Alice Paul (1885-1977)
To celebrate the ratification of the 19th Amendment, Alice Paul raises a glass in front of a banner (credit: National Woman's Party)
The idea is counterintuitive—by definition, grassroots movements start from the bottom-up, harnessing local support into regional and eventually national change. National movements start from the top down, using national platforms to spur local change. Yet because of Alice Paul, the American Suffrage movement became both national and grassroots.
Paul believed that a successful movement required an unrelenting grassroots campaign that harnessed non-violence, visual rhetoric, and presidential power to sway the federal government. It was this radical and creative crusade that cemented Alice Paul as the leader who ultimately pushed the seventy-two-year long battle for suffrage into a federal victory.
Once in an interview, Paul recalled her mother’s advice: “When you put your hand to the plow, you can't put it down until you get to the end of the row.” The sentiment reflects both Paul’s upbringing and character. Alice Paul was somewhat of an enigma in the American Suffrage movement; she was known for her extreme reserve and disinterest in recounting her own story and experiences. While her peers engaged with the media, Paul bowed her head and plowed through years of protest, arrests, force-feedings, and abuse toward her singular all-consuming goal. Without this relentless nature that led many to label Paul as cold, the American Suffrage movement would likely have lacked the organization and persistence required for national change.
Paul was born to wealthy Quaker parents in Mount Laurel, New Jersey in 1885. Despite her family’s income, she lived a relatively modest life on a small farm. Here, her parents instilled traditional Quaker values into their children: industry, perseverance, and staunch support for gender equality. In 1901, Paul enrolled in Swarthmore College in Pennsylvania to continue her education. After graduation, she attended the London School of Economics where she continued to study social activism and social sciences.
In London, Alice Paul turned her focus from social work more broadly to the subject of suffrage. She describes her experience after witnessing the harassment of University of Birmingham lecturer Christabel Pankhurst, a leader in England’s suffrage movement:
Paul quickly joined the Pankhurst women’s English Suffrage Movement. The Pankhurst women believed that prayer, petitions, and patience were not enough; instead, they used direct and visible measures like marches, rock-throwing, and boycotts. Paul joined the movement and was arrested on several occasions. Here, Emmeline Pankhurst asked Paul to take part in her first hunger strike to protest her unjust incarceration. Hunger strikes were a staple in the Pankhurst movement. Hunger strikes allowed those in prison to publicize their mistreatment and obtain quick releases from wardens who feared public resentment for risking illness and death for middle-class women.
In 1910, Alice Paul eagerly returned to the U.S. to implement what she learned in the English Suffrage Movement. Paul believed the leading suffrage organization in the U.S., the National American Woman Suffrage Association (NAWSA), was too focused on writing and speaking about the same topics to convince men of their independence. Instead, Paul believed women needed to show men that they were already independent.
Concerned that other campaigns were too piecemeal and partial, Paul thought it was critical to focus the campaign nationally. By 1912, women only had equal suffrage in nine states despite sixty-five years of work. This difference in strategy eventually led Paul to split from the NAWSA in 1916 to form a new organization called the National Woman’s Party (NWP). Traditionally, leaders in civil rights movements focused on state change, emphasizing incremental progress until national recognition. Paul’s NWP instead emphasized unconventional strategies: marches, picketing, and hunger strikes in the Capitol to work at the national level for an amendment.
Eventually, Paul’s movement gained traction, and in January of 1917, she, and one thousand other “Silent Sentinels,” picketed the White House for nearly eighteen months. The women silently stood outside six days a week with homemade signs despite weather and counterprotest. While picketing itself was not a new strategy, picketing outside of the White House was. This innovation aimed to specifically wear down the President and Congress. Paul knew that while President Wilson held no real power in changing the Constitution, his burgeoning political influence could sway the vote for suffrage in Congress.
Dozens of silent sentinels were arrested and jailed under flimsy charges of obstructing traffic, and Paul was sentenced for seven months. Upon arrival, the woman insisted they be treated as political prisoners. In response, guards beat them so brutally that the arrest became known as the “Night of Terror.” Doctors sent Paul to the psychiatric ward of the prison. Much like in England, the women held hunger strikes (and consequently suffered brutal force-feedings) to garner sympathy for their cause. Newspaper accounts of these proved immensely effective.
Paul’s account garnered so much sympathy that by 1918, public opinion began to sway. At this point, Britain, Germany, and Russia had also all secured women the right to vote. In response to these growing domestic and international pressures, President Wilson announced his support. It took two more years for the Senate and the House to approve the amendment.
Undoubtedly, Alice Paul’s work within the suffrage movement pushed a decades-long state-by-state campaign to a national amendment and success. Alice Paul’s suffrage movement was scrappy, unrelenting, and by all accounts grassroots as she began at the roots of gender inequality and grew the movement to the national level. Her legacy is not to be ignored as battles over gender and racial equality persist within the U.S. today. Today, Paul’s model of nationalized, unrelenting, and non-violent protest remains the norm for social movements across the country.
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