Women’s Suffragist-A Non-Violent Protest

Women’s Suffrage- Non-Violent Protest

During the time when Woodrow Wilson was President there were many events that took place that change the world. Including, World War I and also the Woman Suffrage movement.

Alice Paul and Lucy Burns are some of the young Suffragist activists of who played a major role in changing history. Paul and Burns were very rebellious women who wanted a constitutional amendment for women to have the right to vote. Both of these women would go through great lengths until this amendment was passed. The NAWSA (National American Woman Suffrage Association) wanted Alice Paul to run their committee in Washington D.C. but they were advised to raise their own money. Their first event was a parade to promote woman suffrage. The parade led to a riot and the suffragists got exactly what they wanted; exposure. They were on the front page of the newspaper letting people know what they are about. After this event Alice Paul meets a political cartoonist named Ben Weissman. This, leads to Burns and Paul leaving NAWSA to form their own organization called the National Woman’s Party (NWP). The NWP opposes any candidate against the proposed constitutional amendment.

The NWP decided to protest and picket the White House in 1917. During these pickets the women were arrested for their actions and were imprisoned on charges of obstructing traffic, they were sentenced to prison for up to six months. Paul and Burns did not like this idea so they started to go on a hunger strike. The women of NWP used this hunger strike to secure public sympathy and move the government to act on woman suffrage. Paul was placed in a psychopathic ward and was forced-fed. Paul did not want other members of NWP to go on a hunger strike but she only wanted to take sacrifice on herself.

On November 14, thirty-three NWP women suffered Raymond Whittaker’s infamous “night