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- [00:01]
Susan
Welcome to the History Tricks where any resemblance to a boring old history lesson is purely coincidental.
- [00:08]
Becky
Hello and welcome to part two of our coverage of Alice Paul. How about this for a quick recap for those of you who don't want to go back to part one, although we highly recommend it up to you.
- [00:18]
Susan
Alice Paul was born into a very wealthy Quaker family. She was educated up through her PhD from the University of Pennsylvania and and along the way she worked within the settlement movement and got very active with a women's suffrage organization in England led by Emily Pankhurst. Through them Alice learned the value of public relations organization, big visible protest and how to withstand imprisonment and violence through force feeding. She returned to the United States, joined the National Women's Suffrage association who were a bit fearful of her radical suffragist education. But they gave her a three month assignment to pull together a suffrage parade in Washington D.C. and she and her co suffragist Lucy Burns did anything that the US had ever seen with a spectacular, well organized parade that unfortunately became violent when anti severage mostly men rushed the women.
- [01:19]
Becky
When we left Alice's story in part one, the cavalry had finally arrived to shepherd the procession the last few blocks of the way. As the march reached the treasury building there was an allegory tableau. Columbia in armor so regal and inspirational, surrounded by the figures of justice, hope, charity and liberty. Now this was not at all what had been intended. Hey ho Rumbelo. On the streets of the nation's capital. I love that so much. And I don't know if it's actually Dickens or if it's Terry Pratchett. Oh, but perhaps this could be turned to some advantage. All the outrage as the news percolated out nationwide, that just might be the momentum that Alice needed. Some members of Congress spent the morning of the inauguration lambasting their colleagues calling for an official investigation into the breakdown of order on the streets of Washington D.C. the papers couldn't believe their luck with this juicy story. You know what? Some took the low road. I'm paraphrasing here. Stories like so much hotness in one place. I, I, I, you know, I'm sure they all the ankles, you know. But most of the press coverage stressed the criminal behavior of the male crowd against dignified and stoic and proper women, your own mothers and sisters forced to defend themselves against the worst sort of ruffians in the public way. Or more pointedly and professionally the whole country is forced to see how much more effective is the little ballot, the mark of citizenship than the much talked of chivalry of our lawful protectors.
- [03:04]
Susan
Alice is only 28 years old at this point. That kind of blows my mind a little bit. I don't think I was ever this organized in my twenties or even now.
- [03:13]
Becky
I was organized to go out with a going out top. And some. My flared.
- [03:18]
Susan
My shoes matched my handbag.
- [03:20]
Becky
Yeah, I didn't take a handbag out because then you don't have anywhere to put it.
- [03:25]
Susan
Oh, I had a sling like a crossbody. Oh, I was ahead of my time. What am I gonna say?
- [03:30]
Becky
I just made one of my guy friends put my lipstick in his pocket. There you go. Of course, this event and its brouhaha overshadowed Wilson's inauguration. Which procession, by contrast, went off without a hitch. The next day, Harriet Stanton Blatch, Daughter of our old friend Elizabeth Cady Stanton. And noted suffragist organizer herself. Wrote a letter to President Wilson and I quote. As you ride today in comfort and safety to the Capitol, we beg that you will not be unmindful that yesterday the government. Which is supposed to exist for the good of all, left women. While passing in peaceful procession in their demand for political freedom. At the mercy of a howling mob on the very streets which are being at this moment so efficiently officered for the protection of men. Despite having been maybe a drag on the whole proceedings. Rather than, you know, the wind beneath Alice's wings or anything. NAWSSA actually was effusive in their praise for the parade.
- [04:32]
Susan
The president of Nassau, Anna Howard Shaw, said the parade has done more for suffrage. To establish firmly those who are wavering. And to bring to our ranks the thousands of others. And then she added that the national association will never cease to be grateful. For all the splendid service you, Alice Paul and Lucy Burns have done in its name.
- [04:56]
Becky
Okay, this is my narrator voice right now. They would in fact cease to be grateful. But you know what? That's a story for 2.5 minutes from now.
- [05:07]
Susan
That's right.
- [05:08]
Becky
Well, now, if Alice expected a conclusive finger pointing consequence train to come down on anyone. During the congressional hearing that followed the inauguration. She was in for a grand disappointment. Despite over two weeks of hearings with 150 different witnesses. The conclusion was sort of, yes. That parade was not as protected as it ought to have been. To which they then played the sad trombone and went to lunch.
- [05:36]
Susan
But it was successful in something else. It came kept the story of women's suffrage. And women crying to be recognized for the right to vote above the fold on newspapers.
- [05:48]
Becky
The very fact that it was taken seriously Enough to be talked about in Congress, made the press coverage extremely favorable. Women had a right to freedom of assembly. That much was clear, you know, now. And Alice thought it was time to move ahead with other rights as well. It was time to pressure on lawmakers about the suffrage amendment to the US Constitution. Why not start at the top?
- [06:11]
Susan
Alice and a couple of other women, by that I mean wealthy, of course, white, already politically connected women, were invited to a 10 minute meeting with the new president, Woodrow Wilson himself. Alice got right into it. At that point, nine of the 48 states had recognized women's right to vote. Surely, she said, and I'm paraphrasing, the country should all follow.
- [06:37]
Becky
Here's Wilson's position, openly said in the newspapers. Women had no mind for politics. They were better off taking care of their families and by extension, their communities. Their limited world in no way prepared them to vote in a rational manner.
- [06:52]
Susan
Woodrow Wilson is a Southern gentleman. He did come from New Jersey, but he was born in Virginia. And he is very good at doing things like little ladying women, you know, just kind of patting them on the head and telling them that he had much more urgent matters. He had campaigned for currency reform. He wanted to have a federal program that oversaw banking systems and tariffs, both good things to control the tariffs, to control the banking system. It was out of control. And those are the things that he was going to focus on. This women's suffrage thing had no place in this lofty platform that he's trying to push through.
- [07:31]
Becky
Yeah, but instead of just nodding and smiling politely as the response that he fully expected, Alice Paul said, but how dare you negotiate these issues without the input of half the population, sir? Kind of broke him a little bit, I think, like, oh, no, I have an opponent.
- [07:47]
Susan
No kidding. She understands taxation without representation. Where did this woman come from?
- [07:53]
Becky
This is so modern of her. She sent him two more delegations under different organization names that I think she just made up. Like as if there's a wide range of organizations that also think you should do this. She organized a nationwide letter rating campaign to Congress. Yes, but also directly to President Wilson specifically. So everywhere he looked, ah, ah, the word suffrage, suffrage, suffrage, coming out of everywhere. NASA heard of this assertiveness and direct behavior and the assaulting of the President in the hallowed White House. And they kind of freaked out. Freaked out. Alice and Lucy Burns were summoned to HQ for a dressing down. You have to act wisely. You are over aggressive. Did they even know Emmaline Pankhurst?
- [08:40]
Susan
Well, I think they did. And that's the problem, Anna Howard Shaw, the President of Nassau, knew that these two women had. Alice and Lucy, had come from what they considered a militant organization in England. That's where they were trained. And she did not want any of that militancy over here. And you know what? You know who else didn't? Alice Paul, Lucy Burns. They agreed on that point. They didn't want that either. But they also said, we need to do this faster. We need to take the momentum from the parade, from the congressional hearing, from our meetings with the president, and go with it. And Anna Howard Shaw is like, ladies, slow your roll. I think when they broke up after this particular meeting and went back to their respective corners, I think that Ms. Shaw thought they were all on the same page again. And guess what? They're not.
- [09:30]
Becky
I think Alice and Lucy quickly realized that this is like a committee scenario.
- [09:36]
Susan
Yeah.
- [09:36]
Becky
And they were kind of like, yep, just nod. Just nod. We'll talk in the side chat. This conference call is not going to go well.
- [09:47]
Susan
No, they didn't go back and start on a small scale either. They organized a procession of 531 women to bring petitions from around the country to the opening session of Congress. Another flashy protest.
- [10:02]
Becky
Notably, the chief of police in D.C. was so jumpy that he provided a 300 officer escort to the 531 marchers. You could likely have committed a crime anywhere in D.C. right then because everyone was maintaining order on Pennsylvania Avenue itself. Because we're not having that blame come at him again.
- [10:21]
Susan
No one time he could squeeze out of it. Second time, probably not.
- [10:25]
Becky
Right?
- [10:25]
Susan
The banner at the head of the march said, nationwide suffrage by constitutional amendment. They can't be any clearer. This is what we want.
- [10:34]
Becky
And guess what? They got it. At least as far as this. Each house of the 99th Congress opened with a proclamation, a resolution to pass a constitutional amendment to enable American women the right to vote nationwide. At least their intention to do so. That is visible in undeniable progress. Still, the debate raged on at NASA, who saw instead the slow but steady state by state work as much more important. There were nine states, like Susan said earlier, that now allowed women to vote. Let's just keep up that momentum, which was so frustrating to Alice and her. I guess I'd have to call it her side. Alice and company have been working in a subsidiary organization to NASA called the Congressional Committee or the cc. Again, everything is acronyms here, which just.
- [11:30]
Susan
For the record, neither one of us like.
- [11:32]
Becky
Right.
- [11:33]
Susan
But here, we're going to have to use them.
- [11:34]
Becky
But NASA and the CC Were friends in public. Only the divisions between the state strategy, that's the more conservative and more decorous branch and Alice's more militant branch began to crack. Elizabeth Cady Stanton's daughter, Harriet Stanton Blatch, actually merged her own group, the Women's Political Union, with Alice's. So bringing with her both firepower and a famous pedigree.
- [12:02]
Susan
These women aren't just sitting around, you know, knitting doilies and talking about, one day we're going to be able to vote. They are lobbying. They are creating more parades. They are organizing meetings around the country. Alice produced a play. They're continuing fundraising. They're continuing bringing in new members. They're doing a lot. And I kept thinking of the, you know, the words from Hamilton. Every day you fight like you're running out of time, right? And that's how they're. That's how they were working, like they were running out of time. And in a way, they kind of were. Because they knew that at some point they were going to cross a line and NASA was going to hammer down on them.
- [12:40]
Becky
And Alice had less patience with the steadfast propriety of NASA. The committees as solution. And in their turn, NASA resented these loose cannons who would not ask permission of their bosses before doing anything.
- [12:55]
Susan
And the things they're doing are so successful.
- [12:58]
Becky
Well, Alice and a journalist named Ms. Dorr D O H R began publishing a magazine called the Suffragist. In it, of course, was praise of the Pankhurst philosophy in England, among other things.
- [13:12]
Susan
Now we are just on a timeline. Only eight months after that suffragist parade. Eight months, that's it. But within a month of the Suffragist paper beginning monthly subscriptions hit 1200. And each of those people were paying what's the equivalent of $30 in modern money for a subscription to this paper. It became self funded and it became the primary advertiser for upcoming NASA events.
