Teaching Justice: Protest

Four wage-earning women pickets, walking in suffrage procession on city sidewalk in February 1917. They wear coats, hats, and suffrage sashes, and carry suffrage banners.

National Woman's Party Collection, The Library of Congress

Created in collaboration with the Hard History Project

Grade Level

This activity is designed for fourth grade students but is easily adaptable for all elementary school grades.

Anti-Bias Objectives

Justice
Students will recognize unfairness on the individual level (e.g., biased speech) and injustice at the institutional or systemic level (e.g., discrimination.)

Students will recognize that power and privilege influence relationships on interpersonal, intergroup and institutional levels and consider how they have been affected by those dynamics.

Action
Students will recognize their own responsibility to stand up to exclusion, prejudice, and injustice.

Students will plan and carry out collective action against bias and injustice in the world and will evaluate what strategies are most effective.

Guiding Question

What does it mean to picket or protest?

Watch the two videos about women fighting for the right to vote by picketing the White House in 1917.

Duration:

1 minute, 28 seconds

"Mr. President, How Long Must Women Wait for Liberty?" asked National Woman's Party picketers as they stood outside the White House gates in all kinds of weather. Ranger Mannie tells the story about the tactic of picketing in the fight for woman suffrage. What would you put on your banner?

Open Transcript 

Transcript

Have you ever dreaded a change in plans or had difficulty making progress towards a goal? After the United States entered World War 1 in 1917, that's what the National Woman's Party feared about the fight for women's right to vote.

When the U.S joined the war in Europe almost three years after it began, President Wilson's foreign policy and public sentiment had shifted from one of strict neutrality to patriotic support of the war effort. At home, Americans bought and sold war bonds, conserved food, and volunteered with organizations like the Red Cross and Salvation Army.

Many suffrage organizations supported these efforts and even worked directly with the Wilson administration to mobilize the nation's resources. Alice Paul and the National Woman's Party would not take this approach.

Feeling the need to preserve their momentum, they called out the president for his lack of support on suffrage and his claim that the U.S was fighting to make the world safe for democracy. The National Woman's Party picketed the White House with banners that questioned how Wilson could claim this purpose but simultaneously refuse to support U.S women's participation in democracy. On multiple occasions, the crowds that gathered labeled them as traitors, became violent, and tore down or stole their banners.

While the National Woman's Party's decision to continue protests may not have been popular, it kept women's voting rights in the headlines. Can expanding freedoms be just as important as protecting them during war? If you would like to share, write about it in the comments below

Duration:

1 minute, 34 seconds

When the United States entered World War I in April 1917, the National Woman's Party faced a decision. Should the NWP continue to pressure Woodrow Wilson to support woman suffrage? Or should they demonstrate their citizenship and patriotism by joining the war effort, hoping to win the vote that way? Ranger Lorne has the story.

Alice Paul's explanation for continuing to picket the White House

"When men are denied justice, they go to war. This is our war, only we are fighting it with banners instead of guns."

Washington Children Distributing Flowers to C[ongressional] U[nion] White House Pickets, January 1917.

National Woman's Party collection, The Library of Congress

Vocabulary

amendment: a change, especially to a document like the Constitution
intransigence: stubborn refusal to change
mobilize: to organize and prepare for something
neutrality: not supporting or helping either side of a conflict
patriot: a person who supports their country and is willing to defend it
public sentiment: what the people of a community think or believe
sentinel: a guard whose job is to stand and keep watch
suffrage: the right to vote
suffragist: a person who works for the right to vote, especially for women
traitor: a person who betrays their country
war bonds: a way for governments to raise money for war expenses

Think About It

When the Silent Sentinels first started picketing the White House in January 1917, many people thought they were silly. Some suffragists thought that Alice Paul and the National Woman's Party were hurting the fight for women's right to vote instead of helping. But some people admired the picketers for their determination because they showed up every day for months. More Americans became aware of the issue of woman suffrage and of the movement to amend the United States Constitution because of the protests.

The Silent Sentinels picketed the White House because they wanted to change President Woodrow Wilson's mind and convince him to support an amendment to the Constitution that gave women the right to vote.

• When have you changed your mind? What convinced you?

Public opinion about the picketing changed after the United States entered World War I in April 1917. Protesting at the White House when the nation was at war seemed unpatriotic. Some people called the women traitors, accusing them of betraying their country by criticizing the president. Crowds gathered and attacked the women, yelling at them and grabbing their banners. The police began arresting the picketers, accusing them of blocking the sidewalk. But Alice Paul and the National Woman's Party kept sending women with banners to protest at the White House gates. More than 150 women went to jail over several months for continuing the protest.

• Do you think that the National Woman's Party made the right decision? Were they disrespectful or unpatriotic? Explain your answer.

Additional Resources

NPS Links
The 19th Amendment: A Crash Course
National Woman's Party Protests During World War I
Alice Paul People page

Books and Videos
Black Lives Matter Protests from BrainPop
Let the Children March by Monica Clark-Robinson, illustrated by Frank Morrison
"Women's March Youth Ambassadors Lead the Way" by Alice Pettway in Teaching Tolerance magazine

For Teachers

The Silent Sentinels, organized by Alice Paul, stood in front of the White House to protest Woodrow Wilson’s refusal to support women's right to vote. They exerted mounting pressure that could not be ignored. They continued to protest after the United States entered World War I and were accused of being traitors. Watch the videos with students to encourage conversation about protest. Can standing up for your rights be wrong or disrespectful?

Use additional resources to draw connections to current protests like Black Lives Matter, Women's March, March for our Lives, etc. An important lesson is the distinction between protest, riot, and insurrection.