="https://twitter.com/nytimes" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">nytimes</a> on March 4, 1913 <br /><br />While Wilson gave his inaugural address, suffragists leafleted the crowd demanding a Congressional inquiry. <br /><br />A Senate subcommittee began investigating before the week was over. This kept the march in the news for weeks. <br /><br />Friday, March 7: “Police Idly Watched Abuse of Women--Shocking Insults to Suffrage Paraders Testified To at Washington Inquiry†-NYTimes <br /><br />Monday, March 10--a full week later: The Sacramento Bee ran a photo above the fold 👇 <br /><br />The Senate inquiry went on for a month. 40 women testified, of the 8,000 women who marched, as did numerous spectators and police officers. The proceedings were chaired by Sen. Wesley Jones of Washington. He was accountable to women in his state, who had won the vote in 1910. <br /><br />The full inquest was published - it ran to 600 pages. Great descriptions in <a href="https://twitter.com/tinacassidy2" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">@tinacassidy2</a> & <a href="https://twitter.com/EllenDubois10" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">@EllenDuBois10</a>’s recent books: while the Senate found the police had acted with indifference, Chief Wm Sylvester was exonerated. This infuriated the suffragists, generating more protest. <br /><br />The long-dormant Senate Committee on Woman Suffrage was reinstated -- and composed of Senators from the suffrage states. Alice Paul & Lucy Burns had clamped jumper cables to the federal effort, and restarted it. #Suffrage100 #CenturyofStruggle #VotesforWomen
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03/07/2020
Taking over the Senate
Passage of the 16th & 17th Amdts in 1913 - especially the 17th, which expanded voting rights over opposition from the deep south - proved a federal amendment strategy was viable. So Alice Paul & Lucy Burns spent a hot July plotting to force their way onto the Senate floor. 🧵 <br /><br />The Senate Woman Suffrage Committee had just issued a positive report, its first in years. It cited the recent amendments as proof the Constitution was a living document, and affirmed: “In this Republic, the people constitute the Government…‘The people’ includes women.†<br /><br />Alice & Lucy asked those Senators to help them prove this true, beginning with another massive public event. "General" Rosalie Jones’ pilgrimage to Washington for the Inauguration march had gotten a lot of press, so Alice devised larger-scale caravans from multiple states. <br /><br />Women traveled by car, on foot, on horseback, by train; the Virginia delegation came up the Potomac by boat! The caravans gathered at a ballpark in Hyattsville, MD on July 31, undeterred by a huge storm the day before.<a href="https://hyattsvillelife.com/unearthing-history/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener"> See photo above</a> & via @<a href="https://twitter.com/HvilleTimes" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">HvilleTimes</a> <br /><br />2020The supportive Senators joined them there, and rode with the suffragists in an auto parade to the Capitol. Spectators lined the streets. The DC police escorted them the whole way, eager to show they could do better than they had the day before the Inauguration.<br /><br />Arriving at the Senate, they took over “morning business.†Suffragists packed the gallery while pages delivered petitions with 10,000s of names. 25 Senators presented the petitions from their states, and most of them spoke on the floor in favor of suffrage.<br /><br />On July 31, 1913, suffragists commandeered the Senate floor for more than two hours. It was the first time since 1887 that women’s voting rights had been discussed there. #CenturyofStruggle #19thamendment #VotesforWomen #Suffrage100Â
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18/07/2020
Why Alice & Lucy threatened NAWSA
Alice Paul & Lucy Burns didn’t rebel against the mainstream suffrage organization. It kicked them out. Natl Am. Woman Suffrage Assoc was an organization of white moderates. Religiously conservative, politically mainstream, proudly respectable. Alice&Lucy threatened all that.🧵 <br /><br />Their accomplishments, media savvy, youth, self-confidence; their single-minded focus on a federal amendment, their fundraising - all of it threatened NAWSA leaders Anna Howard Shaw & Carrie Chapman Catt. But most concerning was their allegiance to the Pankhursts. <br /><br />Alice spent 2 years apprenticed to the radical wing of the British suffrage movement - itself born of frustration with the dull probity of the UK’s mainstream org. Brooklyn's Lucy Burns was already in the UK when Alice arrived; she stayed 2 years more organizing in Edinburgh. <br /><br />Reunited in the US, Alice & Lucy spent 1913 in a frenzy of activity - the year began with the pre-Inauguration march, and continued with constant presidential and Congressional lobbying. They stayed in touch with their UK mentors. <br /><br />That October, Emmeline Pankhurst was barred from entering the US due to convictions of “crimes involving moral turpitude.†(This is STILL a category in our immigration law.) Alice Paul & Alva Belmont hired a lawyer who got her in, and Alice & Lucy hosted her in Washington. <br /><br />This photo from that trip looks like it may be in front of Union Station, DC. Mrs Pankhurst is the one in fur. Lucy Burns is on the left, eyes closed. <br /><br />This was all too much for NAWSA. When Lucy Burns was arrested chalking a meeting notice on a Washington DC sidewalk, Anna Howard Shaw rebuked her: “You may think we are all a set of old fogies, and perhaps we are….[but] We will not be like England.†<br /><br />NAWSA began working to eject Alice & Lucy at the end of 1913. Motivations inc jealousy, intrgenerational conflict, genuine strategic differences. But the core was their certainty that Alice & Lucy were radicals who would demolish the respectability NAWSA had worked hard to build. <br /><br />Alice & Lucy believed violence would be unnecessary in the US. But if you are willing to starve in jail with a tube shoved down your nose for the cause, you aren’t likely to repudiate your comrades because Anna Shaw & Carrie Catt disapprove. #suffrage100 #19thAmendment
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20/07/2020