SUFFRAGETTES SUFFER NIGHT OF TERROR
Washington, D.C. (JFK+50) One hundred years ago, November 14/15, 1917, 33 women, arrested by Capitol Police while picketing in front of the White House for the right to vote, were met by Occoquan Workhouse* superintendent W. H. Whittaker and "44 club-wielding" guards who proceeded to "beat, kick, drag and choke" them.
One of the suffragettes was stabbed between the eyes with the broken staff of her protest banner. Lucy Burns** was handcuffed "in a torturous position."
Louise Bernikow says that two weeks later a judge ruled the women had been terrorized for exercising their "constitutional right to protest" but these "courageous women...had won a new definition of female patriotism."
*Occoquan Workhouse for the District of Columbia, located on the Occoquan River in Lorton, VA, was built without bolts or bars although leg-irons & handcuffs were used to discipline prisoners.
**Lucy Burns (1879-1966) was born in New York City & was educated at Yale, Vassar, Columbia & the University of Oxford. LB co-founded the National Women's Party with Alice Paul.
SOURCES
"Night of Terror Leads To Women's Vote in 1917", by Louise Bernikow, October 30, 2004, We News, www.womensenews.org/
"Night of Terror Timeline, November 12, 1917", Turning Point, www.suffragistmovement.org/
"Occoquan Workhouse", by Debbie Robison, Northern Virginia History Notes, www.novahistory.org/
Suffragists Picket at the White House
Harris & Ewing Photo (1917)
Library of Congress Image
Washington, D.C. (JFK+50) One hundred years ago, November 14/15, 1917, 33 women, arrested by Capitol Police while picketing in front of the White House for the right to vote, were met by Occoquan Workhouse* superintendent W. H. Whittaker and "44 club-wielding" guards who proceeded to "beat, kick, drag and choke" them.
One of the suffragettes was stabbed between the eyes with the broken staff of her protest banner. Lucy Burns** was handcuffed "in a torturous position."
Louise Bernikow says that two weeks later a judge ruled the women had been terrorized for exercising their "constitutional right to protest" but these "courageous women...had won a new definition of female patriotism."
*Occoquan Workhouse for the District of Columbia, located on the Occoquan River in Lorton, VA, was built without bolts or bars although leg-irons & handcuffs were used to discipline prisoners.
**Lucy Burns (1879-1966) was born in New York City & was educated at Yale, Vassar, Columbia & the University of Oxford. LB co-founded the National Women's Party with Alice Paul.
SOURCES
"Night of Terror Leads To Women's Vote in 1917", by Louise Bernikow, October 30, 2004, We News, www.womensenews.org/
"Night of Terror Timeline, November 12, 1917", Turning Point, www.suffragistmovement.org/
"Occoquan Workhouse", by Debbie Robison, Northern Virginia History Notes, www.novahistory.org/
Suffragists Picket at the White House
Harris & Ewing Photo (1917)
Library of Congress Image
