Letter written by Emeline Pankhurst to members of the Women's Social and Political Union(UK), 10 January, 1913, outlining the case for militancy.
Emeline (Emily) Pankhurst's famous call for "Deeds not words" in the women's suffrage movement in England.
Emily Pankhurst derides the suffragists who favor a conciliatory approach to the British political establishment. Ignoring the pledge to consider women's suffrage in the coming days Pankhurst argues that more, not less, aggression was needed to create support for the suffragette's. Pankhurst's aggression was in stark contrast to that of many other suffragists and reformers, having more in common with radical political and labor groups than the middle class progressives.
(To view the second half of the letter you will need the Adobe Reader program. It is a free program and from a reputable publisher. Google the phrase "download adobe reader" and follow the instructions. I apologize for the inconvenience.)
The National Archives
www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/documents/education/suffragettes.pdf
Document: CRIM 1/139/2
January 10, 1913
Open for use for education
Washinton jail used to house arrested picketers on hunger strike.
Abandoned jail near D.C. Prison where pickets of Aug. 18 were confined during long hunger strike. All returned to NWP Hdqtrs. in ambulances. (Title transcribed from item.)
After the picketers were arrested many sought to continue the protest in jail by engaging in hunger strikes. Subject to isolation, misinformation and force-feeding, the incarcerated women maintained their strikes and the resulting publicity helped alert the general public to their cause and dedication.
Women of Protest: Photographs from the Records of the National Woman's Party, Manuscript Division, Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.
ca. 1917
Photographic Print
Miss [Lucy] Burns in Occoquan Workhouse, Washington
Lucy Burns, pictured here in her cell, was arrested numerous times for picketing the White House and after other protests.
Lucy Burns was a co-founder of the Congressional Union, which beacme the National Woman's Party in 1917. She espoused the aggressive attention grabbing tactics of the English suffragette movement. Jailed repeatedly between 1913 and 1919 for picketing and demonstrating; Burns continued her protest with hunger strikes while incarcerated. She suffered the indignities of a forced feeding where tubes were driven into her throat or nose in order to keep her from starving.
Women of Protest: Photographs from the Records of the National Woman's Party, Manuscript Division, Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.
Nov. 1917
Photographic Print
Maryland Day [picketing the White House for suffrage]
Suffragette picketers outside the White House
The National Woman's Party had numerous branches throughout the country. State organizations, like the women of Maryland shown here, agitated locally for suffrage rights on a state by state basis. When the 19th amendment went to the states these state organizations were instrumental to the amendment's passage.
Women of Protest: Photographs from the Records of the National Woman's Party, Manuscript Division, Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.
http://memory.loc.gov/service/mss/mnwp/160/160021v.jpg
Harris & Ewing, Washington, D.C.
1917
Library of Congress, open for use in educational resource
Photographic Print
Penn[sylvania] on the picket line
Suffragists stand outside the White House calling for President Wilson to endorse the Suffragist movement.
Fourteen Suffragists stand on the picket line outside the Wilson White House. The sign reads, "Mr. President How Long Must Women Wait For Liberty." Wilson would lead the United States to war by calling it a democratic crusade. American women used this message to batter the president by pointing to his support for democracy abroad and its suppression at home. In this way the NWP sought to force Wilson into supporting the suffragette movement.
Harris & Ewing, Washington, D.C.
mnwp 160022
http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.mss/mnwp.160022
Library of Congress, Manuscript Division, Washington, D.C. 20540 USA
1917
Public Domain
Photographic Print
College Day in the picket line
Picketing the White House
Members of the breakaway National Woman's Party(NWP) picket the White House during the Wilson administration. They are wearing banners designating their Alma Maters. The NWP strove to show that their organization was made up of dedicated young professionals rather than a group of wild eyed fanatics.
Library of Congress Washington, D.C. 20540 USA
Feb. 1917
No known restrictions on publication
photographic print
Alice Paul on force-feeding in England
Hunger strike and forced feeding
Alice Paul engaged in hunger strikes when imprisoned for agitating for Women's suffrage in England. This article describes the process and her reaction. "When the forcible feeding was ordered, I was taken from my bed, carried to another room and forced into a chair, bound with sheets(?) and sat upon bodily by a fat murderer who's duty it was to keep me still. Then the prison doctor, assisted by two female attendants, placed a rubber tube up my nostrils and pumped liquid food through it into the stomach. Twice a day for a month, November 1, to December 1, this was done." Cited from the article, starting at the second column, seventh line.
Elizabeth Smith Miller and Anne Fitzhugh Miller suffrage scrapbooks; National American Woman Suffrage Association Collection (Library of Congress)
http://memory.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/r?ammem/nawbib:@field(NUMBER+@band(rbnawsa+n8133)):
Library Of Congress
Article extract
Mrs. Pethick-Lawrence, British suffrage leader, and Miss Alice Paul of the National Woman's Party, full-length portrait, standing, Washington, D.C.
The photographed meeting of the English radical Mrs. Pethick-Lawrence and Alice Paul. Paul learned to use the militant tactics of the women's suffrage movement in England and then brought them to America. Paul is on the left and Mrs. Pethick-Lawrence is on the right.
Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division Washington, D.C. 20540 USA
Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division Washington, D.C. 20540 USA
1913
No known restrictions on publication
Photographic Print