In
1919, things weren’t looking good for women’s suffrage. Although the
House had passed the Nineteenth Amendment, the Senate had voted it
down. Politicians were tired of the suffragists, and President Wilson
wasn’t helping matters. Also, activists were being arrested left and
right and were abused in prison. What to do? Organize a train ride!
They
called it "Democracy Limited," but the public immediately dubbed the
three-week suffrage tour of February 1919 "The Prison Special." Its
purpose? Make one last push for suffrage by harnessing the power of
personal narrative. Its focus? The inhumane prison sentences served by
so many women who fought for the vote.
The concept was relatively
simple: the tour's slogan was "From Prison to People" and the train
traveled the nation, packed with 26 members of the National Women's
Party. When they arrived at their destination, they would don uniforms
like the ones they were forced to wear at the Occoquan Workhouse, the
prison that would eventually house over 150 suffragists. Alice Paul was
force-fed egg yolks and placed in solitary confinement in a psychiatric
ward. There, women were beaten, dragged, kicked, and even knocked
unconscious by guards unsympathetic to the crowds. Now the same women
brought their tales of incarceration and unsanitary, shocking conditions
to the public, concluding with passionate pleas for President Wilson to
act at last.
Not everyone greeted the tour with open arms, but it ended up helping to push the Amendment through the Senate.
Read the story of the Hail Mary move that served as the end of the campaign for the right for women to vote, at mental_floss.
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