- [13:38]
Becky
Well, theoretically, the CC and therefore perhaps its magazine, the Suffragists, are nominally under the umbrella of NASA. NASA wanted to be known as the women's suffrage organization in America. Alice wanted to be acknowledged as the one who was getting the job done. Or at least the one who facilitated others getting the job done. Because Alice actually was very, very good at stepping back and let others take credit. She was very good at facilitating behind the scenes and then stepping back. We'll see it all throughout, you know, this last part of her story. Yeah, well, neither we're going to budge on those points. You know, Alice wasn't going to bow down to the altar of NASA. And Carrie Chapman Catt, the former head of NASA and future new head of NASA, sort of called Alice out in a public meeting. And this is what she said in a public meeting. There never was a young woman yet who didn't think if she'd had management of the work from the beginning, the cause would have carried long ago. I thought so myself when I was young. She wanted to disband Alice's committee, absorb it, its money and its power. And Alice was offended. Offended at just the sheer brass neck of that, you know, and never got over her resentment of this. Especially because the same exact thing had happened to Carrie Chapman Catt in her youth. She had been an effective worker for decades. The national organization Brace Yourself for this, had felt threatened by Carrie Chapman Kat's tactics and dissolved her committee. So she had, I guess, worked her way up and into a position of power as revenge, which is a dish best served cold. But that's a long wait. But why could she not see history repeating? I mean, it's hard to see it when you're inside it, I guess. But decorum and careful non involvement in politics, I guess that's still politics. Is that still men's work according to her asking rather than demanding?
- [15:45]
Susan
I don't know. It's been about, on our timeline, about 20 years since. Since that committee that she had run was dissolved and just embarrassed her and just made her feel awful. Which is exactly what she's trying to do to Alice, of course. But maybe she's just forgotten over time. Or she took what happened to her and built on it and thought she was building on it in the best way. So Alice should certainly see that she was already doing the things that Alice is doing right now.
- [16:15]
Becky
So.
- [16:15]
Susan
And she got to where she is. So Alice should listen to her.
- [16:18]
Becky
The implication seemed to be that Alice and Lucy and the whole side, how they were behaving, was disrespectful to all who had gone before. Everybody who had ever worked on suffrage before, they were throwing that away. And then Carrie Chapman Catt turns around and says to the press blithely, I believe it's time to work for a congressional amendment. As if what Alice had done the past year was. Was nothing. Wait.
- [16:45]
Susan
I just had this really good idea come to me. What if we do? And then she says exactly what Alice has been doing. Yeah. Wow.
- [16:53]
Becky
And now she openly asks, which organization ought we to be loyal to? Because, you know, there can be only one. Like it's the Highlander. It was just brouhaha. In the boardroom, at the tea table, and in the press, who were very happy to fall back on that old standby. Oh, those ladies just can't get along. How could they ever be trusted with politics? Alice had a radical idea that scared a lot of the old guard, by the way. You know what if our, quote, friends, the Democrats in government don't further our goals, we'll just work to replace them. They can say are our friends, but if they don't do anything. Arevidershi, you know?
- [17:29]
Susan
Yeah.
- [17:30]
Becky
What are we, what are we hanging on for? Promises, hope. I mean, are they our friends if they promise reform but sit on their hands? No, they're not.
- [17:36]
Susan
No. And when Alice has an idea, by the time she vocalizes it, she's not just talking like I might just say things like, you know, it might be good. No. By the time it comes out of Alice's mouth, not only does she have a concrete idea, but she has a step by step plan to make it happen. And that's what she's organizing.
- [17:54]
Becky
And sure enough, her tactics are working. There's an unprecedented vote in the House on the national amendment. But I want to read you one of the almost unbelievable quotes from the anti suffrage side. A man, of course in Congress who did not think women would understand and I quote, the duty of organized murder. He was worried that women, should they get the vote, would vote against war. Okie dokie. Oh, others were very concerned since suffrage and temperance had been in bed together for decades, that women would vote to ban alcohol. Now if you want a little story about that movement, you should listen to our coverage on Carrie Nation. A lot of this temperance movement was to prevent abuse of women and children and a major cause of poverty among them. So it's not just that devil liquor, it's what liquor represents and causes, you know.
- [18:50]
Susan
Yeah. This plan that we've been talking about of Alice going out with her organization into the country and supporting candidates that will vote in favor of suffrage was the line that she crossed with NASA. They did not approve of this particular method of campaigning. This was not what we do here at NASA. And they did to her exactly what had been done to Carrie Chapman Catt. And they appointed a new Congressional Committee. So Alice's group lost their auxiliary status and basically were flying solo. Alice's new organization had been called the Congressional Committee, the cc now they are calling themselves the Congressional Union. They don't want to take away the emphasis that they're working with Congress on this one thing, with Congress. So they are the Congressional Union. And they have some really heavy hitters on their side, I got to say. And people did not know out in the world, out in the suffrage world, because news didn't fly like it does now. They didn't know which side to be on. And if they were giving their money to NASA, was it getting down to Alice? Or more likely, if they were giving their money to Alice, isn't it going to NASA? No, it's not. Not now.
- [20:08]
Becky
Yeah, you get what you get and you don't throw a fit. And Alice was really good at fundraising.
- [20:30]
Susan
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Becky
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Susan
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- [22:19]
Becky
And hair will thank you. Almost inevitably. Of course the measure failed in Congress itself, but attention and energy was undeniable. Politicians had been put on notice that their positions were were being noted specifically at the Women's Voters convention at the Panama Pacific International Exposition in San Francisco. There was at this world's fair to celebrate the opening of the Panama Canal, an enormous opportunity for public relations and for press inches. Alice Paul and her organization decided to set up their headquarters. They had a prominent, extremely well funded, decorative, decorous booth in a prominent location near the educational building. And one of the main attractions was a giant chart that showed each and every one of those senators and congressmen's votes by name. You now know who to reach out to. How about was glamorous in purple, white and gold. There were lectures, articles, there were questions answered and literature distributed by trained, experienced suffrage workers at the fair every single day. In addition, the number of visitors they were getting daily gave Alice another idea. I have an opportunity to do some razzle dazzle here and I am going to have people as they visit sign a petition for this amendment and we are going to somehow deliver this to the President of the United States. Alice had organized extremely large women's suffrage conference to accompany this fair. And no slouch when it comes to organization. The day scheduled for the beginning of the conference was every woman's day at the fair. So already there's free publicity paid for by the fair. So we're just gonna jump on that. There were 800 attendees at the official event. There was a program, a reception, and then a ball. It was very refined and meant to be. So. The keynote speech was given by our old friend Alva Belmont, Consuelo Vanderbilt's mama, who had been a supporter of NASA for years and increasingly approved of Alice and Lucy's tactics, action, daring do and she worked on behalf of their initiatives. One thing she said to Alice was how nice it was to be more than just a money bag. So Alice gave her public speaking to do, gave her jobs, gave her tasks, gave her responsibilities, relied on her in a way that I mean, also Alva gave them money. But Alva wasn't just seen as someone to tap like a cag, right? She was actually used for her brain. And that was very, very important to Alva. Very important. Alice had an idea. It was spectacular. The petition that everybody had been signing this whole time, which reportedly by now had half a million signatures on it. I don't know how to verify that.
- [25:43]
Susan
I know that's just.
- [25:45]
Becky
That's either PR or it's real. You know, I'm just There it is.
- [25:48]
Susan
There was a lot.
- [25:49]
Becky
I mean, there.
- [25:49]
Susan
Yeah, yeah.
- [25:50]
Becky
She had an opportunity to deliver this petition to President Wilson by a radical method. Slow enough. Also to gain an enormous amount of pr, some intrepid women volunteered to drive it across the country. Now, this is 1914. Two Swedish suffragists who had just come from Rhode island and just bought this car offered to carry the petition back. Mariah Kindberg and Ingeborg Kindstedt were their names. They knew how to drive and most importantly knew how to maintain and fix a car in these days, before service stations and, you know, O'Reilly Auto Parts or whatever, or even a shelf station or a. Yeah, quick trip. There's nothing you had to be self sufficient.
- [26:36]
Susan
Yeah.
- [26:37]
Becky
Alice did say flippantly because she doesn't know anything about cars. Well, just look pitiful and some man will stop probably and help you. And they're like, we don't need a man can do it.
- [26:46]
Susan
It's fine, we gotcha. Yeah.
- [26:48]
Becky
And Alice also appointed some women to help them. A woman named Sarah Bard Field, who was an experienced organizer in both Oregon and Nevada, and Frances Jolliffe from California. They were to go in the car with the two Swedish suffragists. And then a woman named Mabel Vernon would go ahead by train and work with local suffrage groups along the way to. To organize events, speakers and publicity along the way. 10,000 people saw them off from the fair. It was glorious. And after traveling through 21 states, they had a spectacular welcome in Washington D.C. too, led by Alva Belmont herself, among others, who delivered the petition to friendly senators. And then they went on to a meeting with President Wilson, who had a milquetoast response, who said that he would consider what would be the correct thing to do. Oh, President Wilson. He said that he had voted personally for suffrage when he voted in New Jersey at home. It failed, of course, as it did in a lot of states. And who knows if he really did what he said. He said a lot of things. You know who else said a lot of things? NASA. Specifically, Carrie Chapman Catt. Who? Okay, I'm just going to say this. We in this episode are on Alice Paul's side, right? And she's definitely the villain in Alice's story. But I do want to say Carrie Chapman Catt had been working for suffrage since the 1880s. She and Mary Church Terrell had been struggling, if not exactly together, in. In parallel, since the 1890s. Ms. Cat started an international women's suffrage alliance in the aughts that still exists to this day. She was an extremely powerful and valuable force. However, she and Alice were now opposing forces within the suffrage movement. The last thing, in fact, that Carrie Chapman Catt said to Alice Paul before the final rift in the movement was, I will fight you to the last ditch. Ellis Paul's organization, which was now called the National Women's Party, or nwp, had become, I guess I'm gonna say, terrifying to the status quo in Washington. Every week, some nervous elected official would ask if he was a target. Which reminds me of when everybody, remember when everyone used to ask Taylor Swift, like, what do you say to potential boyfriends who are worried you're going to write a song about them? And she's like, don't do bad stuff. That's what Alice am I gonna be a target? Are you coming after me? Like, are you gonna do bad stuff?
- [29:31]
Susan
Yep.
- [29:32]
Becky
You know, it's a very simple answer to a very simple question. That's right.
- [29:36]
Susan
What Alice Paul did now at this time, she's about 30. Is she also. In addition to renaming her organization, she has renamed the amendment that she's trying to get passed in Congress. And she's naming it the Susan B. Anthony Amendment. Much stronger, easier to remember. Catchy name.
- [29:56]
Becky
Absolutely. It's almost like hitching your wagon to a star.
- [30:00]
Susan
It is. Even though Susan B. Anthony technically didn't write it. But Elizabeth Cady Stanton had kind of gone rogue towards the end of her of her life. And she didn't have the golden halo around her that Susan B. Anthony, Aunt Susan they called her had.
