 archives education team. My name is Missy McNat and I'm an education specialist in Washington DC and welcome to the National Archives Comes Alive Young Learners Program. You can find information about future programs on the National Archives website, archives.gov, under events, and on the National Archives Facebook page. This morning we will meet Alice Paul, supreme strategist who revitalized the women's suffrage movement in the early 20th century with her determination, resolve, and unique plan to convince the nation that women deserve the right to vote and her efforts resulted in the passage of the 19th Amendment that gave women the right to vote in 1920. Alice Paul is portrayed by Taylor Williams Esquire, inspirational and talented actor with the American Historical Theater. In the holdings of the National Archives we hold numerous records related to the women's suffrage movement and this first photograph is suffragist on March 3rd, 1913, the day before the first inauguration of withdrawal Wilson. Over 5,000 suffragists marched down, paraded down Pennsylvania Avenue that day and we see Inez Milholland on the white horse in the lead. In the next photograph from 1917 we see members of the National Women's Party who are picketing in front of the White House because they are frustrated with President Wilson's inaction on the women's suffrage question. Next we have our DocsTeach activity for the program today and it's a photograph analysis. It's docsteachdocsteach.org. We will share this again at the end of the program. So we will have a question and answer session with Alice Paul after she completes her presentation. So please write your questions in the YouTube chat box and we have a National Archives staff member who is monitoring it and let us know where you're watching from today. This program is brought to you by the National Archives Education Team, the National Archives and the National Archives Foundation and now we're ready to meet Alice Paul. And to meet Alice Paul we are going to go to the Greenleaf Nursing Home in Worstown, New Jersey and the date is January 11th, 1977 and it's Alice Paul's 92nd birthday and the phones at the nursing home have been ringing off the hook with people from across the nation and around the world calling to give birthday wishes to Alice Paul. And I hope that Ms. Paul will talk to us on this cold morning and tell us a bit about her life, her work and her many accomplishments. Hello and happy birthday, Alice Paul. Well, thank you. Thank you. Yes, I was born in 1885, but I was not a Victorian. Oh, no, no, no. You see, Queen Victoria believed that she was powerful and independent because of the divine accident of birth, not because women should have equal rights with men. Well, she even admired those philosophers who said there were no good women and that women weren't as smart as men. Oh, no, no, no. You see, I was not a Victorian. We were progressive people working for equality in the years leading up to World War One. I graduated from Swarthmore College in 19 and five, and I got involved in settlement housework on New York's Lower East Side. Today, you would call me a social worker. Then in 19 and six, I was in England studying at the University of Birmingham, a dirty industrial city, but I bicycled to hear Christabel Pankhurst speak about votes for women. Well, she tried to speak, but she was heckled off the platform. Still, I had met my first suffragette. Then the next year, while I was studying at the London School of Economics, I was invited to join a procession of women to petition the Prime Minister for the right to vote. Well, I was thrilled to be asked, and when they asked me to join, I paid one shilling and I signed up. So there I was, a full-fledged member of the Women's Social and Political Union. What's a rebel? Well, no, no, no, I was not a rebel, but only in as much as I came from a Quaker family who believed that women were as strong as men. We believed in the divine inner light in each person, and in the right of conscience. My pattern was Lucretia Mott. Have you heard of Lucretia Mott? She's in the capital building in a statue, of course. No, no, no, my family was not particularly well. Well, maybe you could say my family was well off. My father was a farmer, yes, but also president of a bank whenever he had anything disagreeable that had to be done. He used to say, I banked on Alice, but he died while I was young and in college. But back in England, I got more and more involved in the fight for the women's vote. I started out by selling, that's right, selling like a street vendor, a newspaper called Votes for Women. Then the Pankhurst family, who were leading the suffrage movement in England, asked me to go up to Norwich, where Winston Churchill was to speak at the town hall. Well, I'm not a good speaker. I was frightened, but every day I got up on a soapbox in the market place, and I addressed everyone passing by. Friends, this is our opportunity with Winston Churchill speaking here at the town hall to let the Liberal Party know that we will not rest until we have the vote. Well, when the day came, it turned out I had roused quite a crowd, and we were all promptly arrested for obstruction. Well, you see, at that time, no women were allowed in political gatherings in England. Why you asked? Well, because one might be a suffragette and might seek