What Would You Do To Vote?

The Night of Terror” sounds like a title to a scary movie or a Halloween night at a theme park. The reality is that this is a night that all Americans should remember because it reflects the cost that women bore to gain the right to vote. Yet few readers even know the story.
Determined to gain the right to vote, thousands of women joined in picketing in front of the Wilson White House from January 1917 and later in Lafayette Square until June 1919. These “Silent Sentinels” stood in silence, holding banners aimed at President Wilson, who opposed a federal amendment. Throughout this time, they were harassed, abused, insulted, and endured violence against them. The Wilson White House decided to use force to end the picketing – suppression was the call of the day.
At tension rose over the protest, they arrested the suffragists for obstructing traffic. At first, they went to jail for refusing to pay a fine or admit guilt for merely standing in silence on the sidewalk. With every new group of women arrested the sentences grew in time
When Alice Paul, a leader in the protests picketed in October, she was immediately arrested and sentenced to seven months in jail. Sent to Occoquan, where the conditions were atrocious, including worms in the food, filthy water, bedding, clothing, and lack of sanitation, Paul demanded to be a political prisoner. She spent two weeks in solitary confinement and later inspired others to join her in a hunger strike – where the authorities ended up force-feeding her.
On November 14, 33, more women were sentenced to Occoquan and also wanted to be “political prisoners’. April 17, 2019, History website, claims that “prison superintendent William H. Whittaker called on his guards to teach the women a lesson. Bursting into the room where the women were waiting to be booked, the guards dragged them down the hall and threw them into dark, filthy cells.” (The Night of Terror: When Suffragists Were Imprisoned found at https://www.history.com/news/night-terror-brutality-suffragists-19th-ame....) Guards shackled some, beat others, dragged and kicked, and even denied medical treatment for other women – all because they wanted to vote.
Yes, there was a real night of terror – one we should never forget – for these brave women fought for a right that so many of us take for granted. Just look at the number of Americans that do not vote and ask yourself if you would have endured what they did so you could vote?

Tom Mortenson is a national speaker and wirter on Suffrage and is a National Board Member of the Turning Point National Suffragist Memorial.