Alice Paul (1885–1977): 🗽Radical Strategist of American Suffrage

Alice Stokes Paul was an American suffragist, feminist, and women's rights activist. She was instrumental in the passage of the 19th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, which guaranteed women the right to vote. Alice is best known for her bold, confrontational, and non-violent strategies. This shifted the focus of the women's suffrage movement from state-by-state campaigns to a singular national target: a constitutional amendment.

Early Life and Radicalization

Alice Paul was born in 1885 into a Quaker family in New Jersey. Quakers traditionally believed in female equality and encouraged the education of their daughters, influencing Alice's views.

• Education: Alice Paul was highly educated. Earning a B.A. from Swarthmore College, an M.A. and Ph.D. from the University of Pennsylvania, and later, law degrees.
• British Influence: The turning point in her activism came during her studies in England between 1907 and 1910. She joined the militant British suffrage movement, led by Emmeline and Christabel Pankhurst. She participated in their aggressive tactics, including smashing windows and heckling politicians, leading to her arrest and imprisonment multiple times. It was here that she learned the power of confrontation, civil disobedience, and gaining publicity through direct action.

🏛 Shifting the Battleground to Washington D.C.

When Paul returned to the United States in 1910, the National American Woman Suffrage Association (NAWSA) was focused primarily on slow, state-by-state campaigns. Paul believed this was inefficient and ineffective.

The Congressional Union and NAWSA Split

In 1912, Paul joined NAWSA and was appointed to lead its Congressional Committee in Washington D.C. She immediately began advocating for a national constitutional amendment, which became known as the Susan B Anthony Amendment (and eventually the 19th Amendment).

• Financial Autonomy: Paul quickly realized she needed control over her own finances and methods. When NAWSA rejected her aggressive, British-style tactics and singular focus on the federal amendment, Paul broke away in 1914, founding the Congressional Union for Woman Suffrage (CU).
• The National Woman's Party (NWP): In 1916, the CU was fully reorganized into the National Woman’s Party (NWP). The NWP's primary (and controversial) strategy was to hold the political party in power—the Democrats, who controlled the presidency and Congress—responsible for the failure to pass the amendment, regardless of individual members' views.

📣 The Strategy of Confrontation and Spectacle

The NWP, under Paul's direction, employed non-violent yet highly visible and dramatic tactics. Designed to force the suffrage issue into the national consciousness and onto President Woodrow Wilson's agenda.

The 1913 Woman Suffrage Parade

Paul's first major action was organizing the Woman Suffrage Procession in Washington D.C. on March 3, 1913, the day before President-elect Woodrow Wilson’s inauguration.

• A Strategic Spectacle: Thousands of marchers, led by lawyer and activist Inez Milholland on a white horse, descended on the capital. The massive demonstration—featuring floats, banners, and professional organization—drew huge crowds.
• The Riots and Publicity: When the crowd surged onto the route, resulting in a near-riot and hundreds of injuries, the police failed to intervene, sparking national outrage. This generated massive press coverage, putting the suffrage movement back on the front page and initiating Paul's strategy of using controversy to gain political leverage.

The historic women’s suffrage march on Washington - Michelle Mehrtens

The Silent Sentinels (1917–1919)

In 1917, Alice Paul escalated her tactics by organizing the Silent Sentinels, a campaign of non-violent civil disobedience.

• The White House Pickets: Hundreds of NWP members began standing silently outside the White House gates. Seven days a week, regardless of weather. They held large banners with pointed, often accusatory, slogans directed at President Wilson. This was the first time an American protest group had ever picketed the White House.
• Wartime Controversy: When the U.S. entered World War I in April 1917, the picketing continued. Paul and the NWP refused to pause their campaign for the war effort. Arguing that democracy must begin at home. This alienated many traditional suffragists but ensured the NWP remained in the news. The banners grew more inflammatory, calling President Wilson "Kaiser Wilson" and comparing the fight for women's democracy at home to the war being fought abroad.

⛓ Imprisonment, Force-Feeding, and Public Sympathy

The Silent Sentinels' confrontation with the government led to mass arrests, imprisonments, and brutality, which ultimately turned public opinion in the suffragists' favor.

• Sentencing: Hundreds of women were arrested on charges of "obstructing traffic" and sentenced to up to six months in the notorious Occoquan Workhouse in Virginia.
• The Night of Terror: In November 1917, a brutal incident occurred at Occoquan where prison guards violently beat and abused the imprisoned suffragists, including Lucy Burns.
• Hunger Strikes and Force-Feeding: When imprisoned, Alice Paul and many others initiated hunger strikes as a form of non-violent resistance. The authorities responded by brutally force-feeding them. Accounts of the abuse and the image of the dedicated, well-educated women being tortured for demanding democracy shocked the nation.
• Political Fallout: The combination of the press coverage, the NWP's lobbying, and the blatant government brutality against peaceful women forced the issue into a national crisis. In 1918, President Wilson announced his support for the suffrage amendment, calling it a "war measure."

📜 The 19th Amendment and Beyond

The 19th Amendment was passed by the House of Representatives in May 1919 and by the Senate in June 1919. It was ratified on August 18, 1920, guaranteeing the right to vote regardless of sex.

The Equal Rights Amendment (ERA)

Alice Paul did not stop there. Believing that the vote was merely the first step toward full equality, Paul drafted the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA) in 1923. Intending it to complete the work begun by the 19th Amendment.

• The Text: The original text of the ERA, written by Paul, stated: "People/Men and women shall have equal rights throughout the United States and every place subject to its jurisdiction."
• A New Fight: The ERA immediately sparked another major schism among women's groups. While Paul saw it as the necessary guarantee of legal equality, many labor activists and social reformers (including former suffragists) opposed it. Fearing it would eliminate protective labor laws for women.
• The Modern Movement: Paul continued to champion the ERA for decades, and it was finally passed by Congress in 1972. Though it failed to be ratified by the necessary number of states by the deadline.

Alice Paul dedicated more than 50 years of her life to the legal and political status of women worldwide. Paul died in 1977, leaving behind a legacy defined by her innovative, uncompromising commitment to non-violent, direct action that achieved one of the most significant constitutional victories in American history.