to know the politician's stance on votes for women. So we were barred from all meetings. So we had to find some very clever ways to get in to buildings, to confront the politicians. Well, sometimes we went in as women, as cleaning people, or as kitchen help, and we would wait all day until the time for the politician to speak would come, and then we would confront him and throw him off his guard. Once I was sent up to St Andrews Hall, a big hall in Scotland, and I couldn't find a way to get into the hall. Finally, I saw a large chimney. So I climbed up on the roof. And I thought, well, I can slide down the chimney if need be, or I can call from the roof. But before I could do either, I was discovered. And I was forced down. I was arrested, of course, and taken to prison. But the crowd followed me, shouted for my release. And finally, the authorities asked if I would ask the crowd, please, please do remain calm. Well, as a Quaker, I was not prepared for the violence. But I was getting used to it. If we tried to enter any of the halls, the police would whack us with their truncheons. We rolled bats of cotton underneath our clothing to protect us from their blows. When I was in England, I was arrested and put in prison seven times. When we were in prison, we would go on hunger strike. And then we were fed against our will. It was terrible torture, really. But then I came back home. The hunger striking had weakened my heart muscle. So I came back home and I was working on my PhD at the University of Pennsylvania, which I earned in 19 and 12. That same year, I asked the National American Woman's Suffrage Association, if I could go to Washington and work on a federal amendment, you see, at that time, nine states all in the West already had votes for women, women could vote out there. So the National Association decided that they would go state by state by state and ask each state legislature, all men, if they would please give women the vote. Well, I saw that as wasted effort. We can't go begging state by state. No, we must have a federal amendment. And that way all the states must obey. Well, I moved down to Washington and I decided to draw attention to our glorious cause. We would have a procession of women right down Pennsylvania Avenue. Well, nothing had ever been done before. So I got a list from the National Association, but it was absolutely outdated. How would we ever have a procession? And in time for Woodrow Wilson's inauguration on March 4, 1913. Well, I contacted women teachers, the teachers throughout the United States, they were supportive. I contacted doctors, lawyers, there were some female lawyers even then. And eventually, we were able to have a huge procession. We wore our best white garments and sashes of purple, golden light. And we marched right down Pennsylvania Avenue in step. Well, it was said that when Woodrow Wilson appeared at Union Station for his inauguration, he was asked, Where is everybody? He said, Well, he was told on Pennsylvania Avenue, watching the suffrage parade. But it turned very ugly. The police were unprepared. The crowds pressed so close and they heckled us, they beat us with with our own banners. Several women were injured, seriously injured. And finally, to allow us to continue to march, troops had to be called in from Fort Meyer. Well, I thought that was a big success. Nothing like that had ever been done before. But the National Association thought I was too militant. And they asked me to step down. Well, I couldn't understand it. But I told them, No, no, I'm a shy Quaker woman. But I became involved in founding my own party, which became known as the National Women's Party. And we got an office near the White House. We sent deputation after deputation to Woodrow Wilson, but he refused to see us. He said he was too busy, too busy with the war effort to worry about women. Well, what should we do? I know. We will pick at the White House. Elizabeth Cady Stanton's daughter Harriet Stanton Blatch carried a sign which read Mr. President, how long must women wait for liberty? We kept watch fires burning day and night. And we burned Woodrow Wilson's speeches about democracy. Democracy, Mr. President. Oh, no. Oh, no, not when half of the population is unable to vote. Well, of course, that turned ugly too. Pickets were attacked. We were attacked again with our own banners. People saw us as unpatriotic. They broke the barricades. But again, we were the ones who were arrested. Now, when we were arrested, we were put in Occoquan Workhouse. Do you know Occoquan? Well, it's filthy. The food was filled with worms. The mattresses were filled with vermin. Well, that made it easy to go on hunger strike again. And then right here in the United States for simply asking for the right to vote. Again, we were fed against our will. Well, I was told that I was to be sent to St. Elizabeth's. I see you are not from Washington. It's the insane asylum. Doctors came to see me. They asked me questions. Why are you so obsessed with Woodrow Wilson? Well, I answered their questions as honestly as I could. And at the end of their examination, they decided that I indeed was saying and put out a press release that enraged the public. And we were let out of jail early. Well, Woodrow Wilson was against the suffrage amendment. But he came to my own state New Jersey and made me very angry by saying