I got this in an email from my friend. I thought that since in one week from today we will all have the privileged to vote that this would be good reminder about how women got that right. Also, if your really want to be inspired watch the movie Iron Jawed Angels. It will really make you proud of the strong women who fought so hard for so long (even if the DVD cover is completely stupid-- I don't know what they were thinking when they put a naked woman's back on a movie about women's rights---UGGG!) . My favorite quote from the movie is a "Courage in women is often mistaken for insanity."
This is the story of our Grandmothers and Great-grandmothers; they lived only 90 years ago.
Remember, it wasn't until 1920 that women were granted the right to go to the polls and vote. Women picketed outside the White House, and carried signs asking for the vote.
They were innocent and defenseless, but they were jailed. 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 accused of "obstructing traffic."
(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 Virgina ordered his guards to teach a lesson to the suffragists imprisoned there because they dared to picket Wilson's White House for the right to vote. For weeks the women's only water cam 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, excatly? We have carpool duty? We have to work? Our vote doesn't matter? It's raining?
We need to get out and vote and use the right that was fought so hard for by these courageous women. Whether you vote democratic, republican or indepented-- remember to vote.
History is being made.
http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/collections/suffrage/nwp/prisoners.pdf
Remember, it wasn't until 1920 that women were granted the right to go to the polls and vote. Women picketed outside the White House, and carried signs asking for the vote.
They were innocent and defenseless, but they were jailed. 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 accused of "obstructing traffic."
(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 Virgina ordered his guards to teach a lesson to the suffragists imprisoned there because they dared to picket Wilson's White House for the right to vote. For weeks the women's only water cam 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, excatly? We have carpool duty? We have to work? Our vote doesn't matter? It's raining?
We need to get out and vote and use the right that was fought so hard for by these courageous women. Whether you vote democratic, republican or indepented-- remember to vote.
History is being made.
http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/
