My great-great grandmother the suffragist

Election day is upon us once again and I usually post this story online each year. It began on my LiveJournal and migrated to Facebook and each year I repost it. This year I've decided to give it a permanent home here. In November 1917 my great-great-grandmother Kate Stafford went to Washington during the movement to adopt the 19th amendment. After picketing and demonstrations at the White House on November 10 she was arrested with 41 other women. She refused to pay a twenty-five dollar fine for allegedly obstructing traffic and on November 12 she was sentenced to thirty days in Occoquan Prison, a Virginia workhouse. She survived the “Night of Terror” and began a four-day hunger strike. On November 27, government authorities released the suffragists; they had served fourteen days.

A month later, Kate was one of 97 guests of honor at a dinner in Washington, D.C. during the NWP (National Women’s Party) National Convention where suffrage leader Alice Paul (see note below) gifted each woman a jail cell door cast in silver. Regrettably, Kate Stafford's charm was later stolen in a robbery. I now have a replica pin like the one she had so I will never forget her hard work and bravery. Although my family no longer has the original keepsake, we do have something more important to remember her by - our right to vote. Her determination, and that of the other women who fought with her, will never be lost as long as women continue to go make our voices heard. Thanks to women like my great-great-grandmother, we are able to vote on election day. I'm proud to carry on her legacy and vote in this election. 

Please go out and cast your vote. Make your voice heard.

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Notes: (they keep growing, sorry not sorry)

Alice Paul is not the most well-known of the suffrage leaders. You've probably heard of Susan B. Anthony as the head of the movement, but without both women, we probably wouldn't have had women's suffrage when we did. Susan B. Anthony preferred a more subdued approach: meetings, petitions, pressure on various members of Congress, etc.. Alice Paul preferred a more public approach: demonstrations, rallies, picketing, etc. They didn't particularly agree on how things should be done and they didn't really get along, but I think both had her place and both definitely made a difference. 

My great-great-grandmother took up with Alice Paul. If you are interested in further reading, please let me know and I can recommend some books across various age groups. There was also an HBO movie awhile back starring Hillary Swank as Alice Paul called "Iron Jawed Angels." It's fairly good and mostly accurate.

I also recognize that we are talking about primarily white women's suffrage. Depending on where one lived, the 19th Amendment didn't remove state laws or other obstacles that kept Black women from voting. For more on this, you may want to add the book Vanguard by Martha S. Jones to your to-read pile. If your to-read pile is huge, this Politico article is a good option. 

If you're ever in the DC area, stop by the Turning Point Women's Suffrage Memorial, about 45 minute south in Lorton, VA. My great-great-grandmother's name can be found on a commemorative wall there!

I use the term "suffragist" vs. "suffragette." The latter term being adopted by the media at the time as a derogatory term meant to demean those who fought for suffrage. 

You can buy your own replica pin, should you so choose. The Smithsonian sells a copy.