that he would support the amendment on a state by state by state basis. No, we must have a federal amendment. We kept working. We worked through World War One. Finally 1918 came and the war in Europe ended. Woodrow Wilson finally jumped on the bandwagon with both feet. May 2 1918. The house is voting. And yes, the house passes the amendment for suffrage. But what about the Senate? It doesn't look good. Let's contact Woodrow Wilson and see if he'll lean on those undecided Southern Democrats. June 4 1919. The Senate votes. And yes, the Senate passes the amendment by one vote. Now don't go looking so jubilant, friends, because if we are to vote in the next election, and remember, it is the presidential election. We must have ratification by 36 states. Well, I wish you could have seen the tricks that were used to try to stop us. For example, in Tennessee, the liquor lobby put it around that women were responsible for the 18th amendment for prohibition. So they kept free liquor a flowing day and night. But in the end, Tennessee ratified by one vote. And in November 19 and 20, women went to the polls for the first time. Now, don't misunderstand. My father was a farmer, remember? And he always said, once you place your hand in the plow, you don't let go of it until you get to the end of the row. I knew we were not yet at the end of the row. I went back and studied law. I got so engrossed in the subject I ended up with three law degrees. Then in 1923, we decided to hold a big convention for the National Woman's Party to celebrate, to celebrate the 75th anniversary of the first woman's rights convention at Seneca Falls. Well, I'm not a very good speaker. But of course, you realize that the minute we opened our mouths to speak, we were arrested. So I thought, well, what shall I do? I got a basket and asked everybody to put their questions in the basket. But as I took them out, I realized they were all the same question. And that was this. How can we give our children a paper ballot to chew? How did getting the vote really help us? So I approached the convention and I said, I believe that everyone here would agree with me that getting the vote only gave us equality in voting and not in earning a living or seeing that the laws about earning a living are equal. Therefore, I propose our next step to be a federal amendment for equality of all people. Well, the entire assembly stood up and shouted, hooray. And I was able to use my legal training to fashion an amendment that became known as the Equal Rights Amendment. But our work was not just at home. No, I went to the League of Nations to try to get gender equality into treaties. But another war intervened. And we were, we were shut down and became a refugee center. Well, we did get gender equality in the United Nations Charter and in the United Nations Declaration of Human Rights. But what's that? Oh, excuse me. It is my birthday. I must take this call just this one. Yes. Well, hello Betty Ford. Yes, my Mrs. Ford. Thank you. But can you get the president out to Indiana? We need help with the Equal Rights Amendment out there. You see, we needed ratification again. The Congress had passed the Equal Rights Amendment in 1972, but with a seven year time limit. Now it's 1977. I do not think we will get the necessary states. We need three more. But I will ask the president and I will ask you, what can you do to help us pass the Equal Rights Amendment? You see, I've always believed that the fight for equality is like a mosaic. If each one of us does one small thing, puts in one small piece, together, we will create a great work of art. Equality. Thank you, everybody. I'm Taylor Williams and I'm going to step out of Alice Paul's shoes. I could never have filled them. She was an amazing strategist, an amazing strong woman. But I wanted to step out of her shoes simply to talk with you about the status of women today and the status of the Equal Rights Amendment, too, if you're interested in that. And I can't do that if I'm stuck in 1977, because you see almost immediately after this birthday, she died a few months later. So she is stuck in 1977, but I'm here with you in 2021. And we can talk about what's been happening since Alice Paul left us. So if you have some questions, I'm ready for you. Well, thank you so much. Wow, I learned so much. And what a dynamo. You know, I don't think of Quaker women as being dynamos, but certainly Alice Paul was just that. So I was motivated by her Quaker faith. She was motivated by her Quaker faith because she was so sheltered in that Quaker community, which believed in equality of all peoples that when she went out into the broader world, she said she felt like she had been punched in the stomach. So she had to become a dynamo. She was, she was advancing her faith when she was working for equality. Well, that's, I mean, that's, that's amazing. Amazing. All that she did. I mean, I'm just overwhelmed with the number of degrees that she got, too. Amazing, isn't it? Well, well, we think people pursue degrees today. So thank you for everybody who are joining us. And if you want to include where you're watching from, please do so. Right now, we just have somebody from Oregon. So I hope we have more folks, you know, from around, let us know. We have a question here that so this question is that did did Alice Paul ever say a quote by Mark Twain about