Suffragists -- United States; Women -- Suffrage -- United States
One sweet old Alabamian came shyly up to one of the pickets and said,
“I say, Miss, this is the White House, isn’t it?”
Before she could answer, he added: “We went three times around the
place and I told the boys, the big white house in the center was the
White House, but they wasn’t believing me and I wasn’t sure, but as
soon as I saw you girls coming with your flags, to stand here, I said,
‘This must be the White House. This is sure enough where the President
lives; here are the pickets with their banners that we read about down
home.’’ A note of triumph was in his frail voice.
The picket smiled, and thanked him warmly, as he finished with, “You
are brave girls. You are bound to get him”—pointing his shaking finger
toward the White House.
President Wilson’s second inauguration was rapidly approaching. Also
war clouds were gathering with all the increased emotionalism that
comes at such a crisis. Some additional demonstration of power and
force must be made before the President’s inauguration and before the
excitement of our entry into the war should plunge our agitation into
obscurity. This was the strategic moment to assemble our forces in
convention in Washington.
Accordingly, the Congressional Union for Woman Suffrage and the Woman’s
Party, that section of the Congressional Union in suffrage states made
up of women voters, convened in Washington and decided unanimously to
unite their strength, money and political power in one organization,
and called it the National Woman’s Party.
The following officers were unanimously elected to direct the
activities of the new organization: Chairman of the National Woman’s
Party, Miss Alice Paul, New Jersey; Vice-chairman, Miss Anne Martin,
Nevada; secretary, Miss Mabel Vernon, Nevada; treasurer, Miss Gertrude
Crocker, Illinois; executive members, Miss Lucy Burns, Mrs. O. H. P.
Belmont, Mrs. John Winters Brannan, New York; Mrs. Gilson Gardner,
Illinois; Mrs. Robert Baker, Washington, D. C.; Mrs. William Kent and
Miss Maud Younger, California; Mrs. Florence Bayard Hilles, Delaware;
Mrs. Donald Hooker, Maryland; Mrs. J. A. H. Hopkins, New Jersey; Mrs.
Lawrence Lewis, Pennsylvania, and Miss Doris Stevens, Nebraska.
The convention came to a close on the eve of inauguration, culminating
in the dramatic picket line made up of one thousand delegates who
sought an interview with the President. The purpose of the interview
was to carry to him the resolutions of the convention, and further
plead with him to open his second administration with a promise to back
the amendment.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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