Alice Paul's Suffrage

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Alice Paul worked to improve the lives of American women in the 1900s by protesting, taking personal risks and working together with other suffragists. Women’s suffrage is the right of women to vote in elections that took place in the late 19th century. For example, women didn’t have a right to vote and didn’t have control over their kids and property. National and international organizations formed to coordinate efforts to gain voting rights. Alice Paul, one of the main leaders of the National Woman’s Party, took a big role in women’s suffrage.
According to Alice Paul, women were definitely not treated fairly in the 1900s. She risked everything she had to prove a clear point. Alice Paul was born January 11th, 1885 in Mt. Laurel, New Jersey, attending school in nearby Moorestown. Alice Paul was an American suffragist, feminist, and women’s rights activist, and one of the main leaders and strategists of the 1910s campaign for the 19th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, which prohibits sex discrimination in the right to vote. Along with Lucy Burns and others, she organized events such as the Woman Suffrage Procession and the Silent Sentinels. Alice also took a lot of personal risks as a suffragist. An article states, “ She was sent to prison for seven months to prove something that mean a lot to her. While in prison, she organized a hunger strike in protest. Doctors threatened to send Paul to an insane asylum and force-fed her, while newspaper accounts of her treatment garnered public sympathy and support for suffrage” (Debra Michals ). While protesting, young men would harass and beat the women, with the police never intervening on behalf of the protesters. Police would even arrest other men who tried to help the women getting beaten. Throughout this time, more protesters were arrested and sent to Occoquan or the District Jail. The National Woman’s Party went to court to protest the treatment of the women in Occoquan Prison. The women were later moved to the District Jail where Paul languished. Despite the brutality that she experienced and witnessed, she remained undaunted, and on November 27th and 28th all the suffragists were released from prison. Women’s suffrage had many other suffragists who believed in women’s rights.
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Some examples of other suffragists are Susan B. Anthony, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Lucy Stone, and Ida B. Wells. These women played some of the biggest roles in women’s suffrage just like Alice Paul. They all wanted what was fair and right for women and didn’t stop fighting until women were treated the with more respect.
Susan B Anthony was one of the most well-known women’s suffragists was an was part of the movement. In 1851, she met Elizabeth Cady Stanton who became her very good friend and co-worker in activities. In 1852, they founded the New York Women’s State Temperance Society after she was prevented from speaking at a temperance because she was female. Like Alice Paul, she was also arrested for voting in her hometown of Rochester, New York, and convicted in a widely publicized trial. Once the dramatic event was over, the suffragists finally started to get through to others. Another article says, “Before organizing, suffrage opponents bonded without an official institution. Artists created political cartoons that mocked suffragists. Religious leaders spoke

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