politicians and diapers? Does that ring about with you at all? I don't know anything about it. It's not something that I've ever heard. She did work very closely with some politicians. She was actually quite friendly with many of them. Teddy Roosevelt in particular was a good friend. And when she got discouraged, Teddy Roosevelt told her, you know, a politician will not do anything before it's time. When it's time when he and at that time, it was all these when he sees that that the that there is an advantage to doing it. That's that's when it'll happen. And that's what happened exactly what happened with Woodwell Wilson, when he finally jumped full on for a federal amendment. And he had not supported it before that. But when it was time, he did come through. Now never mind over a century of struggle for us. But but he finally came on board and made it happen, helped it happen. So we do have a question here. Another question. How did Alice Paul earn a living? Doing all these amazing things? Well, she she did have an inheritance. And you can go to see her family home, which is now on the National Register near Moorstown, New Jersey, Mount Laurel, New Jersey. So you can see what was once the family farm. But remember, her father was also president of the bank. So she had some inherited resources, not so many. She had had to fundraise. She had a lot of fundraising to do because when she went to Washington, they told her, you have to raise all the funds yourself to do the procession and to work on the federal amendment. So she became quite brilliant at fundraising. Her biggest fundraiser was a woman named Mrs. Alva Belmont, who was a very, very wealthy woman. And Mrs. Belmont bought a house in Washington. You can still go there. It's the National Women's Party headquarters. It's called the Belmont House. It's very close to the capital. And she was able through her fundraising efforts and through the efforts of those people who had money and their concern that women get the right to vote. And then later the ERA that they came through to a large extent for her. But yes, she lived at the headquarters. She had no real home of her own. And in fact, when she became elderly, she did not have the resources for a very nice home at nursing home, until an amazing story happened. And that is one of the Jewish people who she had put out of harm's way when she was in Europe and became a refugee center, read that Alice Paul was in poverty in a nursing home up in Connecticut. And she made sure that Alice Paul had the place in Moorstown, a very fine Quaker nursing home. So it's just a matter of what goes around comes around. She helped Alice Mueller and then Alice Mueller helped Alice Paul. Oh, that's that's wonderful. I mean, that's what I'm here. So we do have another question. So who were some of the people who inspired Alice Paul? Well, Alice Paul stood on the shoulders of many of the early suffragists. And this the suffragists who had the most impact was Lucretia Mott, who was also a Quaker. Now, Susan B. Anthony was another inspiration. And she called Alice Paul named the 19th Amendment for Woman Suffrage, the Susan B. Anthony amendment. Both Lucretia Mott and Susan B. Anthony were Quakers. So they came from this Quaker abolitionist tradition, equality tradition. And she looked up very much to them. But she admired all of the early suffragists. As she told you, Elizabeth Cady Stanton's daughter joined her for the vigils and picketing at the White House. So there were many women who had fought and struggled. Certainly when she was in England, the Pankhurst family, Emmeline Pankhurst, and her daughters Christabel and Sylvia were great inspirations. And she worked with them and use some of the civil disobedient techniques that the Pankhurst had employed. So we look to the English suffrage movement as well as to our own as inspiration. So another question that's related. Did she know I mean, you mentioned Elizabeth Cady Stanton's daughter. So did she actually know Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony? I mean, given her birth, and I just can't remember exactly, you know, when they they died. And, yes, no, Susan B. Anthony died about the time that Alice Paul was born. And Elizabeth Cady Stanton died when Alice Paul was a very young woman, late teens. So no, they did not, they did not intercept Alice Paul, only aside from working on suffrage with her mother, who was a member of the American Suffrage Association, her mother was, and she would she would work with her mother on that. But she didn't get involved until she had graduated from Swarthmore College. So she didn't get involved until about 1906. So after they had they had both passed. So and then were there other women who were getting advanced degrees when you were at Swarthmore and University of Pennsylvania and London School of Economics? Oh my goodness, I don't remember them all. There were a few very determined women. But again, the background of Quakerism always felt that women should be educated. And and Alice Paul did not have the advantage of going to many institutions. But Swarthmore College, which her grandfather helped to build actually was intended from the very beginning to be a college for men and for women. And a lot of the colleges had separate places for women, as you as you may remember, and they taught very different courses. But