- [30:17]
Becky
And they probably did say Aunt because of where they were.
- [30:19]
Susan
That's right. The proper way.
- [30:21]
Becky
Uh huh. Well, Alpha Beaumont had provided Aunt Alva Belmont had provided an astonishingly opulent headquarters in Washington dc. This gave them enormous amount of status. They were, they were real. Like they seemed real now that they had the marble halls and the secretaries working away downstairs. In addition to letters, speakers, articles and the usual pressure, deputations were constantly sent to officials and the President, never leaving them in peace. Ms. Catt deplored how the NWP quote disrespected the President. But the NWP position was they disrespect us by giving us no voice in government. We are simply returning the favor.
- [31:09]
Susan
Right. The end. Cameron House, like you said, was very impressive building. It also had upper floors with rooms in it. And Alice and Lucy lived in Cameron House. So they were working and living in the same building. And it was such an impressive building that it just gave them a lot more gravitas in their organization. It gave them more legitimacy, more Big power. I don't know what I'm trying to say.
- [31:36]
Becky
No, yeah, exactly. If. If people see you and you're working out of a storefront with a dusty window, you're one thing. But if you walk in and have to make an appointment, that's a whole other thing.
- [31:48]
Susan
Right. And there's paid people working there. They have staff. Yeah. I think when they did the booth at the World's Fair, it gave them that same image, like, we are serious. We are here. Look how big we are. Force to be reckoned with.
- [32:04]
Becky
Absolutely. Well, the NWP and in fact, the world, got dealt a blow in November of 1916.
- [32:11]
Susan
Inez Milholland, and we had talked about her. She was the woman on the big white horse at the beginning of that 1913 suffrage parade. She had become a very sought after suffrage speaker. She was not only now just the most beautiful suffragette, but she was intelligent and she could captivate a crowd. Well, an entire contingent of suffrage speakers along the lines of Yanes Mit Holland were sent out west to campaign during the presidential election of this year. Ines Mulholland was sent out as a, quote, special flying envoy. Her purpose was to Appeal to the 12 states and territories that had the right to vote and encourage them to vote against Woodrow Wilson. That's the entire purpose of this campaign. All these speakers are sent out west to encourage people to vote against Woodrow Wilson.
- [33:06]
Becky
So inez Milholland traveled 12,000 miles on this tour, and this famous and fiery worker for women's rights had collapsed during a speech and died a month later at only 30 years of age. Her last public words to the audience were, Mr. President, how long must women wait for liberty? Alice was grief stricken and maybe even blamed herself for driving Inez to work so hard. But I mean, and I know everyone wanted to please Alice, but they're grown women. And Inez Milholland had been ill for a number of years.
- [33:46]
Susan
She was traveling with her sister Vida, so she had somebody looking after her. But she hit eight states in 21 days. And this isn't just speeches in nice auditoriums. These are street rallies and luncheons and press conferences, more parades and dinners, and then also theater, speeches. 21 days on the road, just working herself literally to death.
- [34:10]
Becky
Her death shocked the nation. Similarly, I think the reaction mirrored when Emily Davison died during her suffrage work in England, either on purpose or accident, being killed by the king's horse as she raced out at the Epsom Derby racetrack. This young woman was a sacrifice for a just cause. And the NWP channeled their mourning into action. They wrote a resolution to be delivered to president Wilson. And I quote, we ask that you open the great doors before which our women are exhausting their lives in waiting and appealing. Will you not let this nation, by its example, Win yet another victory for liberty throughout the world? Those who are working in the cause for which Inez Mulholland Boissevin died, who know the thousands of other women throughout the world. Bearing unflinchingly its sacrifices and labors and exhaustion, Turn to the president of this democracy with the plea that he intercede to stop such waste of human life and effort. For by her death, there has been made clear the constant, unnoticed tragedy of this prolonged effort for a freedom that is acknowledged just but is still denied. There is no need in the United States to prolong this struggle of the woman.
- [35:32]
Susan
She was also able to get a reservation for the Capitol rotunda For a memorial service for Inez. Now, of course, she's putting all this in the suffragist paper. It's headline news, and it sounds a little like she's taking advantage of a bad situation. But Inez's family said, no, do it. You know, take her death and make something of it. Let it be. Not for nothing.
- [35:58]
Becky
On January 9, 1917, a group of 300 women brought that resolution to President Wilson with the following message. One of our most beautiful and beloved comrades, Inez Milholland, has paid the price of her life for a cause. As we look over the long, backward trail through which we have sought our political liberty, we are asking, how long? How long must this struggle go on? President Wilson was not only not touched by this heartfelt appeal, he spoke angrily to them and immediately left the room. Enraged by the president's response, the women gathered that evening to discuss a new tactic. They were heartily sick of this disregard. It was time to pink hearse this place up with a twist. The next morning, January 10, passersby were startled to see women standing silently on the sidewalk holding up banners, One of which displayed in as his last public words. Mr. President, how long must women wait for liberty? That's likely the one that you've seen a photo of. There's others. Mr. President, you say liberty is the fundamental demand of the human spirit. Mr. President, what will you do for women's suffrage?
- [37:09]
Susan
They had an entire department that painted these signs, these banners. That was their job. There was always new banners.
- [37:16]
Becky
Crowds gathered to see what was going on, which was really a divine piece of performance art. Alice asked that the women holding the signs be silent. They don't interact with the public. No chanting, no singing. It would be a more powerful illustration that women had no voice.
- [37:33]
Susan
I mean, they even leapt like they all marched out in unison, exactly the same distance apart, and took their place at the gates of the White House on either side of the gate. Yes, you said it perfectly. Performance art. It was perfect.
- [37:47]
Becky
This is the first time people had protested in front of the White House. We're so used to it now. But then the audacity, the novelty. People didn't know what to think. You know, there was some jeering, sure, but for the most part, you know, if only Instagram had existed. Everyone wanted to be a part of it, you know.
- [38:04]
Susan
Well, the pictures are stunning now from that, right? They're very striking because all the women are dressed all in dark coats holding these incredibly tall banners that are twice their height, carefully, professionally written out. It is made just for Instagram.
- [38:20]
Becky
I'm just saying, if only the people had known because they really wanted to be a part of the action, it would have been selfie land. I'm glad maybe it didn't.
- [38:29]
Susan
This kind of like in, in London where people stand in front of the guards that are sitting so stoically and if you get too close they yell.
- [38:37]
Becky
At you or the horse bites your arm off.
- [38:39]
Susan
Oh, I know, I know. Now of course, it's the White House. So the President is driving in and out and he is basically just staring straight ahead as he passes these women and his wife, First Lady Edith Wilson, who was his second wife, she was also pretty upset about all this. She was dropped into the whole political arena after his first wife died mid first term. So this is her first full term as a First lady and there's this protest happening of women outside. But there was somebody who absolutely loved what these women were doing from the Wilson camp and that was President Wilson's daughter, Margaret. She also was about 30. She had done first lady duties for the year and a half between Mrs. Wilson's, but she would wave at the ladies every time she went past. She loved it.
- [39:36]
Becky
The silent sentinels, as they started to be called, were something to regard, to, ponder, to go home and discuss. Sometimes the sentinels would even let a passerby woman hold the banner for a minute if she was inspired to do so. The suffragists were brought hot bricks to stand on to warm their feet and hot drinks, which I'm sorry to say I would not have drunk for any amount of money. But maybe they lived in a less suspicious age.
- [40:02]
Susan
Oh, you mean like people in the street? That were bringing it. Yeah. There was also people from their organization that would bring them over. And at one point, it was really raining one day, it was cold and bitter. And President Wilson looked outside and said, invite those ladies in to warm up. And they absolutely refused. They wouldn't do it.
- [40:21]
Becky
Yeah. Did they know the finger? Would that have been their response? I mean, I'm actually sure they knew, Susan. I just looked it up, and the finger is well over 2000 years old. The finger is universal.
- [40:33]
Susan
Okay.
- [40:34]
Becky
Stood for the same thing. Interesting. As far back as you can throw it. But they politely declined the coffee instead, and the warmth, which is probably. Probably for the best.
- [40:44]
Susan
Alice was onto something with these silent sentinels. It was extraordinarily controversial. Lots of people liked it and lots of people didn't. The ladies at Nassau, they were pretty disgusted and publicly said that the National Women's Party was embarrassing to the President. And the anti suffragists called it a silent invitation to the assassin and likened it to a little kid sticking out his tongue. Even Alice's mother, Alice's Quaker supporting mother, wrote to Alice and said, I hope thee will call it off. Well, so every day, you know, there's all this controversy, but there's also all this press. And Alice was great at getting in the papers.
- [41:28]
Becky
You know what this reminds me of? When Frida Kahlo said that she was equally delighted when someone loathed her paintings as when someone liked them. Because she's like, it's an emotion. That's. I. I strive to produce an emotion. What that emotion is, well, that's up to you. You know, I love it. That's exactly kind of what Alice Paul is like. And I'm above the fold in the paper again.
- [41:50]
Susan
That's right, yeah.
- [41:52]
Becky
So each and every day for the next four months, the silent sentinels greeted the President on his way in or out. Now, behind the scenes, Wilson had a lot going on. The conflict that we now know as World War I had been raging in Europe for a number of years. Wilson and public opinion in the USA wanted the US to remain neutral. Wilson had even signed a deal with Germany, whereupon they promised to stop attacking passenger ships and promised to evacuate all the people off of merchant ships before destroying them. That's what they had to do in order to preserve diplomatic ties with the United States. But only three weeks after the silent sentinels began their protest, the German ambassador to the United States presented a letter to Wilson's Secretary of State. Germany intended to restart unrestricted submarine warfare the following day. What are you going to do about it? Nothing. I mean, this was a complete shock. President Wilson went before Congress on February 3rd to announce that he had cut diplomatic relations with Germany. And he didn't ask Congress yet to declare war. Surely Germany would refrain from attacking neutral ships. You'd think so, but no. Almost immediately, German submarines went out and targeted and sank several US Ships, resulting in the deaths of numerous US Sailors and citizens. President Wilson decided to arm US Merchant ships by executive order. He cited this old anti piracy law that gave him the authority to do so against the will of Congress. Well, he's made a giant mistake because technically, according to international law, when you place military personnel on a civilian ship, that's an act of war. So Wilson was slipping down that slippery slope. And then British intelligence revealed to him. Now keep in mind, he's going in and out and the suffragists have the signs and this is what's happening when he gets in his house. British intelligence revealed to him they'd been sitting on a telegram for a month. They'd decoded in which Germany asked for Mexico's help in return for a promise to reclaim for Mexico the territory they'd lost in the Mexican American War in 1848. And guess what? That territory is US present day California, Texas, New Mexico, Utah, Nevada, Arizona, and parts of Colorado, Oklahoma, Kansas and Wyoming. Just a little bit, a little bit of territory. And this telegram was released to the American public on March 1st. Public opinion was quickly swinging toward war. A few days later, to quote celebrate Wilson's second inaugural, a large group of over a thousand suffragists and supporters marched with signs all the way around the White House surrounding it, singing and chanting. It was known as the great picket.
