93 Years Ago--The 'Night of Terror" Nov. 15, 1917, A Photo Expose

A photo expose, The Night of Terror, November 15, 1917. One of the most despicable events and miscarriages of justice in our nations history. "Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it." George Santayana



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Take note of the brave and heroic women who suffered for the right to vote.

Conferring over ratification of the 19th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution at National Woman's Party headquarters, Jackson Place, Washington , D.C. . L-R Mrs. Lawrence Lewis, Mrs. Abby Scott Baker, Anita Pollitzer, Alice Paul,Florence Boeckel, Mabel Vernon (standing, right))
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It is jarring to watch Woodrow Wilson and his cronies try to persuade a psychiatrist to declare Alice Paul insane so that she could be permanently institutionalized. And it is inspiring to watch the doctor refuse. Alice Paul was strong, he said, and brave. That didn't make her crazy.
The doctor admonished the men: 'Courage in women is often mistaken for insanity.'
Helena Hill Weed, Norwalk , Conn. Serving 3 day sentence in D.C. prison for carrying banner, 'Governments derive their just powers from the consent of the governed.'

Berthe Arnold, CSU graduate

Miss Edith Ainge, of Jamestown , New York

Mrs. Pauline Adams in the prison garb she wore while serving a sixty-day sentence.

(Alice Paul) When one of the leaders, Alice Paul, embarked on a hunger strike,they tied her to a chair, forced a tube down her throat and poured liquid into her until she vomited. She was tortured like this for weeks until word was smuggled out to the press.

(Dora Lewis) They hurled Dora Lewis into a dark cell, smashed her head against an iron bed and knocked her out cold. Her cellmate, Alice Cosu,thought Lewis was dead and suffered a heart attack. Additional Affidavits describe the guards grabbing, dragging, beating, choking,slamming, pinching, twisting and kicking the women.

(Lucy Burns) They beat Lucy Burns, chained her hands to the cell bars above her head and left her hanging for the night, bleeding and gasping for air.

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And by the end of the night, they were barely alive. Forty prison guards wielding clubs and their warden's blessing went on a rampage against the 33 women wrongly convicted obstructing sidewalk traffic.

A story of our Mothers and Grandmothers who lived only 90 years ago. It was not until 1920 that women were granted the right to go to the polls and vote. The women were innocent and defenseless, but they were jailed nonetheless for picketing the White House, carrying signs asking for the vote.

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Thus unfolded the'Night of Terror' on Nov. 15, 1917, when the warden at the Occoquan Workhouse in Virginia ordered his guards to teach a lesson to the suffragists imprisoned there because they dared to picket Woodrow Wilson's White House for the right to vote. For weeks, the women's only water came from an open pail. Their food--all of it colorless slop--was infested with worms.
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The cruelty and savage beatings inflicted on these women was a grievous act of tyranny. The sacrifices of these brave and heroic women must never be forgotten. An event which occurred 93 years ago this month.

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