Newspaper clipping: Anti-Suffrage demonstration, 1917
name: label: associated institution
content: National Woman's Party
label: associated person
content: Paul, Alice
notes: label: Description
content: In this newspaper clipping, a crowd of men tears apart a suffrage picketer’s banner. The caption questions the motives of the men who insist they are "patriots" even as they protest the women’s rights to free speech and electoral representation.
label: Description
content: In January 1917, discouraged by President Wilson’s continued opposition to the suffrage amendment, Alice Paul, the leader of the National Woman’s Party NWP) posted pickets at the White House gates—the first people to ever picket the White House. These "silent sentinels" stayed on duty in all weather and in the face of threats, taunts, and physical violence. Using their banners and their quiet courage they asked, "Mr. President How Long Must Women Wait for their Liberty?" and "Mr. President What Will you do for Woman Suffrage?" Hoping to provoke a response, the language on the banners became more inflammatory. They used the president’s own words against him and pointed out the hypocrisy of his leading the country into the First World War to defend freedom while denying it to the women of his own country. Crowds who believed the pickets’ activities were disloyal in a time of war attacked the suffragists and destroyed their banners.
label: Location
content: Currently not on view
place: label: associated place
content: United States
topic: label: general subject association
content: Equal Rights Amendment
label: Subject
content: Voting Rights
label: general subject association
content: Women's Suffrage
label: general subject association
content: Women's History
setName: label: See more items in
content: Political History: Political History, Women's History Collection
label: See more items in
content: Government, Politics, and Reform
label: See more items in
content: Woman Suffrage
creditLine: label: Credit Line
content: Alice Paul Centennial Foundation, Inc.
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of American History
identifier: label: ID Number
content: 1991.3016.445
label: catalog number
content: 1991.3016.445
label: nonaccession number
content: 1991.3016
objectType: label: Object Name
content: newspaper clipping
physicalDescription: label: Physical Description
content: paper (overall material)
label: Measurements
content: average spatial: 5 5/8 in x 4 in; 14.2875 cm x 10.16 cm