- [45:00]
Susan
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- [47:25]
Becky
When war came inevitably on April 6, 1917, NASA and Miss Cat were of the opinion that suffrage work, including whatever the heck this was Alice thought she was doing, would now have to wait out of patriotism, similar to the way that suffrage work had had to wait out the Civil War. But look at what that caused last time. 50 years of lost momentum. No, thank you, said Alice.
- [47:50]
Susan
As soon as war broke out, three more states immediately recognized the right for women to vote. So putting it on the shelf just for the duration of the war is not going to get the solution that they want either side. And oh my goodness, Carrie Chapman Catt was just sucking up to President Wilson like, oh, we'll just be very polite and you are just a big man and we'll just be over here waiting for you. What?
- [48:16]
Becky
I want to reference the earlier paragraph again.
- [48:19]
Susan
Okay?
- [48:20]
Becky
We know that she was a valuable worker. We know her achievements. She is the villain of this story. I just, I don't, I just don't want to denigrate the actual. I mean, you know, a lot of people built foundations so that the latter suffragists could step on the step, you know, so I. Yes, you're right. She had a little bit of a different, more Appeasing technique, Alice, of course, is like, no, thank you. This country can think about more than one thing at once. We're going to keep going, you know.
- [48:53]
Susan
Right, right.
- [48:54]
Becky
No nonsense. We already know he's sort of a bad guy, so, like, whatever. He's not my friend. Over the next year and a half, a total of more than a thousand women would picket with banners demanding the right to vote. But now public opinion turned sharply against them. Onlookers often booed and pushed and threw things at the women. It was very common to have been spit upon. It was a lot more dangerous now to stand outside the White house. World War I was underway, and many looked at their actions as unpatriotic at best and treasonous at worst. On June 20, our old friend Lucy Burns and another picketer named Dora Lewis came to work with a different kind of banner. Oh, my. This one said, keep in mind there's Russian diplomats coming to the White House. To the Russian envoys. President Wilson and Envoy Root are deceiving Russia. They say we're a democracy. Help us win a world war so that democracies may survive. We, the women of America, tell you America is not a democracy. 20 million American women are denied the right to vote. President Wilson is the chief opponent of their natural enfranchisement. Help us make this nation really free. Tell our government that it must liberate its people before it can claim free Russia as an ally.
- [50:12]
Susan
I have all those words on one banner. These are very large banners.
- [50:17]
Becky
This was directed at White House visitors from Russia on their way to meet with the president. If. Let's see, what's a word I can. It was volcanic. After an angry mob tore their banner away, incidentally tore some of their clothes to very violent toward the actual women. Lucy Burns came back as soon as a replacement sign was made with another suffragist named Catherine Maury. Those two women were arrested among the resultant Fuhrer with the second sign for, quote, obstructing traffic. Now, Wilson got backlash for this and quickly pardoned these first two. But over time, increasingly obstructing traffic became the excuse. And soon Alice and the organization would only take Sentinel volunteers who were willing to be arrested. Not that they would be arrested, but if you were afraid of that and couldn't handle it, don't volunteer. Do something else. Paint the sign. Stay behind the scenes. This is not for you, and that's fine. There's a place for everybody. But we only take people now who are willing to be arrested. Among those were Mary Church Terrell and Her daughter Phyllis. Think what a risk that was for someone who really wasn't even fighting for your interests. You would work for her. You know, it was so unsafe. Mary Terrell admired Alice Paul's use of militant direct action and did not give up on Alice and the NWP eventually expanding their platform to include African Americans as well as white women. With this power, she just looked around. So much can be done. And I, Mary Terrell gave people a lot of chances. People have so much fortitude and I really feel for her too. Onlookers would harass them and beat the women protesters while the police just looked away and didn't intervene. Shades of the 1913 parade. More than 200 of the women picketers were arrested, convicted of a misdemeanor which came with a 25 fine or three days in jail. Over half of them chose jail. Though only convicted of misdemeanors, they were mistreated, served spoiled food, all manner of abuse out of all proportion to their offenses. Well, tensions were running much higher by August when the Sentinels rolled out a new inflammatory banner.
- [52:33]
Susan
When Alice is paying attention to what's going on in the news. So a lot of times her banners are reflecting things that just happened. Like the day before, this particular banner said Kaiser Wilson. So first off, they're calling not President Wilson, but they're referring to Kaiser Wilhelm the second. He was not. It was not a dictatorship exactly, but the common folk had absolutely no say in Germany at this point. So this banner said Kaiser Wilson. Have you forgotten your sympathy with the poor Germans? Because they are not self governed. 20 million American women are not self governed. Take the beam out of your eye, which is a biblical quote.
- [53:16]
Becky
What's the rest of that quote is like? How dare you?
- [53:19]
Susan
It's Matthew 7, I wrote it down. It's Matthew 7:5, you hypocrite. First take the plank out of your own eye and then you will clearly see to remove the speck from your brother's eye.
- [53:31]
Becky
Okay, so basically stop being a hypocrite. Yes, you ding dong. Well, this banner. This banner was followed by three days of attacks by an angry mob, including active duty sailors and soldiers and police. Gunshots fired through headquarter windows and the sentencing of women to 60 day prison terms. Now, Alice Paul was not on the deck for that protest. She was around and she was seen and singled out and made an example of as the leader of the Sentinels. She was given a seven month sentence and sent to the district jail and placed in solitary confinement where of course she began a hunger Strike that resulted in force feeding, which she thought she'd never have to experience again, and transfer to the psychiatric unit of the jail, where she suffered sleep deprivation and all manner of coercion under a threat from prison officials of her being permanently committed to a mental institution. Now, if only the doctors had cooperated with the government. But the remnant of scientists left in their bodies led them to deem her sane after all. She had to smuggle out a letter written on the back of a scrap of paper to let the world know how she was being treated. I think you can all guess extremely poorly. Alice later said of this time. Can you imagine a man putting his hands on an innocent victim in this way for simply asking for their rights? Over at the other jail, called the Occoquan Workhouse, Lucy Burns and seven other jailed women staged a hunger strike to protest their own treatment, facing similar conditions to Alice. We didn't mention this, but Alice, during her time at the district prison, had been force fed. What did you say? 42 times?
- [55:32]
Susan
42 times over 14 days.
- [55:35]
Becky
And so Lucy Burns gets out, discovers what's been happening to Alice, protests the abuse of Alice, and gets jailed again.
- [55:44]
Susan
Yeah. The silent sentinels went out with banners protesting the abuse that Alice was undergoing. And quite frankly, the conditions that they had been staying in, Especially at the Occoquan workhouse, which is about 20 miles or so from the White House, not that far. So the silent sentinels, including Lucy, were protesting. And of that protest, 33 of them were arrested and thrown into jail. And this time, the jailers had had enough. This arrest led to what was known as the Night of Terror. Now, just that name alone, if you have a sensitivity to violence, fast forward. Just go ahead by really just one minute, we'll do it. This prison superintendent ordered. Ordered that the women get beaten. Lucy Burns was chained with her hands above her head all night long. And another one of the women took the same position, basically in solidarity. The woman were thrown, they were dragged, they were beaten. One woman had a heart attack and was refused medical care. And again, all of this is for blocking traffic.
- [56:54]
Becky
The warden denied them counsel and summoned U.S. marines to guard the workhouse. I guess from the possibility of rescue, I don't know. Lucy, as the ringleader of the victims, was transferred to the same jail as Alice. And three times a day, force feedings began again for both of them.
- [57:15]
Susan
Again, their crime, which the women insisted, when they were arrested and imprisoned, they insisted that it was a political crime, not a criminal crime, that they were political, not criminal inmates. Even if you take the charge into consideration, it was still a misdemeanor of blocking the sidewalks.
- [57:37]
Becky
News of their mistreatment reached the suffragists outside as well as well placed allies with connections at the highest level. Lawyers, including one who actually resigned from the Wilson administration in solidarity with the cause. His name is Dudley Malone and we don't cover men. Exactly. But he ended up marrying one of Alice Paul's very close comrades in arms. So he was really family. At a certain point, the lawyers began to put together documentation and demand transparency. The banners at the White House now read, to ask for freedom for women is not a crime. Suffrage prisoners should not be treated as criminals. The press got a hold of this, the story of the women left for dead at the Occoquan workhouse. The story caused shockwaves across the nation. Nation. In late November, under increasing public pressure, federal authorities agreed to release Alice and Lucy and the other suffrage prisoners. And in early 1918, the D.C. court of Appeals ruled on their cases that these women had been illegally arrested, illegally convicted and illegally imprisoned. And I quote, so far as the information enlightens us, the defendants may have assembled for a perfectly lawful purpose and though to a degree obstructing the sidewalk, not be guilty of any offense. Neither is peaceable assembly under the present statute unlawful. It would hardly be contended that if the defendants had met on one of the spacious sidewalks of Pennsylvania Avenue to conduct a peaceable conversation, though in a degree inconveniencing some pedestrians, that they would be guilty under the same statute of crowding and obstructing the free use of the walk. Lucy Burns went on a speaking tour after her release. Because she is made of steel.
- [59:34]
Susan
She did go home to Brooklyn for a little bit. These women all needed, just like when they were in England and they were treated so abysmally, they needed recovery time. She did go back to Brooklyn, where she was from, and rest up just a bit. As for Alice, who. Alice had never fully recovered from what had happened to her in England. And she pushed herself so hard that she had over the years repeated episodes where she just needed to go home to her parents house and just rest. Although sometimes she stayed at her own house and tried not to let her mom know that she was this ill. She had a lot of digestive issues. This time Alice was flat out just in bed for three weeks. This is another one of those times where she was just writing to her mother and just saying, you know, mom, I'm okay, I'm fine. Just so that her mother didn't Know how bad she really, really was.
- [60:35]
Becky
There was a song from the 90s. I wish somebody would tell me what it was. It's called Mother, Mother. And it's. There's a part where it's like, I'm hungry, I'm dirty, I'm losing my mind, everything's fine. And she's on the phone with her mother.
- [60:49]
Susan
Yeah, okay.
- [60:50]
Becky
Do you remember that song?
- [60:51]
Susan
Oh, I must have. I. I had babies in the 90s.
- [60:54]
Becky
Oh, okay. Well, anyway, that's what that reminds me of is like, everything's falling apart. And you. You get on the phone with your mom and you're like, I gotta keep it all together. I gotta keep it all together. On January 9, 1918, a year to the day after that first fateful meeting with suffrage supporters in his office, the one that launched the Silent Sentinels in the first place, Wilson finally came out in public support of the Anthony Amendment. And I will read the text of it again. The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any state on account of sex. And the very next day, the 19th amendment was passed through the House of Representatives with the required two thirds majority. Well, don't forget that outside, NASA and the remaining NWP were also out in the world, using leverage, threats, cajolery and press coverage to put pressure on Congress and the President. Also, NASA had 2 million members. Influential members, connected a lot of them, lest we forget. So NWP forged the wedge and NASA drove it in. But the Senate was a harder battle.
