I thought this was a very important story to share, thank you Janice.
This is the story of women who were ground-breakers. These brave women from the early 1900s made all the difference in the lives we live today. Remember, it was not until 1920 that women were granted the right to go to the polls and vote. The women were innocent and defenseless, but when, in North America, women picketed in front of the
White House, carrying signs asking for the vote, they were jailed.
And by the end of the first night in jail, those women were barely alive.
Forty prison guards wielding clubs and their warden's blessing
went on a rampage against the 33 women wrongly convicted of
'obstructing sidewalk 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.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 Virginia ordered his
guards to teach a lesson to the suffragists imprisoned there because
they dared to picket Woodrow Wilson's White House for the right
to vote.
For weeks, the women's only water came from an open pail. Their
food--all of it colorless slop--was infested with worms.
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.
All women who have every voted, have ever owned property, have ever enjoyed equal rights need to remember that women's rights had to be fought for in Canada as well. Do our daughters and our sisters know the price that was paid to earn rights for women here, in North America?
2009 is the 80th Anniversary of the Persons Case in Canada,
which finally declared women in Canada to be Persons!
Please, if you are so inclined, pass this on to all the women you know, so that we remember to celebrate the rights we enjoy.
"Knowledge is Freedom: hide it, and it withers; share it, and it blooms" (P. Hill)
Chris, thanks for reblogging. It's an important message we need to remember.
I couldn't agree more Janice. Most of us can't even imagine a life such as this, or a fight such as this. We are lucky and grateful for these women who did the work before we got here. We need to remember.
That's an amazing story, Chris. I know very little of the suffragettes, I'm embarrassed to say. I knew they fought for our right as women to be heard in this country. But, I don't think I understood to what extend. I'll be doing alot of reading on this for sure! Thank you for reblogging.
Heather, it is research well worth doing. These women were unbelievably brave. You just reminded me I should find an age appropriate book for my daughter on this subject. Thank you!
Many areas of the world, including some areas of the United States of America, still don't provide equal rights to all their citizens.
I agree Russel, our state being one that does not provide equal rights for all. That's why I think it's so important to continue this fight, not only because it's the right thing to do but to honor the women and men who fought so hard to get us this far.
Chris- I agree it's important. When I was child I got my first job as a docent at the Uncle Remus Museum here in town and I worked with the lady who founded it and worked so hard to put it all together. She passed away back in 1979. But I loved to listen to her tell stories. She was the first woman to register to vote after the amendment passed allowing her to do so. She was quite well educated for a woman of her time in the south. I learned a lot listening to Miss Norma and I'll always carry with me the importance of getting out to vote. I think I also passed it along to my daughter.
Tammy, I'm glad to hear that. I can't imagine not exercising that right after so many fought so hard to secure it for me. Hopefully I'll pass that onto my daughter as well!