Places of Dr. Alice Paul

The content for this article was researched and written by Jade Ryerson, an intern with the Cultural Resources Office of Interpretation and Education.

Alice Paul, 1918. Photo by Harris and Ewing. Collections of the Library of Congress (https://www.loc.gov/item/2016869338/)

Born in 1885, Dr. Alice Paul did not become active in the suffrage movement until the 1910s, about fifty years after the first National Woman’s Rights convention at Seneca Falls in 1848. Embracing the more radical tactics of British suffragette Emmeline Pankhurst, including prison hunger strikes and picket lines, Paul galvanized support for women’s suffrage in the western states. Although she quickly rose through the ranks of the National American Woman Suffrage Association (NAWSA), some veteran suffragists, including Carrie Chapman Catt, disapproved of her more aggressive style of activism.

As tensions mounted, Paul and fellow militant suffragist Lucy Burns left NAWSA to establish the Congressional Union for Woman Suffrage, later the National Woman’s Party (NWP). Under Paul’s leadership, the NWP staged public protests and campaigned for a national amendment for women’s right to vote, instead of focusing on state-level support. After the ratification of the Nineteenth Amendment in 1920, Paul and the NWP continued to fight for women’s social, political, and economic equality.

^{This map shows the locations of the different places featured in this article.}

Photo of Paulsdale, birthplace and childhood home of Alice Paul, 1958. Photo by Richard M. Hunt CC BY SA (https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Paulsdale.jpg)

1. Paulsdale

Alice’s parents William and Tacie Paul were Quakers. Paulsdale, their family farm, was located in Mount Laurel, New Jersey. Alice was born on the farm on January 11, 1885. Even at an early age, she participated in the fight for women’s equality and accompanied her mother to suffrage meetings. Alice lived at the farm until 1901, when she began to attend Swarthmore College in Pennsylvania. During the 1860s, Alice’s grandfather William Parry participated in the groundbreaking of the Swarthmore campus alongside suffragist Lucretia Mott. By attending Swarthmore, Alice followed in her mother Tacie’s footsteps. Tacie was in the first class of students at Swarthmore but dropped out when she married Alice’s father William Paul.

Paulsdale was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1989 and designated a National Historic Landmark in 1991.

Cover of the program for the Woman Suffrage Procession of March 3, 1913. Collections of the Library of Congress (https://www.loc.gov/resource/rbpe.20801600/)

2. Pennsylvania Avenue National Historic Site

The NAWSA tasked Paul with organizing the first national women’s suffrage parade in Washington, D.C. On March 3, 1913, the day before President Woodrow Wilson’s inauguration, thousands of marchers proceeded down Pennsylvania Avenue. White southern suffragists objected to the inclusion of African Americans and threatened to skip the event. To appease them, Paul segregated the parade. She asked African Americans to march at the back and strategically positioned white men between white and Black women. Despite Paul’s efforts to ease tensions, the parade erupted into chaos when anti-suffrage men began to attack the marchers. Police looked on passively. The parade continued after the cavalry from Fort Myer and the Boy Scouts eventually broke up the attacks.

Pennsylvania Avenue became a National Historic Site in 1965.

The exterior of Belmont-Paul Women's Equality National Monument lit up in purple and gold on August 26, 2020 for the centennial of the 19th Amendment. NPS photo.

3. Belmont-Paul Women's Equality National Monument

After leaving NAWSA, Paul and Burns founded the Congressional Union for Woman Suffrage in 1914. This organization grew into the National Woman’s Party by 1916. In addition to its more militant tactics such as picketing, marches, and public demonstrations, the NWP refused to back political parties that did not support women’s suffrage. Originally known as the Sewall House, the building has served as the headquarters of the NWP for almost 90 years. The NWP bought the house in 1929 and renamed it after Alva Belmont, the organization’s president from 1920 to 1933 and major financial backer.

The building was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1972, and designated a National Historic Landmark in 1974. President Obama designated the house Belmont-Paul Women’s Equality National Monument in 2016.

Occoquan Workhouse/Lorton Reformatory, Lorton, Virginia, 2019. By Megan Springate, NPS Photo.

4. Occoquan Workhouse

In January 1917, Paul began positioning “Silent Sentinels” outside the White House six days a week, demanding women’s right to vote by constitutional amendment. Many of the women carried banners criticizing President Woodrow Wilson’s opposition to the Nineteenth Amendment. This was the first time in U.S. history that activists picketed the White House. After the U.S. entered World War I in April 1917, public opinion turned against the protestors. Police arrested dozens of the Silent Sentinels on charges of “obstructing traffic” and sent them to Occoquan Workhouse in Lorton, Virginia. Paul received a seven-month sentence. In prison, the suffragists endured dirty and freezing cells and violent attacks. Paul and Burns began hunger strikes to resist, though the guards restrained and force-fed them. Public outrage and several well-connected women pressured the government to release Paul after five weeks. To publicize their abusive treatment, twenty-six women toured the country aboard the “Prison Special .”

Occoquan Workhouse was listed in the National Register of Historic Places in 2006 as part of the D.C. Workhouse and Reformatory Historic District.

Artwork by Lucy Picco Simpson, courtesy of Barry Simpson.

5. Women's Rights National Historical Park

In 1923, the National Woman’s Party attended the 75th anniversary celebration of the first Woman’s Rights Convention at Seneca Falls in 1848. On the steps of the First Presbyterian Church, Paul proposed a constitutional amendment for women’s social, political, and economic equality. Although Paul named the amendment in honor of Lucretia Mott, it is more commonly known as the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA). Starting in 1923, lawmakers introduced the ERA at every session of Congress until it passed in 1972. Despite receiving an extension, only 35 of the necessary 38 states ratified the ERA by an arbitrary congressional deadline in June 1982.

Women’s Rights National Historical Park in Seneca Falls was established in 1980 to preserve the sites associated with the First Woman’s Rights Convention.

Selected Sources:

Library of Congress. “Detailed Chronology of National Woman’s Party History.” American Memory.

Social Welfare History Project. “Alice Paul (1885-1977): Social Worker, Militant Activist, and Suffragette.” People.

Carol, Rebecca, Kristina Myers, and Janet Lindman. “Who Was Alice Paul.” Alice Paul Institute.