- [62:07]
Susan
The Senate, they refused to debate it. They just kept refusing. And eventually in the fall, they agreed. Okay, we'll vote on it. And guess what? It failed. Shocker.
- [62:19]
Becky
It only failed by two votes, though.
- [62:21]
Susan
Yeah, we're making progress.
- [62:23]
Becky
So it's like a little bit of a hope.
- [62:25]
Susan
Just a little bit. Well, Alice knew that just getting Wilson's support was huge. She had been after that for years. But now she knew she had yet another battle out in the world to get this amendment through to the finish line. She stood in another type of protest in front of the White House. This time, she was reading and burning papers with Wilson's quotes on them. Just like, this isn't. Your words aren't worth anything. You said this. Okay. Hypocrite. Fire.
- [62:56]
Becky
It was called Watch fires of Freedom outside of public buildings. Anytime he mentioned freedom or democracy set it on fire. And they even began to burn Wilson in effigy in front of the White House. I mean, yeah, you thought the Kaiser banner Was bad. Woo. Arrest him. Hunger strikes continued, although there were no more incidents as shocking as the night of terror. You know, behind the scenes we still had force feeding and hunger strikes and people snatched off the streets. In fact, survivors of the worst prison treatment decided with Alice that they were going to go on a speaking tour to influence public opinion. They would show up in their prison outfits and describe what had happened to them.
- [63:37]
Susan
I am willing to go through this to pass this amendment. This is what is so important to me that I'm putting my life on the line. That gets a lot of public attention. And when public attention is gotten, the public can contact the representatives and sway things.
- [63:52]
Becky
Now we've swung around, we've passed Christmas. We're back in 1919. Another year, another chance. It took until June 4th, but the amendment passed both houses of Congress, which.
- [64:06]
Susan
Let'S celebrate for just a brief moment. But the National Women's Party, Alice and her people still had more work to do. 36 states needed to ratify this to make it an official amendment in the Constitution. So back into the field the women went. It's going to take another 18 months.
- [64:25]
Becky
So Wisconsin, Michigan and Illinois all claim to be the first to ratify. I mean that's a good thing to fight about. Yeah, it was an all hands on deck to pressure other states. Critically carried Chapman Cat was crucial in getting the western states to ratify. So hooray for her.
- [64:42]
Susan
Yeah, it's. It's kind of. I don't know why?
- [64:44]
Becky
What?
- [64:45]
Susan
Well, I. It's like she did years and years of work for this to happen, although she fought this specific, you know, making it a federal amendment. And now she's going out and like, oh, let's do it. I mean, I'm glad that they're working together.
- [64:58]
Becky
Well, okay. But in the global defense, you know, Carrie Chapman Cat was very good at getting individual states to do stuff. Right. That was why I was so now, yeah, that's her skill is to go out and get individual states to ratify. She knew the machines, she knew how they worked, she knew the levers of power. I mean I think she actually used her particular skills.
- [65:20]
Susan
I think as much as there was a lot of back and forth that we never touched on. If fascinating story and we'll give you some, some books and things to read later. But I think that this cause needed both the Carrie Chapman Katz and the Alice Paul's because they appealed to different people. You know, that way they cast a.
- [65:43]
Becky
Wider net because I mean numbers, we see this, like numbers and momentum are critical.
- [65:51]
Susan
Yeah. And there's people that are not going to listen to the Alice Pauls.
- [65:54]
Becky
Right.
- [65:55]
Susan
And then there's also people that aren't going to listen to the Carrie Chapman cats. So they both needed to do their job. I, you know, it would have been cool if they could have done it together, but that's history for you.
- [66:07]
Becky
At the end of the year, 35 of the 36 states were on board and it all came down to Tennessee.
- [66:14]
Susan
It was August 18, 1920, and just taking a brief look at the room, it looked like it was going to be one for the lost column. The representatives came in wearing different colored roses depending on how they were going to vote. And at the last minute, it's down to one freshman Congressman, 24 year old Harry Byrne. He had given a preliminary nay, you know, voting against the amendment to lobbyists. But while the vote is going on, he quietly read a letter from his mother, Feb eburn that asked him to be a good boy and vote for the amendment. And Harry was a good boy.
- [66:59]
Becky
Okay, I want to read the whole thing. Okay. I do.
- [67:01]
Susan
Yeah, please do.
- [67:02]
Becky
I'm not going to do the Tennessee accent because I couldn't possibly. But anybody that has one and wants to read this, call in. I'd love to hear it. Hurry and vote for suffrage and don't keep them in doubt. I hope you see enough of politicians to know it's not one of the greatest things to be one. What say? Yeah, I've been waiting to see how you stood but have not seen anything yet. Don't forget to be a good boy and help Mrs. Thomas Cat with her rats. Is she the one that put rat in ratification?
- [67:27]
Susan
Ha.
- [67:28]
Becky
No more from mama. This time with lots of love. I mean. And you know what? Hilariously, after all Alice has done, guess what it comes down to? Help Mrs. Thomas Cat with her rats. Okay, see exactly what you were saying. Sometimes you need one, sometimes you need the other. This woman was following Carrie Chapman Catt, right? Yeah. You know, isn't it interesting? The deciding vote. After everything we've talked about and everything we've gone through, the two women at the very end of the deciding vote for the 19th Amendment were a politician's mother and Carrie Chapman Cat. Oh, there you. Oh my goodness. Midwest summer has definitely begun.
- [68:26]
Susan
Definitely.
- [68:27]
Becky
It is time to go outside and have a gin and tonic and some salt and vinegar potato chips.
- [68:34]
Susan
I'm still one of those people that it takes me three salt and vinegar potato chips to realize that I love them.
- [68:41]
Becky
Well, something else I am obsessed with is the urge to refresh my closet, it is time to switch it up. But I'm trying not to waste money on things that I will probably only wear once or just for one season. I would like to get some basics that I feel good about. And that's where Quince comes in.
- [69:01]
Susan
I agree. Quince's clothes, they're timeless. I mean, I have pieces from quints from a couple seasons ago, but I know that they're going to be in style in five years because they're such nice, well made, basic pieces. They feel elevated, kind of luxurious.
- [69:17]
Becky
The quality is way beyond what you would expect for the price like 100% European linen tops, starting at 30 silk dresses and skirts that are washable.
- [69:28]
Susan
I am getting ready to go on vacation and I am certainly packing my new 100% European linen button front dress. It's a vacation staple.
- [69:38]
Becky
The thing about Quint and all of those pieces are they can pair with different things that you take in your suitcase. That's more important for us this time. You know, we have to start packing light. Quint is just perfect for that.
- [69:50]
Susan
Quince gets their great prices because they cut out the middlemen. They work directly with top artisans and give us all the luxury without the markup. And Quince only works with factories that use safe, ethical and responsible manufacturing practices, premium fabrics and finishes. That's all I want. And Quince has it.
- [70:11]
Becky
So give your summer closet an upgrade with quince. Go to quince.com chicks for free shipping on your order and 365 day returns.
- [70:20]
Susan
That's quince. Q-U-I-N-C-E.com chicks to get free shipping and 365 day returns.
- [70:29]
Becky
Quint.com ticks.
- [70:47]
Susan
Back in Washington. Alice, she's 34 at this point. Alice and her staff, they had been sewing stars onto a very large suffrage flag for every state that was ratified. And finally that final star got to be sewn on and the flag was unfurled outside of Cameron House. The press was there. Alice had her champagne in a coupe, which we know is not the best way to drink champagne, but it was just a big photo opportunity and Alice is taking advantage of it again.
- [71:21]
Becky
Well, we have been. We have been told by the docents at her birthplace that that glass she is toasting with, since Alice Paul is a known lifelong teetotaler, is grape juice, most likely. Grape juice for the thing, you know?
- [71:41]
Susan
Yeah, yeah.
- [71:41]
Becky
For the look of the thing. Yeah.
- [71:43]
Susan
It was just a prop. It was a prop. Yeah. There's all these pictures of her sewing the Stars on, when in reality it probably wasn't her, but she was the face of, of this movement. So she sat down with the needle and thread.
- [71:57]
Becky
Also, we didn't mention this, but Alice had become a vegetarian actually at the, almost at the beginning of this silent sentinel movement. And it might have been a cruelty based decision after she had experienced the, the violence in, in England. And it also might have been just a digestive problem after all the force feeding also. But nevertheless she not only was a teetotaler, she was unusual for the time in being a vegetarian. Now just to preface this, we didn't need them, but Mississippi was the very last state in the entire 48 because there weren't the last two to ratify the 19th amendment. Would you like to take a guess as to what year Mississippi ratified the 19th amendment? Oh, symbolic only.
- [72:47]
Susan
Yeah, yeah, I, I read this. I don't know, it's a number. Numbers don't stick in my brain.
- [72:53]
Becky
1984.
- [72:54]
Susan
Okay, there you go. 1984, Mississippi. Wow. Well, back in 1920, on August 26th, the Secretary of State signed the Susan B. Anthony amendment into law. Alice had hoped to be there for the signing with a photographer of course, but she missed it. And she met Carrie Chapman Catt outside of the Secretary of State's office. The Secretary of State met with her, but not Alice, as did the President.
- [73:27]
Becky
Oh, ow. I mean the hits just keep coming. But you know what, the thing is done. The thing is done. And you know, Alice wouldn't be human if she didn't have some grouchy feelings about this. But you know, in reality the thing is done and that the work is what's important. Many suffragists left public life and activism after the 19th Amendment was enacted. Like, we're done forever. Hooray. You know, woo. I want to rest. But Alice Paul thought, you know, there's too many loopholes to be closed, too many side steps that the government was planning that had to be countered. You know who else thought so? African American women.
- [74:05]
Susan
Yeah. We would really be remiss not to talk about what lay ahead for women of color voting.
- [74:11]
Becky
In the weeks before the NWP's 1921 National Convention, African American women's suffragists tried to bring their concerns to Alice personally. And then at the NWP at large, trying to educate them on all the obstacles placed in the way of voters of color, whatever that federal government had just decreed. I'm asking you to try to understand women's voting rights from a broader perspective. Terrell pointed to racist practices and laws that had already been in place for African American men. Several states had imposed grandfather clauses that ensured the descendants of disenfranchised slaves, even though they're now free people, couldn't vote. Other states subjected voters to unfairly administered literacy tests where they would give the white person, you know, Dick and Jane books to read and someone else an electrical manual and ask them to explain it. And when black voters did overcome hurdles like that, they often learned they had accumulated years of unpaid poll taxes, all of which had to be paid before they could cast a single ballot. And then there were the threats. Lynching, segregation, and then a convict lease system where you could be arrested for not having your papers in order, even if you were a free person. Arrested and then sold to be a worker on a chain gang that kept African American men terrorized and disfranchised, especially, but not exclusively in the south, and now would imperil women of color also. And we go into these in much more detail, I want to say, in the Ida Wells podcast.
