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Inauguration
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Votes for Women
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the National Womanâs Party
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Woodrow Wilson
Alice Paul
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Elizabeth Cady Stanton
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Wilson first took office in 1913, and one day prior to his Inauguration, they had staged a huge woman suffrage parade of more than 5,000 people marching up Pennsylvania Avenue in Washington, D.C.Almost four years had passed, and U.S. women still did not have the vote. As they braced for the bitter January chill, they were fortified with Paulâs advice: Donât be provoked into a physical or verbal confrontation, donât make eye contact with angry bystanders, stay quiet, and keep your backs to the gate for safety and to make sure the public can read the signs.The group marched to the White House in single file while Paul stayed behind to manage the protest from headquarters. PRESIDENT, WHAT WILL YOU DO FOR WOMENâS SUFFRAGE?â and âHOW LONG MUST WOMEN WAIT FOR LIBERTY?â (For Black women, the fight to vote would continue even after the 19th Amendment.)The sentinels had been in position for only 40 minutes when Woodrow Wilsonâs car returned to the White House. Carrie Chapman Catt told the Washington Times, âI think the Congressional Union is beginning at the wrong end when it seeks to embarrass the President.â The National Association Opposed to Woman Suffrage called the picketing âa menace to the life of the presidentâa silent invitation to the assassin,â and said âit is impossible to follow the mental processes of the women who devised the picket idea. One organizer told Paul to âuse your own splendid talents for something besides circus tricks!â Even as a slew of women quit the Congressional Union, Paul refused to adapt or apologize; she was unremitting, responding to her critics with copies of The Suffragist, so they could âlearn what we are attempting to do.âWell beyond that first day, the Silent Sentinels persevered. The protesters circled the White House four times, each lap representing a year that they had pressed for a federal amendment.The suffragistsâ rapport with the police and the public had grown in the nearly three months of picketing. Police called for backup and did their best to prevent a riot from breaking out.Inside the White House, the administration wanted to end the protests without giving the women more publicity. Superintendent Pullman knew he had no choice: He told Paul, âIf anybody goes out again on the picket line, it will be our duty to arrest them.âOn June 22 outside the White House, three suffragists held up a sign containing Wilsonâs own words from his war message to Congress on April 2: âWE SHALL FIGHT FOR THE THINGS WHICH WE HAVE ALWAYS CARRIED NEAREST OUR HEARTSâFOR DEMOCRACY, FOR THE RIGHT OF THOSE WHO SUBMIT TO AUTHORITY TO HAVE A VOICE IN THEIR GOVERNMENT.âThe officers arrested the women, who were charged with blocking traffic and unlawful assemblage. The sentinels chose jail, and the protests continued.Sixteen more women were later arrested for protesting and booked for âunlawful assembly.â The defendants included Alison Hopkins, whose husband, John, had helped finance Wilsonâs campaign. Paul told reporters that the picketing would continue as âpicketing has accomplished just exactly what we wanted it to accomplish, and picketing is going to end in forcing the issue.âThe Silent Sentinels continued protesting into August, creating more and more inflammatory signs. On November 10, 41 women protested her treatment outside the White House; 31 were arrested, including Lucy Burns, who had been released from prison only a few days before. At a hearing a week later in U.S. district court, with Burns and Lewis in the room but too weak to testify, Judge Edmund Waddill ordered all suffragists transferred from Occoquan to the district jail, where Paul had been moved.Wilsonâs political reputation was taking a big hit, according to the torrent of letters and telegrams flowing toward the White House. The determination and persistence of the Silent Sentinels turned President Wilson from foe to ally, and would bring the final push for woman suffrage across the finish line in August 1920, when the 19th Amendment became the law of the land in the United States.From Mr. President, How Long Must We Wait?: Alice Paul, Woodrow Wilson, and the Fight for the Right to Vote by Tina Cassidy.
As said here by Tina Cassidy