Civil-Disobedience

First Suffragist Arrests Begin for White House Picketing as State Repression Escalates

| Importance: 8/10

On June 22, 1917, police arrested six suffragists for picketing the White House, initiating a campaign of state repression against the Silent Sentinels that would eventually result in 168 National Woman’s Party members serving time in prison. The arrests came after the United States entered …

Alice Paul Lucy Burns National Woman's Party Woodrow Wilson Washington DC Police womens-suffrage state-repression political-prisoners civil-disobedience selective-prosecution
Read more →

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

| Importance: 8/10

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 …

Alice Paul Lucy Burns National Woman's Party Woodrow Wilson womens-suffrage civil-disobedience militant-tactics democratic-expansion wilson-administration
Read more →

Susan B. Anthony Arrested for Voting in Presidential Election Tests 14th Amendment

| Importance: 8/10

On November 5, 1872, Susan B. Anthony voted in the presidential election between Ulysses S. Grant and his opponent in Rochester, New York, along with 14 other women, in a deliberate act of civil disobedience designed to test whether the 14th Amendment granted women voting rights as citizens. Four …

Susan B. Anthony Ward Hunt John Van Voorhis Sylvester Lewis Ulysses S. Grant womens-suffrage judicial-capture civil-disobedience constitutional-law democratic-exclusion
Read more →