- [75:51]
Susan
Yeah, we, Ida Wells, Mary Trent Terrell and Fannie Lou Hamer. I think we talked about it in great detail.
- [75:58]
Becky
Terrell and her organization held out some hope that her direct participation in the Silent Sentinel picketing would give her some more influence when speaking with Alice. And she had the help of a white NWP ally named Ms. Murray. They plan to introduce a resolution from the convention floor, quote, urging Congress to appoint a committee to investigate the disfranchisement of colored women to make sure that they wouldn't be embarrassed or disappointed in the public forum. They made plans to meet with Alice privately to ask her, will you please endorse this resolution? Like, surely this would have the ring of familiarity after all those deputations to President Wilson. Well, now Alice stood in the position of greatest influence, and people were coming to her with their petition held humbly in their hands. So, representing the NAACP and the national association of Colored Women, Mary Terrell and her friend Addie Hunton and some other black suffragists met Alice at NWP headquarters. And Alice asked, what do you women want me to do? And Terrell said, I want you to tell us right now whether you endorse the enforcement of the 19th Amendment for all women. And Paul refused to answer. In Terrell's autobiography, she reflected, alice Paul had displayed the most painful lack of tact I'd ever seen and said she did not want to inject the race problem into her suffrage work. Now, see, this is what we were alluding to in part one.
- [77:33]
Susan
Yeah. Yeah, and also it just shows you that you're the jerk in somebody's story. Like Carrie Chapman Catt was the villain in this story, but now Alice Paul is the villain in Mary Church Terrell's story.
- [77:47]
Becky
I know, I know. So sharing this major failing with Susan B. Anthony, Alice continued to ignore black women's demands that the time had come to secure voting rights for African Americans, particularly in the South. Alice actually barred the national association of Colored Women from participating in her conference, saying that that group was not a feminist group, but a race group. But if your members are also NWP members, they were welcome to attend the convention as individuals, you know, that resolution, by the way, was in fact presented to the main body of the nwp, who voted it down by a large majority. So African American women were left by the movement to struggle on their own. And we have covered in several episodes, which we'll put in the show notes, some of the pioneers of that movement. But by and large, black women in America could not reliably be said to have the vote with no conditions until the Voting Rights act of 1965.
- [78:49]
Susan
Those are black women. They're still Native Americans that aren't even in this discussion at this point. And their voting rights are not protected until 1975.
- [79:02]
Becky
Now, I myself am interested, I'll just keep it interested in the fact that they were so angry at President Wilson for his hypocrisy. They called it out in wanting democracy for all when it meant Germany. Yeah, the people in other countries, but not when it came to women who are also people, but outsiders to the political system. And then here, Alice Paul and the nwp, and honestly, NASA too, didn't see their own hypocrisy in wanting to vote, but yet not when it was for an outsider group that was closer to home. And I asked this question when we were at the Alice Paul House. Like, how can we reconcile Alice Paul's undeniable zeal, willingness to sacrifice her for her beliefs and the absolute right of equality as a standard practice with her disdain. That has to be the word for inclusion. And that's something we have to ask ourselves of many historical figures. They're not, you know, statues on a pedestal, perfect from every angle. They have deep seated prejudices and flaws. And I guess really that's where I have to leave it. There's no explaining it, really, except for she was just raised that way and then chose to prioritize getting the women of the south on board rather than what she called complicating the issue with the Issue of race. That's literally the same thing that happened in the 1840s. Whoo. Okay, rant over, explanation given. We will put links to the many episodes we have about that struggle in the show. Notes for this one.
- [80:36]
Susan
Now, the women's suffrage part of Alice Paul's life is over, but Alice Paul's work life was not over. And there was one thing I kept thinking about during all of this, and it was the word suffrage. I never really knew what it meant. It sounds painful, you know, suffering suffrage, but really, it's so simple. It's from Latin. The word is suffragium, and it means a voting tablet or ballot.
- [81:03]
Becky
Oh, what do you know?
- [81:05]
Susan
Now, I know that the National Women's Party had been a one issue organization, but it doesn't fold at this point because they get another issue. The National Women's Party had already worked to get a woman's constitutional right to vote on the books. Let's take it a step farther. How about equal rights across the board.
- [81:28]
Becky
In education, the workplace, in society as a whole. The country needed another amendment to the Constitution in order to ensure women had true equality. Without a touch of irony from a minute and a half ago. Yeah, no kidding. I'm just saying.
- [81:43]
Susan
I know. I. And I keep wondering, was that, like, in the back of her head, is this the way she thinks? I mean, I do not think like Alice Paul at all, but is she thinking this is the way that she can overcome that?
- [81:56]
Becky
I don't know. But in true Alice fashion, her first instinct was to go back to school. She began a course of study at American University's Washington College of Law, ultimately receiving a bachelor's, a master's, and a doctorate. Not, in fact, to practice law, because A, she's an overachiever and B, she wanted to know the ends and outs of creating passable legislation. In 1923, she wrote and proposed what was called the Lucretia Mott Amendment.
- [82:29]
Susan
She didn't do this by herself. Just like in the suffrage movement. She paired up with Lucy Burns. Now she's paired with a woman named Crystal Eastman, who in 1920 was helping found the American Civil Liberties Union. And the Lucretia Mott Amendment that they wrote says men and women shall have equal rights throughout the United States in every place subject to its jurisdiction. Congress should have the power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation. Now, just like the 19th amendment and most amendments, the wording is going to change over time. But this is what they're starting out with.
- [83:09]
Becky
It was immediately introduced into Congress that year, and Failed, as it would do each year for the next 50 years.
- [83:18]
Susan
I love how they kicked this off. The National Women's Party did a kickoff in Seneca falls celebrating the 75th anniversary of the Seneca Falls Convention, which started the Women's Rights movement. I mean, Alice is not. I mean, she's only 35 at this point. She's still got a lot of energy and she's learned a lot, and she knows how to make the most of any opportunity, and that's a good one.
- [83:44]
Becky
Not content with keeping her sphere of influence in the United States, Alice Paul expanded to an international level and founded the World woman's party, the WWP, in Geneva, Switzerland, in 1938. This organization worked closely with the League of Nations, and her organization fought for the inclusion of gender equality into the United Nations Charter, specifically this language, to reaffirm faith in fundamental human rights, in the dignity and worth of the human person, in the equal rights of men and women and of nations large and small. Ellis was also a key player in the establishment of the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women. Gender equality was made part of international human rights law by the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, adopted later by the UN General assembly in 1948. That document says, all human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. Everyone is entitled to all the rights and freedoms set forth in this Declaration without distinction of any kind, such as race, color, sex, language, religion, birth or other status.
- [84:59]
Susan
So while she's working internationally, she's also working on the Lucretia Mott Amendment. And she changes the wording again in 1943, which is 20 years after she wrote it in the first place. Equality of rights under the law shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any state on account of sex. And at this point, the amendment is no longer the Lucretia Mott Amendment. It is the Alice Paul Amendment.
- [85:27]
Becky
It was hoped that the resemblance of the wording to the successful 19th Amendment would help this one along. Now, during the 1940s, both the Republican Party and the Democratic Party added the Equal Rights Amendment to their party platforms. But we know what happened in the 40s brought the advent of another war. The world mobilized to fight fascism, and women took a greater societal role in the workplace, at home, and in the services. But we've covered this before on a podcast called 50s Housewives on Come the 50s, with its emphasis on reclaiming the status quo that had existed before the war. Much was made of the myth of the domestic goddess, to the dismay of those women who had Experienced, perhaps for the first time, true equality and freedom to make their own choices. Such passes the 50s. Alice led a coalition that was successful in adding a sexual discrimination clause to Title vii of the 1964 Civil Rights Act. That's signed by Good Johnson, Good Johnson, Bad Johnson, President Johnson. They added the following language. The terms because of sex or on the basis of sex include, but are not limited to, because of or on the basis of pregnancy, childbirth, or related medical conditions. Women affected by pregnancy, childbirth, or related medical conditions shall be treated the same for all employment related purposes. Pretty amazing. So theoretically, as of 1964, you couldn't be fired for being pregnant as a teacher? Because my mom had to quit. Interesting. You know what I bet it is? It's like, well, the federal government says one thing, but we do something else.
- [87:13]
Susan
Yeah, they don't call it being fired. It's just what societally is accepted in this town?
- [87:18]
Becky
The women's movement reemerged in the 1960s. Famously, this led to renewed interest in the dormant but not forgotten era. And during that decade, women's organizations fought for the ERA to advance to the floor for a vote in both houses of Congress. Actively. Wait until you see these pictures. There are rallies in the late 60s and early 70s that literally employ the same imagery that Alice Paul brought to the 1913 parade. The same colors, the same simple phrases emblazoned on them. And it proves that Alice Paul's work had never been forgotten and was much admired. And I can only imagine how that made her feel. I'm sure it was like, on one hand, it was amazing to see her imagery perpetuated like that, but also pain that it was still necessary five decades after she had started to fight, that these banners get dug out again, you know, with their same sentiments. Well, different sentiments, but the same idea, you know?
- [88:21]
Susan
Oh, for sure.
- [88:22]
Becky
The National Organization of Women, or NOW as it was called, was formed to take feminism and the ERA into this new decade. The power and the influence of Alice Paul and the NWP were waning as new issues and new techniques and new technologies came to the forefront. Some of which Alice Paul thought would distract from the main mission of getting the ERA passed. And if that sounds a little familiar, history does at least rhyme, if not repeat. The New Guard had come to take the torch. And it was time at last for Alice Paul to at least start handing it to the next generation.
- [89:03]
Susan
And that next generation was able to get the Equal Rights Amendment passed in both the House and the Senate in 1972. And again, the wording has changed. It is. Equality of rights under the law shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any state on account of sex. Congress shall have the power to enforce by appropriate legislation the provisions of the article. So the words changed. But the essence of it is exactly the same as what Alice and Crystal Eastman wrote back in the 1920s. It passed in 1972. Now, the clincher here was there was a deadline of seven years for 38 states to ratify it. And out of left field, as far as I'm concerned, there's a campaign by a woman named Phyllis Shafley simply called Stop era. She said that the passage would lead to things like same sex marriage, gender neutral bathrooms, women in combat. Oh, we can't have those things, although we have those things. And that really it was such an effective campaign that it stalled it out. And the clock ran out in 1982 with only 35 of the 38 states necessary to ratify the amendment.
- [90:33]
Becky
You know, some people have equated, I mean, in modern days, Phyllis Schlafly, she's a hard name to say to a main character in Gilead, the commander's wife. What's her name?
- [90:45]
Susan
Serena Joy.
- [90:46]
Becky
Yeah, like, good for you, but not for me.
- [90:49]
Susan
Yeah, she's. Yeah, I don't. We are never going to cover her. But she's a woman that said that women should not work full time while she worked full time. Women should stay at home while she was out on the road campaigning against women getting equal opportunities.
