Alice Paul

Alice Paul
Paul in 1918
Born
Alice Stokes Paul

(1885-01-11)January 11, 1885
DiedJuly 9, 1977(1977-07-09) (aged 92)
Resting placeWestfield Friends Burial Ground, Cinnaminson, New Jersey, U.S.
EducationSwarthmore College (BS)
Woodbrooke Quaker Study Centre
London School of Economics
University of Pennsylvania (MA, PhD)
American University (LLB, LLM, DCL)
OccupationSuffragist
Political partyNational Woman's Party
Parent(s)William Mickle Paul I
Tacie Parry

Alice Stokes Paul (January 11, 1885 – July 9, 1977) was an American Quaker, suffragette, suffragist, feminist, and women's rights activist, and one of the foremost leaders and strategists of the campaign for the Nineteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution, which prohibits sex discrimination in the right to vote. Paul initiated, and along with Lucy Burns and others, strategized events such as the Woman Suffrage Procession and the Silent Sentinels, which were part of the successful campaign that resulted in the amendment's passage in August 1920.[1]

Paul often suffered police brutality and other physical abuse for her activism, always responding with nonviolence and courage. She was jailed under terrible conditions in 1917 for participating in a Silent Sentinels protest in front of the White House, as she had been several times during earlier efforts to secure the vote for women in the United Kingdom.

After 1920, Paul spent a half-century as leader of the National Woman's Party, which fought for the Equal Rights Amendment, written by Paul and Crystal Eastman, to secure constitutional equality for women. She won a major permanent success with the inclusion of women as a group protected against discrimination by the Civil Rights Act of 1964.

  1. ^ Baker, Jean H., "Placards At The White House," American Heritage, Winter 2010, Volume 59, Issue 4.