Remember, it was not until 1920
that women were granted the right to go to the polls and vote.
The women were innocent and defenseless, but they were jailed
nonetheless for picketing the White House, carrying signs asking for
the vote.
And by the end of the night, they were barely alive.
Forty prison guards wielding clubs and their warden's blessing went
on a rampage against the 33 women wrongly convicted of 'obstructing
sidewalk traffic.'
(Lucy Burns)
They beat Lucy Burns, chained her hands to the cell bars above her
head and left her hanging for the night, bleeding and gasping for
air.
(Dora Lewis)
They hurled Dora Lewis into a dark cell, smashed her head against an
iron bed and knocked her out cold. Her cellmate, Alice Cosu, thought
Lewis was dead and suffered a heart attack.
Additional affidavits describe the guards grabbing, dragging,
beating, choking, slamming, pinching, twisting and kicking the women.
Thus unfolded the 'Night of Terror' on Nov. 15, 1917, when the
warden at the Occoquan Workhouse in Virginia ordered his guards to
teach a lesson to the suffragists imprisoned there because they dared
to picket Woodrow Wilson's White House for the right to vote. For
weeks, the women's only water came from an open pail. Their food--all
of it colorless slop--was infested with worms.
(Alice Paul)
When one of the leaders, Alice Paul, embarked on a hunger strike,
they tied her to a chair, forced a tube down her throat and poured
liquid into her until she vomited. She was tortured like this for
weeks until word was smuggled out to the press.
view link
So, refresh my memory. Some women won't vote this year because- -why,
exactly? We have carpool duties? We have to get to work?
Our vote doesn't matter? It's raining?
Last week, I went to a sparsely attended screening of HBO's new movie
'Iron Jawed Angels.' It is a graphic depiction of the battle these
women waged so that I could pull the curtain at the polling booth
and have my say. I am ashamed to say I needed the reminder.
All these years later, voter registration is still my passion. But
the actual act of voting had become less personal for me, more rote.
Frankly, voting often felt more like an obligation than a privilege.
Sometimes it was inconvenient.
My friend Wendy, who is my age and studied women's history, saw the
HBO movie, too. When she stopped by my desk to talk about it, she
looked angry. She was--with herself. 'One thought kept coming back to
me as I watched that movie,' she said.
'What would those women think of the way I use, or don't use, my
right to vote? All of us take it for granted now, not just younger
women, but those of us who did seek to learn.' The right to vote, she
said, had become valuable to her 'all over again.'
HBO released the movie on video and DVD . I wish all history, social
studies and government teachers would include the movie in their
curriculum I want it shown on Bunco night, too, and anywhere else
women gather. I realize this isn't our usual idea of socializing, but
we are not voting in the numbers that we should be, and I think a
little shock therapy is in order.
It is jarring to watch Woodrow Wilson and his cronies try to persuade
a psychiatrist to declare Alice Paul insane so that she could be
permanently institutionalized. And it is inspiring to watch the
doctor refuse. Alice Paul was strong, he said, and brave. That didn't
make her crazy.
The doctor admonished the men: 'Courage in women is often mistaken
for insanity.'
Please, if you are so inclined, pass this on to all the women you
know.
We need to get out and vote and use this right that was fought so
hard for by these very courageous women. Whether you vote democratic,
republican or independent party - remember to vote.
just emailed your post to every woman in my address book....thanks Ellie
I too will be sending this to, not just the women I know, but to everyone I know.....
It is a stark reminder of why we must vote and why we must fight every effort to take away the rights of all of our freedoms....
What our votes do matters if we dare to challenge our government to make our voices heard as these ladies did. Kudos for this post and please know that I will never stop telling folks about this great part of our history brought about by great women.