- [91:09]
Becky
So there you go. So, you know, there were anti suffrage workers too that thought it would lead to the destruction of the home, so destruction of society as a whole. So there's always been the naysayers, just maybe not ones with such a large platform. Bummer. Now, Congress had extended the deadline a little, so ultimately it had 10 years then, not seven. They were just really trying to give it that best chance, but they just couldn't make it. And oh my goodness, is it right now in a complicated stew of mixed up legalities. So proponents of the ERA believe that if Congress would simply vote to extend the timeline, the deadline, it would instantly be a law because three more states, Nevada, Illinois and Virginia in 2017, 2018 and 2020 respectively, have in fact ratified the ERA at last. However, within that time, five other states have petitioned to take back their acceptance of the equal rights. Nebraska, Kentucky, Tennessee, Idaho and South Dakota. Are they legally allowed to do that? Careers are being made with this very question. No one knows, you know, how many.
- [92:25]
Susan
Times these days especially, I think we're called the United States. How much united is that?
- [92:34]
Becky
It's madness. I know it's madness.
- [92:36]
Susan
I don't get it.
- [92:37]
Becky
It gets submitted every year, doesn't it? Since 2014, there's been an additional sentence added at the beginning. So the first part now reads, women shall have equal rights in the United States and every place subject to its jurisdiction. And then the same equality of rights under the law shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any state on account of sex, which I really do not see. What is so very, very controversial about that simple statement that has caused 100 years of roadblocks?
- [93:09]
Susan
I know.
- [93:09]
Becky
I'm just like, not. What's the problem? Tell me the word. That's right.
- [93:13]
Susan
I don't know. I am happy to report I have two flamingos.
- [93:37]
Becky
What?
- [93:38]
Susan
I have two Flamingo razors. One stays in my toiletry bag, so I have it when I travel. And another stays in my shower. Actually, now that I think about it, I have three because I have two showers. Oh, my goodness. I have a whole flock of flamingos. And I also have smooth skin.
- [93:56]
Becky
You know, this time of year. Now that I have an empty nest, I'm noticing that friends stop by and we can go to this adults only pool that is like seven minutes straight down our road. It's in a different town, but that's how it goes. I just want to be ready, you know, at any time. And Flamingo really does fit in because I'm always ready to grab my swimsuit and head out the door.
- [94:20]
Susan
Flamingo razors are high performance. Their innovative design makes the shaving experience easy and smooth. They even have a new razor. It's called Moisture plus, and it has a hydration bar right on it.
- [94:35]
Becky
I know millennials and Gen Z, you don't approve of the flat sheet, but just bear with me. You shave your legs and then you get right in bed and it's like the best feeling, isn't it?
- [94:46]
Susan
Yeah.
- [94:46]
Becky
Oh, absolutely.
- [94:47]
Susan
No, no argument there.
- [94:49]
Becky
Flamingo razors are designed with a flexible hinge that hugs every curve of your body and gets those hard to reach areas very easily. And you can pay as little as $2 per refill. That's as low as half of what other big brands charge, plus no pink tax. It's not more expensive because it is meant for women.
- [95:09]
Susan
After you shave, you can keep your skin hydrated with Flamingo's daily moisturizing lotion. They have a spray. I love it, especially in the summertime because it feels so nice and cool. Going on.
- [95:20]
Becky
So keep smooth and refreshed with Flamingo hair removal products made with your body in mind.
- [95:25]
Susan
Get started with an exclusive offer for our listeners. 25% off your first order@shopflamingo.com chicks.
- [95:33]
Becky
That's shopflamingo.com chicks.
- [95:55]
Susan
Alice is still alive at this point in our story. And instead of putting stars on a banner, now she's making charms for a charm bracelet every time Estate ratified it. I know isn't cute. I mean, it's not as big and flashy, but she's getting older. In our stories, we often talk about the romance of our subjects. But in this particular case, we don't know. She never married. We know she dated men. At one point, there was a gentleman that she corresponded with and had a friendship with for years that even proposed to her. That we know. But as far as we know, the closest relationships that Alice Paul had in her life or with the women she worked with. You know what? I think that's beautiful. A love story about friendships. Because we don't know. It might have been more. We don't know. She was very careful about the documentation that was gonna outlive her. She knew that what she did was history making and that some of it would be important, but she was able to filter out anything that she didn't want. And her personal life was one of those things. All totaled during Alice's lifetime, she was responsible for 300 pieces of legislation that became law that came out of the offices of the national women's party. 300. And we just talked about two.
- [97:21]
Becky
That's amazing.
- [97:22]
Susan
I know she had stepped down as president, but she was still active in the National Women's Party for the rest of her life.
- [97:30]
Becky
At the age of 89, after years of being plagued by respiratory issues, likely caused by trauma from force feeding and the suffering she experienced in her prison terms, Alice suffered a stroke and was placed in a nursing home and was suffering from some financial difficulties. News of her desperate state reached friends and fans, and the Quaker foundation stepped in to pay her expenses and support her.
- [98:01]
Susan
And while she did have a diminished capacity for work at this point, she was keeping as involved as she possibly could. In 1977, she even gave an interview and she said, the thing I think that was the most useful I ever did was having a part in getting the vote for all women because it was a big transformation for the country to have half the control and franchise. I didn't do it alone. I got a good deal of the credit because I happened to be there.
- [98:33]
Becky
See what I mean, though, she. She recognizes that it was a team.
- [98:36]
Susan
Effort, and she just happened to be there.
- [98:39]
Becky
I think that is cutting it too humble. Yeah.
- [98:42]
Susan
Yeah, no kidding.
- [98:44]
Becky
She happened to be there. Pushing everyone in the small of their back.
- [98:47]
Susan
Yeah.
- [98:47]
Becky
Oh, my goodness. But Alice died at the age of 92 on July 9, 1977, at the Greenleaf Extension Home in Morristown, New Jersey, which is less than a mile from the place she was born, which Susan and I just had the pleasure of visiting.
- [99:06]
Susan
That was one of my favorite parts of that trip, was going to her house and going through the front door of the house that she would have gone back to, you know, if she was worn down or ill and needed to go home and have mom take care of her. I mean, her mother lived until the 1930s, so she had a home base of this house. But just walking through that door and knowing this is where she dropped her satchel and said, mom, I'm home. I mean, Alice Paul is buried at the Westfield Friends burial ground in Cinnamon Sin, New Jersey. And if you go to the Alice Paul house, it really isn't that far. We couldn't go because we were on a bus with 50 other people. But to go and pay your respects is. That would be a nice day, I think.
- [99:53]
Becky
In the month after she died In August of 1977, a march was held in Washington, D.C. and it was to commemorate her life and her work. There are a lot of photographs of this event. Actually, the Smithsonian sent people over to snap it, so there's really quality photos of this. 4000 people marched up Pennsylvania Avenue into a rally in Lafayette Square. President Jimmy Carter also met with leaders of 80 women's groups to sign a proclamation that designated Aug. 26 as women's equality Day. There was, in fact, a young woman dressed in white riding a horse at the head of the procession. And the banner that led the parade, carried by four or possibly five women one is hiding behind, says, equality of rights under the law shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any state on account of sex. Her legacy lived on.
- [100:57]
Susan
Of course. She had many posthumous honors. In 1979, she was inducted into the National Women's hall of Fame. New Jersey hall of Fame inducted her in 2010. In 1981, Great Britain had a stamp for her, and it wasn't until 1995 that the United States did. She was put on a $10 coin in 2010. In the United States, it was a special coin as part of a first spouse program, which I guess they were just trying to find a place to put her. Because she wasn't anybody's first spouse. She was a stand in for a wife of President Chester Arthur because he had no spouse and he was president the year she was born. So it works. You gotta squint your eyes and tilt your head just a little bit.
- [101:45]
Becky
So somebody that was determined to get an Alice Paul coin in there is like, I know how. I'm. That's right. And I'm not gonna ask anybody.
- [101:54]
Susan
Her papers are at the Schlesen Schlesinger. There's another one. Why are there so many names that are hard pronounced? And it's in the United States. Her papers are at the Schlesinger. Her papers are at Harvard and at the Smithsonian. So she kept a lot of them. And they are being taken care of in places that will take care of them. In 2016 here in the United States, it was announced that Alice Paul, Lucretia Mott, Sojourner Truth, Susan B. Anthony, and Elizabeth Cady Stanton would be on newly redesigned $10 bills. Hamilton would still be on the front, but there are rules to redesigning American currency. For instance, no alive person can be on them. But the $10 bill was part of a process involving the 10 and the $20 bill. The plan was to put Harriet tubman on the $20 bill. When our then and now current president heard about this, he said he wasn't in favor of taking Andrew Jackson off of the $20 bill because that was, in his words, pure political correctness. To replace him with Harriet Tubman and suggested she be on the $2 bill instead. Have you ever used a $2 bill?
- [103:12]
Becky
I think every single person that ever got a two dollar bill immediately saved it and got one of those little frames at Spencer Gifts and put it somewhere in a drawer. Like, I think that was awesome. How hilarious to have a $2 bill. But I don't know that. Like, if you get one now, that cash register drawer doesn't even have a place to put it. You just gotta stick it underneath.
- [103:32]
Susan
Yeah, so that was stalled, but the women on the 20 were part of this bundle package, so it just completely stalled out. When Biden took office in 2021, there were plans to revive getting the women on the 10 bill. But something happened in 2020 that leaked into 2021 and 2022 and beyond. And I think it just got lost in all the chaos. So as of right now, there are no firm plans to put any women on any currency. In 1929, the National Women's Party moved to yet Another house location in Washington D.C. that home was named Alva Belmont House because Alva had been such a primary financial contributor to the National Women's Party for years. Later, that house was gifted by the National Women's Party, parenthetically, is still technically an organization. The trademark is held by the Alice Paul Institute, so you can still Google National Women's Party. Anyway, the house was later gifted by the National Women's Party to the National Park Service and is now open as the Belmont Paul Women's Equality National Monument. And it's a museum in Washington D.C. and you can go visit it. And it's full of all kinds of artifacts of the National Women's Party and women's suffrage in general. They're on the name together.
- [105:01]
Becky
The 19th Amendment granting women's suffrage is the only mention of the word woman in the U.S. constitution.
- [105:09]
Susan
Wow.
- [105:09]
Becky
Furthermore, how about this for being scary? The only right guaranteed specifically to women by federal law is the right to vote by federal law. There you go. I don't know if I want to say that because I don't want that to be an open season for someone to be like, ooh, so we may want to leave that up. I just want to tell you, just days after Virginia became that final necessary state to ratify in 2020, the US House of Representatives did pass legislation to remove the original time limit. However, as far as I know right now, in the year of The History Chicks 2025, the US Senate has not brought the companion bill, which is called S.J.
- [105:52]
Susan
Res.
