National Woman's Party Begins Historic White House Picketing as Silent Sentinels

On January 10, 1917, Alice Paul and the National Woman’s Party (NWP) became the first people ever to picket the White House, initiating an 18-month campaign of nonviolent protest that would eventually involve over 2,000 women. The “Silent Sentinels,” as they became known, stood quietly at the White House gates six days per week regardless of weather, holding banners that read “Mr. President How Long Must Women Wait for their Liberty?” and “Mr. President What Will you do for Woman Suffrage?” Dressed in hues of purple and gold, they maintained their vigil without speaking or interacting with passersby, using silence as a powerful protest tactic. The picketing represented a strategic escalation by the more militant wing of the suffrage movement, frustrated after decades of continued opposition to a federal women’s suffrage amendment. Paul’s tactics reflected lessons learned from British suffragettes and marked a departure from the more conservative approach of the larger National American Woman Suffrage Association.

The picketing created unprecedented direct confrontation with presidential authority and exposed contradictions in Wilson’s rhetoric about democracy. Paul ensured the Silent Sentinels would continue their protest even after the United States entered World War I in April 1917, a decision that generated intense public hostility. The NWP used Wilson’s own wartime speeches against him, highlighting the hypocrisy of a government supporting democracy abroad while denying its women citizens the right to vote at home. When Russian envoys visited the White House to discuss the war, suffragists held a banner reading: “WE, THE WOMEN OF AMERICA, TELL YOU THAT AMERICA IS NOT A DEMOCRACY. TWENTY-MILLION AMERICAN WOMEN ARE DENIED THE RIGHT TO VOTE. PRESIDENT WILSON IS THE CHIEF OPPONENT OF THEIR NATIONAL ENFRANCHISEMENT.” Other banners compared Wilson to the German Kaiser, calling him “Kaiser Wilson” to emphasize what protesters viewed as authoritarian denial of democratic rights. Outraged bystanders attacked the women and shredded their banners, viewing the protest as unpatriotic during wartime.

The Silent Sentinels’ disciplined nonviolent protest strategy forced a confrontation that would culminate in mass arrests, imprisonment, hunger strikes, and brutal force-feeding beginning in June 1917. By maintaining their picketing throughout the war despite intense social pressure and physical danger, the NWP demonstrated that the fight for democratic rights could not be postponed for military expedience. This stance contrasted sharply with the mainstream suffrage movement’s decision to suspend activism during World War I to prove women’s patriotism and worthiness for citizenship. The Silent Sentinels’ militant tactics exposed how institutional power structures demanded deference and patience from those seeking rights, expecting marginalized groups to wait indefinitely for justice while never applying similar standards to those already holding power. The picketing ultimately helped shift public opinion and pressure Wilson to reverse his opposition to suffrage, demonstrating that direct confrontation with authority could achieve results that decades of patient lobbying had failed to secure.