Suffrage and the Right to Vote

Suffragists,1848 – 1920

• 1848 – woman’s suffrage movement began
• Women continue the fight for suffrage after the Civil War

National American Women Suffrage Association

• National American Woman Suffrage Association
  • NWSA –
  • Nativist arguments
• AWSA –
  • Merged in 1890
  • Worked on a state-by-state basis
• NAWSA – worked for suffrage on a state by state basis
• League of Women Voters
• NWP – National Women’s Party

Carrie Chapman Catt, 1859 – 1947

• Through the vote women could improve conditions for themselves and children
• Women would foster world peace

Alice Paul, 1885 – 1977

• Formed the National Women’s Party with Lucy Burns
• Placed in solitary confinement
• Beaten
• Force fed

Lucy Burns, 1879 – 1966

• College educated
  • Vassar
• Split from NAWSA
  • Pushed for an amendment to the U.S. Constitution granting women suffrage

Public Demonstrations

• Paul and Burns take a more aggressive approach
• March 3, 1913
  • Day before President Woodrow Wilson’s inauguration day
  • Black women are forced to march at the back behind all white women
• Picket the White House, 1917

Imprisonment

• Were arrested for
  • Unlawful assemblage
  • Obstructing traffic
• Occoquan Workhouse
  • Treated as criminals
  • Women wanted to be treated as political prisoners

Brutal Treatment of Women

• November 1917
  • Malnourished
  • Chained to wall
  • 16 women participated in a hunger strike
  • Led to forced feedings
• Night of Terror Nov. 14, 1917
  • Create public support
• Brutal treatment in prison led to public support of suffragettes
• Sympathy for the suffragists

19th Amendment

• August 18, 1920
  • 19th Amendment was ratified
• Voting Rights Act of 1965
  • Black women could not vote until much later