March is National Women’s Month. Being one myself, I am mindful of the courageous women who laid it all on the line so that we would have the same rights as men. It took a century, but our rights aren’t guaranteed.
An emerging credible threat is the Heritage Foundation’s Project 2026. Wrapped in the language of “family,” “sovereignty” and “restoring America,” Project 2026 lays out a plan to end women’s equality. Seriously, people, we should all be concerned about anyone losing rights. I think this is the perfect time to share an important story of how we got here.
I believe in the power of one. The one I want to highlight is Lucy Burns, a woman you’ve probably never heard of. Lucy and fellow suffragist Alice Paul founded the National Woman’s Party in 1913, organizing “Silent Sentinels” who gathered outside the White House demanding voting rights for women. They stood in silent protest for two and a half years, six days a week, rain or shine, holding banners with a simple message: American women deserved the same rights President Woodrow Wilson claimed America was fighting for in World War I.
On Nov. 14, 1917, Lucy and 32 followers gathered outside the White House. Protesting. Silently. Peacefully. Relentlessly. The women were arrested for blocking traffic. Nothing new for Lucy. She’d been detained before, serving more time than any other American suffragist. It was this moment that showed the lengths the government would go to break the movement. The judge gave Lucy the maximum: six months in the Virginia Occoquan Workhouse. What happened next became known as the Night of Terror.
When Lucy and her cohorts arrived at Occoquan, the superintendent was waiting. He had instructed the 40 guards to teach them a lesson. The women were clubbed, slammed into walls, arms twisted until bones cracked, thrown into cells so violently some were knocked unconscious. Medical attention was refused.
As their leader, Lucy was singled out for special treatment. Guards beat her, then chained her wrists to the cell bars above her head. They left her there all night, arms stretched overhead, blood circulation cut off, in agonizing pain. In the cell across from Lucy, the other women watched in horror. Then, one by one, they stood, raising their own hands above their heads. They held them there, standing in solidarity with her all night, enduring anguish in support of their leader — and the cause.
The cruelty continued. To protest the abusive, horrific conditions, the women went on a hunger strike. The warden’s response was force-feeding, a brutal procedure designed to break their will.
Historian Eleanor Clift documented the scene: “Five guards held Lucy down. When she refused to open her mouth, they shoved the feeding tube up her nose, down her throat and into her stomach, a dreadfully painful process.
These women were tortured, because they dared to ask for the right to vote. But the government didn’t count on the power of a free press as newspapers across America detailed the Night of Terror. The public was outraged. How could America claim to be fighting for democracy abroad while torturing women demanding democracy at home?
Two months later, Woodrow Wilson, the same president whose administration had arrested, beaten and prosecuted women for demanding the right to vote, suddenly declared women’s suffrage urgently needed as a “war measure.” Wilson asked Congress to pass it immediately, and in August 1920, the 19th Amendment was added to the Constitution. It had taken 72 years of speeches, protests, arrests and sacrifices by thousands of women whose names we will never know. Lucy Burns led the final push. She endured arrests, months in jail, beatings, torture and forced feeding. Yet, she didn’t quit.
After the 19th Amendment passed, Lucy retired from public life. She never sought nor received recognition. She taught school (beware those spirited schoolteachers) and lived quietly with her family. Lucy died in 1966 at age 77, proudly watching as new generations of women built on the foundation she’d helped create.
Most Americans know Susan B. Anthony and maybe Elizabeth Cady Stanton. Lucy Burns, the woman who endured arrest and torture for women’s suffrage, remains largely forgotten. That’s the thing about real heroes. They don’t do it for money or recognition. They do it because somebody has to.
There’s an election April 7. Women can vote or choose not to, because Lucy Burns and her followers stood with arms raised in solidarity. Remember, our rights were not freely given. They were fought for. Bled for. Endured for. Died for. It’s not fair, but sometimes people who fight hardest are the ones history forgets. Lucy Burns and thousands of like-minded women fought for a “losing cause” and emerged victorious. Honor their sacrifice. Vote as if your rights are in dire jeopardy. Because they are.
Kathleen Marsh is a lifelong educator, writer and community advocate. She has published eight books, four on the history of Townsend, where she and husband Jon are happily retired on the beautiful Townsend Flowage.