Swarthmore gave her some equality. But then at the graduate level, women were allowed in many graduate schools. And that's why she was able to study at the University of Pennsylvania. She did hit a roadblock when it came to studying law. The only college that she could study at that time was what is now American College of Law, which was built originally for women, exclusively for women to try to get women into the legal profession. So that's that's where she really reached a stumbling block. But she was well aware of the difficulties of women getting a full and complete education and not just an education in etiquette and in deportment. Wow, pretty. So another question going back to, in a sense, her relationship with Woodrow Wilson, did she did she associate with Edith Wilson at all? Was there any, you know, or perhaps even what was Edith Wilson stand on? The good question do. Yes, Edith Galt was was the second wife of Woodrow Wilson. He was actually quite distorted with her. But she was against votes for women. She was against it. And a lot of women actually were against it, you know, they were put up on a pedestal or so it seemed. Poor women, of course, had no pedestal to stand on. But some of the wealthier women felt that they liked being, you know, having a man earn the living and they didn't have to earn the living. But Edith Galt, Wilson did not have any of the obstructions that most poor and even middle class women women had. You must understand how dire some some things for women were at that time. If if they lost their husband or didn't have one to begin with, they had very few rights. And it was a very, very, very difficult road. But Edith Wilson from her station in life did not see that. We were fortunate indeed that Woodrow Wilson finally came came around. But you know, I always like to point this out. It's it's not whether you're born male or female. It's how you think on these issues. And we had many, many, many male supporters, both at the equal rights level, and at the suffrage level, men who came through and supported us. And we had a lot of women in the era movement, it was Phyllis Schlafly, which is a famous name for being anti equality. But a lot of a lot of the women were against it, you know, they they couldn't see any other life, but the one they had, which was dependent on a man. So we won't blame them too much. But it is just a truth that it didn't matter. A lot of the men were for us. And a lot of the women were against us, both in suffrage, and inequality. ERA. So that kind of connects with the next question, because it's asking about the Equal Rights Amendment. So what was the wording of that? And, you know, has that changed over time? I mean, it's been out there for quite some time, it has. Well, the the wording that Alice Paul originally settled on was men and women shall have equal rights throughout the United States. But eventually, that was changed again by Alice to conform with the text of other amendments, equality of rights under the law should not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any state on account of sex. And it passed in in Congress in 1972, but with a seven year time limit, the seven year time limit was not part of the text of the amendment, but it was in the resolution proposal clause. Now, when Alice Paul died in 1977, there were 35 states, we need 38 to ratify now, since Alaska and Hawaii had become states since the time of suffrage. So we needed we needed the 38. But we had an extension to 1982 because there was such a fervor and such a positive feeling about putting our guiding principle into the Constitution. But then questions began to be raised again, the name Phyllis Shaffley pops up. She said things like men and women will be using unisex toilets. And men and women will both have to be drafted. And she had concerns about gay people getting rights that she she did not want that to happen. And she also had concerns about the abortion issue. Alice Paul said none of those things enter into the Equal Rights Amendment. As far as I can see, she said has nothing to do with any of those things. It just has to do with basic equality between men and women. And the era did not pass. In fact, for states, and if you count South Dakota, five rescinded their votes. And here we are all these years later, nothing happens, nothing happens. The amendment is introduced into Congress, but it never gets out of the Judiciary Committee where it's put to die every year. And then suddenly, a few years ago, Nevada wakes up and says, we ratify the Equal Rights Amendment. What? That's 36 states. And then Illinois says we ratify. And then just last year, Virginia said we ratify, we now have 38 states. Now, a lot of people think the era was actually ratified on a federal level. It wasn't. It was never ratified. Now our argument is it has been ratified. We just need to get rid of that time limit. So just yesterday, just yesterday, the House of Representatives voted to illuminate the timeline and let the ratification stand with the Virginia ratification. Now it goes to the Senate. Will the Senate agree that the time limit should be taken off and the the amendment declared ratified? We can only wait and see. So you're going to have to check your news daily to see the progress of that. In the meantime, however, you recall that Alice Paul didn't like this state by