Night of Terror - Nov. 15, 1917

This is the story of our Mothers and Grandmothers in 1917 who lived only 90

years ago.  (As of 2013 - 96 years ago)

Women in this country, yes, the United States of America, have only had the right to vote since the 19th amendment to the Constitution was ratified on August 18, 1920. Yes, women have only had the right to vote for a mere 90 years and there were many hard fought battles that made this possible.

The women were innocent and defenseless, but they were jailed nonetheless for picketing the White House, carrying signs asking for the vote -

It was not until 1920 that women 

were granted the right to

 go to the polls and vote. 

And by the end of the night, they were barely alive. 

Forty prison guards wielding clubs and their warden's blessing 

went on a rampage against the 33 women wrongly convicted of

'obstructing sidewalk traffic.' 

Picketing the White Houase, carrying signs asking for the vote.

The women were innocent and defenseless, but they were jailed nonetheless

for picketing the White House, carrying signs asking for the vote. 

Lucy Burns

They beat Lucy Burns, chained her hands to the cell bars above

her head and left her hanging for the night, bleeding and gasping

for air. 

 Dora Lewis

They hurled Dora Lewis into a dark cell, smashed her head against

an iron bed and knocked her out cold. Her cellmate, Alice Cosu,

thought Lewis was dead and suffered a heart attack. Additional

affidavits describe the guards grabbing, dragging, beating, choking,

slamming, pinching, twisting and kicking the women. 

Thus unfolded the'Night of Terror' on Nov. 15, 1917, when

the warden at the Occoquan Workhouse in Virginia ordered his guards

to teach a lesson to the suffragists imprisoned there because they

dared to picket Woodrow Wilson's White House for the right to vote. 

For weeks, the women's only water came from an open pail. Their

 food--all of it colorless slop--was infested with worms.

 Alice Paul

When one of the leaders, Alice Paul, embarked on a hunger strike,

they tied her to a chair, forced a tube down her throat and poured

liquid into her until she vomited. She was tortured like this for

weeks until word was smuggled out to the press. 

So, refresh my memory. Some women won't vote this year because - 

why, exactly? We have carpool duties? We have to get to work?

Our vote doesn't matter? It's raining? 

 Mrs. Pauline Adams in the prison garb she wore 

while serving a sixty day sentence.

Last week, I went to a sparsely attended screening of HBO's new movie 'Iron

Jawed Angels.' It is a graphic depiction of the battle these women waged so

that I could pull the curtain at the polling booth and have my say. I am

ashamed to say I needed the reminder. 

 Mrs. Edith Ainge, of Jamestown, New York

All these years later, voter registration is still my passion. But the 

actual act of voting had become less personal for me, more rote.

Frankly, voting often felt more like an obligation than a privilege.

Sometimes it was inconvenient. 

 (Berthe Arnold, CSU graduate) 

My friend Wendy, who is my age and studied women's history, 

saw the HBO movie, too. When she stopped by my desk to talk 

about it, she looked angry. She was--with herself. 'One thought

kept coming back to me as I watched that movie,' she said.

'What would those women think of the way I use, or don't use,

my right to vote? All of us take it for granted now, not just younger

women, but those of us who did seek to learn.' The right to vote,

she said, had become valuable to her 'all over again.' 

HBO released the movie on video and DVD.  I wish all history, 

social studies and government teachers would include the movie

in their curriculum I want it shown on Bunco night, too, and anywhere

else women gather. I realize this isn't our usual idea of socializing,

but we are not voting in the numbers that we should be, and I think

a little shock therapy is in order. 

 Conferring over ratification of the 19th Amendment

 to the U.S. Constitution at National Woman's Party headquarters, 

Jackson Place Washington,  D.C.

L-R Mrs. Lawrence Lewis, Mrs. Abby Scott Baker, 

Anita Pollitzer, Alice Paul, Florence Boeckel, 

Mabel Vernon (standing, right)) 

It is jarring to watch Woodrow Wilson and his cronies try to persuade

a psychiatrist to declare Alice Paul insane so that she could be

permanently institutionalized. And it is inspiring to watch the doctor

refuse. Alice Paul was strong, he said, and brave. That didn't make

her crazy. 

The doctor admonished the men: 'Courage in women is often mistaken

for insanity.' 

Please, if you are so inclined, pass this on to all the women you know.

We need to get out and vote and use this right that was fought so hard

for by these very courageous women. Whether you vote democratic,

republican or independent party - remember to vote. 

Helena Hill Weed,  Norwalk ,  Conn.  

Serving 3 day sentence in D.C. prison for carrying banner,

 'Governments derive their just powers 

from the consent of the governed.'

History is being made. 

December 2011