Alice Paul Was One Of The Leaders Of The Women's Suffrage Movement And One Of The Primary Forces Behind The Passage Of The 19th Amendment.

Alice Paul

"I never doubted that equal rights was the right direction. Most reforms, most problems are complicated. But to me there is nothing complicated about ordinary equality."

Alice was  charismatic and clever tactician with dark hair and compelling violet-blue eyes. "Great earnest childlike eyes that seem to seize you and hold you to her purpose," said a supporter. She dreaded public speaking, but was fearless of confrontation.
She was born on January 11, 1885, at Paulsdale, her family farm in Mount Laurel Township, New Jersey. Alice was the eldest of four children  of William Mickle Paul I and Tacie Paul. Her father was a wealthy businessman and her mother was a suffragist and brought Alice with her to women’s suffrage meetings. Both her parents embraced gender equality, education for women, and working to improve society. Her ancestors included participants in the New Jersey Committee of Correspondence in the Revolutionary era and a state legislative leader in the 19th century.  Alice was also descendant of William Penn, the Quaker founder of Pennsylvania. 

Alice graduated at the top of her class from Moorestown Friends School. She then attended Swarthmore College, a Quaker school cofounded by her grandfather. It was the same institution her mother had attended as one of the first women educated there. While attending Swarthmore, Alice served as a member on the Executive Board of Student Government. She graduated in 1905 with a bachelor's degree in biology. 

After graduation Alice completed a fellowship year at a settlement house in New York City. Living and working at the settlement house taught her about the need to right injustice in America.

She went on to attend the New York School of Philanthropy (now Columbia University) and received a Master of Arts degree in sociology in 1907.

Alice then went to England to continue her studies at the Woodbrooke Quaker Study Centre in Birmingham. She also took economics classes from the University of Birmingham, while continuing to earn money doing social work. While in England, Alice met American Lucy Burns, and joining the women’s suffrage efforts there, they learned militant protest tactics. Alice was arrested on several occasions, serving time in jail and going on a hunger strike.

After returning from England, Alice earned a PhD from the University of Pennsylvania in 1910.

In 1912, Alice and Lucy joined the National American Woman Suffrage Association and served s the chair of it's congressional committee. They then organized a huge women’s suffrage march in DC on the eve of the inauguration of Woodrow Wilson. Approximately eight thousand women marched with banners and floats down Pennsylvania Avenue from the Capitol to the White House, while a half million spectators watched, supported and harassed the marchers. 

Out of frustration with NAWSA's policies, however, Alice left the NAWSA to form the more militant Congressional Union for Woman Suffrage with Lucy. The group was later renamed the National Woman's Party with the goal of implementing change on a federal level.

On March 17, 1913, Paul and other suffragists met with Wilson, who said it was not yet time for an amendment to the Constitution.

In January of 1917, Alice and other NWP members that called themselves  "Silent Sentinels", stood silently at the White House gates, picketing for women’s suffrage.  They carried signs that read, “MR. PRESIDENT, HOW LONG MUST WOMEN WAIT FOR LIBERTY?” “MR. PRESIDENT, WHAT WILL YOU DO FOR WOMAN SUFFRAGE?”

The Silent Sentinels were arrested for “blocking traffic,” and refusing to pay their fines, were arrested and sent to jail. Alice and the others began hunger strikes and their tactics were met with brutality. Alice was considered the ringleader and was held separately. Later in the psychiatric ward, there was an attempt to make her declared insane. 

On November 27 and 28 of 1917, all the suffragists were released from prison.

In 1918, After the bad publicity that ensued, President Wilson gave his support for a constitutional amendment giving women the right to vote.

On August 26th, 1920, the Nineteenth Amendment became law on. A federal court had also thrown out charges against the pickets, and permits to demonstrate in the nation’s capital were now issued. 

Alice returned to college and received her law degree (LL.B) from the Washington College of Law at American University in 1922.

In 1923 she introduced the first Equal Rights Amendment in Congress, which was passed in 1972 but never ratified. 

In 1927, she earned a master of laws degree, and in 1928, a doctorate in civil law from American University.

Alice also led a US coalition to successfully include a clause prohibiting sexual discrimination in Title VII of the 1964 Civil Rights Act.

Until she was debilitated by a stroke in 1974, Alice Paul continued her fight for women’s rights. She died on July 9, 1977, in Moorestown. She is buried at Westfield Friends Burial Ground, Cinnaminson, New Jersey.  People frequently leave notes at her tombstone to thank her for her life long work on behalf of women's rights.