Alice Paul and the American Suffrage Campaign

298 Pages·2007·2.96 MB·English

by  Katherine H. Adams

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“The full story of the fi nal decade of the women’s suffrage movement has yet
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to be told and understood, and Alice Paul and the National Woman’s Party d and the

(NWP) have been particularly neglected. This work does an excellent job K
bringing this history to the reader in a highly engaging manner. The detailed e
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look at the behind-the-scenes processes of NWP’s lobbying effort is stunning!” ne American Suffrage
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Past biographies, histories, and government documents have ignored Alice Paul’s c
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contribution to the women’s suffrage movement, but this groundbreaking study

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scrupulously fi lls the gap in the historical record. Masterfully framed by an analysis
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of Paul’s nonviolent and visual rhetorical strategies, Alice Paul and the American
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Suffrage Campaign narrates the remarkable story of the fi rst person to picket the l

White House, the fi rst to attempt a national political boycott, the fi rst to burn the a
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president in effi gy, and the fi rst to lead a successful campaign of nonviolence.
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Katherine H. Adams and Michael L. Keene also chronicle other dramatic techniques
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that Paul deftly used to gain publicity for the suffrage movement. Stunningly woven h
into the narrative are accounts of many instances in which women were in physical e

danger. Rather than avoid discussion of Paul’s imprisonment, hunger strikes, and A
forced feeding, the authors divulge the strategies she employed in her campaign. m
Paul’s controversial approach, the authors assert, was essential in changing American
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attitudes toward suffrage.
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Katherine H. Adams is William and Audrey Hutchinson Distinguished Professor a
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in the department of English at Loyola University, New Orleans, and is the author of

several books, including A Group of Their Own: College Writing Courses and American S
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Women Writers, 1880-1940.
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Michael L. Keene holds the John C. Hodges Teaching Chair in the department f
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of English at the University of Tennessee and is the author of SSSuuucccccceeessssssfffuuulll WWWrrriiitttiiinnnggg.. a
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Cover photo: Alice Paul leads a protest, 1917. From Women of Protest: Photographs from the Records
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of the National Woman’s Party, Manuscript Division, Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.
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Design by Dennis Roberts
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ISBN 978-0-252-07471-4
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University of Illinois Press
Urbana and Chicago and Michael L. Keene
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www.press.uillinois.edu L
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Alice Paul and the
American Suffrage Campaign

Alice Paul and the
American Suffrage Campaign
katherine h. adams
and michael l. keene
University of Illinois Press
urbana and chicago
© 2008 by Katherine H. Adams and Michael L. Keene
All rights reserved
Manufactured in the United States of America
1 2 3 4 5 c p 5 4 3 2 1
∞ This book is printed on acid-free paper.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Adams, Katherine H., 1954–
Alice Paul and the American suffrage campaign /
Katherine H. Adams and Michael L. Keene.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
isbn-13: 978-0-252-03220-2 (cloth : alk. paper)
isbn-10: 0-252-03220-9
isbn-13: 978-0-252-07471-4 (pbk. : alk. paper)
isbn-10: 0-252-07471-8
1. Paul, Alice, 1885–1977.
2. Suffragists—United States—Biography.
3. Women—Suffrage—United States—History.
4. Women’s rights—United States—History.
I. Keene, Michael L. II. Title.
hq1413.p38a23 2008
324.6'23092—dc22 [b] 2007020859
KHA: For my wonderful god-child, Lillian Hodges Withers,
who will cast her first vote in 2018
MLK: For Maxine Hairston

Contents
Acknowledgments ix
Introduction xi
1. Alice Paul’s Formation as Activist 1
2. The Commitment to Nonviolence 21
3. Reaching the Group through Words and Pictures 42
4. Parades and Other Events: Escalating the
Nonviolent Pressure 76
5. Lobbying and Deputations 117
6. The Political Boycott 141
7. Picketing Wilson 157
8. Hunger Strikes and Jail 191
9. At Nonviolent War 215
Conclusion 243
Works Cited 249
Index 265

Acknowledgments
Kate is writing her share of these acknowledgments at her father’s house,
to which she has fled from Hurricane Katrina. She would like to thank her
father, James R. Hodges, and her son, Cole Adams, who both went with her
to Washington to do research on this book and who are both fine compan-
ions to her now. She would like to also thank her sister and brother-in-law,
Laura Hodges and Michael Rouse, for housing her during this storm and
getting this manuscript to the press. Funding from her William and Audrey
Hutchinson Professorship enabled her to spend the month in Washington;
a fall sabbatical granted by Loyola University New Orleans enabled her to
work with Mike on a first draft. She wishes to thank her chair, Mary McCay,
as well as the interlibrary loan librarian at Loyola, Pat Doran, and reference
librarian, Jim Hobbs, for their kind assistance. She would also like to thank
Mary Sue Morrow of the University of Cincinnati, Erin O’Donnell of the
University of Southern Mississippi, Leslie Parr of Loyola, and Bob Cleaver
of Moorestown, New Jersey, for their knowledgeable contributions, although
certainly all errors are the authors’ own.
Mike joins Kate in thanking these contributors and would like to add to the
list the reference department at the University of Tennessee library and the
John C. Hodges Better English Fund.