state by state thing. She thought, no, we can't go begging state by state. Well, the irony is that 25 states have an equal rights amendment. And some of those amendments use almost the same wording as Alice Paul's federal amendment. And that's true where I am sitting here in Pennsylvania near Philadelphia. So its equality of rights shall not be abridged by Pennsylvania. So as you travel throughout the United States, whether you're a woman or a man, your rights may change because some states have an equal rights amendment, which recognizes equality between men and women. And some states do not. Isn't that something that your rights can change state by state? But they do, they actually do. Now some people will say, well, do we really need an equal rights amendment? I mean, come on, it's 2021. And my answer, and I think Alice Paul's would be yes. And I'll tell you why. Right now, statutory laws are all we have. We have title seven, which gives us equality in getting a job and holding a job, discrimination is forbidden on the job under title seven. We have title nine for education. We have the Pay Equity Act. We have, we have various statutory laws. Notice I say statutory. And Congress can lift those any time they please. There's no no limit on what Congress can do regarding those laws. They can amend them, amend them, dissolve them, do whatever they want. But if it's in the Constitution, they won't be able to do that. It also affects how the courts interpret rights between men and women. And remember, the Equal Rights Amendment is certainly in Pennsylvania, where we've had one from for many years. It equalizes the rights for men as well as for women. It's equality. So it helps everybody. But the courts have also put some limits on title seven and on title nine. So it goes through a court interpretation. And as the courts change, that interpretation may change. It also affects the way women and men are regarded under the 14th Amendment. If we were in the Constitution, then the any laws that were passed by the United States or by a state would undergo very, very strict scrutiny. They couldn't just give any old reason. They would have to have a very, very firm reason for making any distinction in a law between men and women. But Alice Paul would tell you, and you may agree with her, I hope you will, that it doesn't matter. None of this matters. If it's a guiding principle, why wouldn't we put it in our Constitution, in our guiding document? Shouldn't equality be in the Constitution so that everyone has an equal chance at a good life here in the United States? Well, that's, that's amazing. I mean, I feel like I need to study constitutional law. There's so many parts, pieces in there. But and it's incredible to me that this goes back to so much of it goes back to Alice Paul's work, one woman's work. And what she did, it's unbelievable. But it's fantastic. So we have one more question that's actually very different than what we've been talking about you, but you had mentioned early on in Alice Paul's life that she had worked at a settlement house. And so the question is about settlement houses, what they were like. Does the name Jane Adams mean anything to you? You may have studied her. If not, you can easily look her up. She was the motivating force of the settlement houses. And they were basically poor houses where where people worked to get people out of poverty to help find them jobs to make sure they had a place to stay. And it was the very, very raw beginnings of what today is a broad network of social work. And Jane Adams was the key to that. Jane Adams was on the board of the National American Woman Suffrage Association. And when Alice Paul decided after she came back from England, to get involved in the fight for suffrage again, she approached Jane Adams. So she had a friendship with Jane Adams. And that likely is from her early days working with Jane Adams on the settlement house work, or the social work. That makes perfect. Well, thank you so much. We are we are out of time. And wow, this has been an amazing presentation. I cannot thank you enough for joining us and educating us in so many different topics. I mean, just you know, from Alice Paul's incredible life to so much about the the passage of the 19th Amendment, the ERA, it's just been fantastic. So thank you, thank you, as well. And really have enjoyed having you. So thank you. And thank you to all those who are watching from Oregon, Maryland, New Jersey, New York, and Farmingdale State College, and anybody else wants to pop it up. So thank you again for joining us this this morning. And this, again, as I said, I would share with you our activity for this program today. This is the suffrage photograph analysis in DocsTeach. It's docsteach.org. And you can see it's looking at one of those photographs of the woman who were picketing the White House and really examining it closely. So please check it out. And check out the other documents in DocsTeach on the women's suffrage. You can do a search. And then the last thing I wanted to ask you is to join us in April for our Young Learners program. And in April, we will be talking to Walt Whitman. And, you know, he is an amazing poet. And we're going to actually be in Walt Whitman's birthplace when we do this. So please join us. And thank you so much. And hope to see you in April. And have a good day.