- [105:52]
Becky
38, to the floor for a vote. So ERA advocates across the nation are active in campaigns to try to encourage US Senators to pass, which would remove that time limit and theoretically make the ERA into legally passed ratified document. So maybe we should write our senators.
- [106:12]
Susan
About that along with all the other things. Now I feel like a little bit like President Wilson, like, well, there's other things that are more important on the.
- [106:21]
Becky
Table right now, you know, And I'm like, Alice Paul, we are smart and we have the power to think about many things at once.
- [106:29]
Susan
True, Very true.
- [106:31]
Becky
And now it's time for media. And as usual, we will start with books.
- [106:36]
Susan
The most detailed of the biographies I could get my hands on was Alice Paul Claiming Power by JD Zahnezer and Amelia R. Fry. The. Actually the audiobook is read by the author, which I thought was very fun. I love it when authors read their own work.
- [106:51]
Becky
Now it does cover. I mean, most of this book covers the struggle for the 19th Amendment. And then at the end it's like. And yeah, Also a book called Alice Paul the National Women's Party and the the First Civil Rights struggle of the 20th century by Bernadette Cahill. And then a couple of, I guess I'd call them compilations, but more like suffrage biographies, if you know what I mean. Called Women's Long Battle for the Vote by Ellen Carol dubois and Votes for Women Suffragists and the Battle for the Ballot by Winifred Conkling, written in 1920.
- [107:28]
Susan
Right after the 19th Amendment was ratified. Is Jailed for Freedom. American Women Win the Vote by Doris Stevens. I liked it because it was an actual, I mean real life account. First person. It's a primary source. Doris Stevens was there on the lines with Alice.
- [107:48]
Becky
And it's on Google Books for free. You can page through the whole thing. We'll give you a link. You can actually read it. It right on your phone.
- [107:55]
Susan
An interesting view I thought was Mr. President, how long must we wait? Alice Paul, Woodrow Wilson and the Fight for the Right to Vote by Tina Cassidy. And it gives a good view of Alice's side and Woodrow Wilson's side. Yeah, gives you a lot more detail on Woodrow Wilson than any of those other books do. It's really a general look at his life. Another one I liked was A Woman's Crusade. Alice Paul and the Battle for the Ballot by Mary Walton. And not about Alice, but remembering Inez. The Last Campaign of Inez Mulholland. Suffrage Selections from the Suffragist 1916, edited by Robert P.J. cooney. So it's actual articles from the Suffragist.
- [108:41]
Becky
A kid's book I like is bold and 10 heroes who won Women the Right to Vote by Kirsten Gillibrand. New York Senator Kirsten Gillibrand. And not only that, I will give you a link to a YouTube reading of her reading her book called Online Storytime so you can have her read it to you.
- [108:59]
Susan
I love that there's a lot of kids books out there and they all that I saw were very colorful and kind of fun. The one I liked was How Women Won the Alice Paul, Lucy Burns and Their Big Idea by Susan Campbell Bartoletti, illustrated by Ziyuehe Shen.
- [109:16]
Becky
That one is so, so good. I wish I could draw, you know, I wish I could draw.
- [109:22]
Susan
I wish I could draw. I wish I could sing. Like people who open their mouths and like music comes out. Blows my mind.
- [109:28]
Becky
Last kids book I'm going to pitch, Women win the vote. 19 for the 19th amendment by Nancy B. Kennedy. And there's a novel. I haven't read it. I haven't read it, but I'm interested in the same way that I was interested in watching the Tudors. Like I know there will be liberties, but I almost think it colors in the world. I'm saying this just keep in mind without having read more than just a couple of preview pages, but it's called the Women's March by Jennifer Chavarini. Oh, it's in my Libby, so I think I might just give it a go. It's a no cost enterprise, so still planning to do that.
- [110:01]
Susan
I think I have it on hold on Libby too. That name.
- [110:04]
Becky
You're my competition.
- [110:07]
Susan
No, I'm not because I'm in a different library system. Oh, you can go to Alice Paul's childhood home, the Alice Paul center for Gender justice in Morristown, New Jersey. It's called Paulsdale. It's the family home. There is a fantastic virtual tour on their website. So you don't actually have to go to New Jersey if you don't want to. Another place you can go to sort of is the Occoquan Workhouse. The actual buildings are gone, but the National Park Service maintains a beautiful memorial, although not a webpage. If you go to their webpage, it's down, but it honors the suffragists. On the grounds is also the Workhouse Arts center and the Lorton Prison Museum with the Lucy Burns Gallery. It's all on that area and there's lots of things to do even though the actual workhouse, well, thankfully is gone.
- [111:01]
Becky
Actually, speaking of Alice Paul's house, Alice Paul center for Gender justice has put up in the 70s. There was an interview with Alice Paul and the recordings and the transcripts are available to listen for free. So we'll put give you a link to that.
- [111:17]
Susan
And the National Park Service has a webpage. They have many about the women's suffrage movement, but one that I found really cool was symbols of the women's suffrage movement. So we'll link, we'll link you to all of this in our show notes.
- [111:31]
Becky
We also will link you up to a webpage where you can read the letter that Harry Byrne got from his mother, the man in Tennessee whose vote was key to ratification. If you can read cursive. Ah, becoming rarer and rarer. Montessori kids unite. You have the power to be archivists. But there's a transcript below if, if you know faded cursive is not your jam. Also there are two depictions of Alice Paul 3D live action depictions, Iron jawed angels with Hilary Swank as Alice Paul is a great representation of what. What they went through, you know, in the. And so I highly recommend. It's disturbing as heck though, parts of it. So definitely preview before children watch it. It's not a feel good movie for a lot of it.
- [112:22]
Susan
And there was one thing about this movie. I mean, I love the costumes, I love the sets, I love the acting. I did not like that they felt the need to give her a romance. Although it was Patrick Dempsey who. Yay. But why? Why? Not necessary. So that's all I get off my soapbox.
- [112:40]
Becky
Yeah. It seemed. You know what? Sometimes. Sometimes it's the producers that are like, throw a little love in there.
- [112:47]
Susan
Yeah. And they had him teaching her how to dance while they're on a picnic. It's like she learned how to dance in college. What are you doing? I mean, a lot of it was true. True to life. I mean, I was really impressed.
- [112:59]
Becky
Were these the peak years of Grey's Anatomy? Because he was every place it was 2004.
- [113:05]
Susan
Yeah.
- [113:06]
Becky
Yeah. I don't really know, but I'm. He's the Mr. Darcy of that time. So maybe they're like, oh, yeah, a little box office heat. I don't know. But yeah, you're right. Otherwise, I think that the tale of the struggle was very good in that movie. And then if you have the opportunity. And unfortunately, as of right now, neither Susan nor I have this opportunity. The musical Suffs, which was written by Shanna to and has just come off Broadway after winning a Tony, Explain the economics of that to me. Is going on tour this fall in September. And if you go to suffsmusical.com you can find out if it is touring in your area. I highly recommend going there. You'll see Alice Paul. You'll see Inez Mulholland, you'll see Lucy Burns. You'll see Ida Wells. You'll see Mary Church Terrell and her daughter Phyllis. You'll recognize people when you see it. You'll know exactly where they're coming from and how. Nice to watch it. Having the background information in your head too.
- [114:02]
Susan
Yeah, yeah. I have to say, watching it, we saw it in New York with the Field Trip to New York crew. And watching it with that group of people was really one of the highlights of my travels in the recent years. So just so wonderful to be with a group of people who knew the story and could appreciate the work that was put in by Shana Tobbs. I loved it.
- [114:24]
Becky
Well, I'm glad we saw it. It was a brief little window of opportunity to see it on Broadway. And I would take the opportunity to see it again too, if it came anywhere near me. I don't know. Again, how do I get. How do I get a show to come to a major metropolitan area without owning a theater? I really don't know. I don't know how that goes. I wish somebody would.
- [114:43]
Susan
And if anybody's listening that knows we're in Kansas City, so that's where we would love it. We have theaters here. We get touring shows all the time.
- [114:52]
Becky
Anyone own the Midland or the Folly that listens to us because Hit Us up or Starlight Theater? The only bad thing about Starlight is you literally given the name, you might know it's completely outside. So they have to wait to start the show until late, you know, because it's outside. And then also the show goes on, you know, in the rain too.
- [115:17]
Susan
So PBS has an American experience called the Vote. It's on prime and on PBS streaming service.
- [115:25]
Becky
There's a website that I love called the Mapping American Social Movements Project has other things other than this. I have got a link specifically to the National Women's Party Chapter three that talks about the different signage. It's about the silent sentinels, but this is chapter three of that particular topic. So you know, you can go backward and forward in the women's movement, but it's specifically the one that we're going to provide you is the one about the silent sentinels. And then a quick Frequently Asked Questions about the era is located on Congress.gov we will link you to that for a little more modern something to learn about. The last thing I have is just a timeline. A timeline of what happened on the March to Equality. And now that you've heard this, you'll be able to follow along. Just great. So we'll post that too along with a number of other useful websites and that will about do it for me.
- [116:22]
Susan
And me. I have nothing else.
- [116:23]
Becky
Thanks for listening.
- [116:24]
Susan
Bye.
- [116:26]
Becky
If you liked what you heard today, please tell a few friends, won't you? And leave a review for us on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts. Don't forget to check out the photos on our Pinterest board. Both the Alice Paul and the Suffragist and Suffragette Board which has been building for many, many years and therefore has hundreds of pictures on it. Links and photos about the things we talked about today will be found@thehistorychicks.com in other news, my attempt at making a cross stitch Alice Paul Christmas ornament is not going very well. In fact, I have just had to employ this seam ripper but still I persist 4 months till I need it. Let's hope I can pull it off. The music at the end is by Craig Reaver. It's called We're Dynamite. We'll see you next time.
- [117:17]
C
We're moving through the night like we're from a different star Flying over streets and our broken hearts but they can even touch us we found a different beat paradise is waiting and we bought the leave O Getting caught in the m Is a minute that never get out they're feeding the fears and the doubts Ooh but we go then we run to the end and we run without shame we own the game and we ride on the flames Till the morning light baby Cause we're dynamite Ain't nobody going to hold us down Break all the rules Let them run and.
- [118:00]
Susan
Help.
- [118:24]
C
We'Re from a different, different time yeah we're of a different breed Cuz what we got is timeless we supersede and we holding the key yeah we tired as can be we're rolling, we're rolling just like we please O Getting caught in the midst of so many that never get out they're feeding the fears and the doubts Ooh but we go do it once to the end and we run without shame we own the game and we ride on the FL till the morning light baby Cuz it's undermined Ain't nobody going to hold us down we call the roots Let.
- [119:06]
Susan
The.
- [119:09]
C
Mind Going to let the world.
- [119:11]
Susan
Know Without.
- [119:27]
C
A mind and we ride on the FL till the morning light baby Cause it's undermined Ain't nobody gonna hold us down we call the roots Let them run and hide baby Cause they.
- [120:02]
Becky
Don'T know.