BEYOND WORDS!

Have you found yourself in the midst of this unfolding story? In this next clip think about times when you have had to make a difficult decision. What were the consequenses? Have you ever had to have a difficult conversation? How did you prepare yourself?

To follow along with blog and discussion watch movie from 1:09:12-1:22:04.

Mic Check!

"You under estimate your heart."

On Valentines Day, 1916, the Congressional Union for Woman Suffrage (CU) delivered valentines to President Wilson and members of Congress. The valentines, which were personally tailored to each politician, use pleasant rhymes and cartoons to advocate for the passage of the Susan B. Anthony amendment, which would grant equal suffrage to women. Though many of the valentines are lost or their specific recipient unknown, the record which remains provides a fascinating example of the persuasive rhetoric employed by the CU to advocate for constitutional change.

This valentine was sent to Robert Lee Henry (1864-1931), Democratic Representative from Texas who worked as a lawyer and a city mayor in Texas before being elected to the Fifty-fifth Congress on March 4th, 1897. Henry served in nine subsequent Congresses, until 1916, when he stepped down to pursue an unsuccessful senate nomination.

Henry was Chairman of the Rules Committee at the time the valentines were sent. The Rules Committee is a committee of the House of Representatives which determines how and if bills proposed by other committees come to the floor. The committee decides under what rule the bill comes to the floor, which includes establishing the amount of speaking time assigned to the bill and setting the number, or type of amendments allowed to the bill.
As Chairman of the Rules Committee, Henry's feelings towards the Susan B. Anthony amendment were crucial towards the success of the bill. The decisions of the committee affected the time given towards discussion of the bill. Because the suffrage cause relied on publicity generated by this discussion, Henry had the power to suppress this publicity by allotting little or no time to the bill. The valentine makes reference to the power of the Rules Committee with the line "R is for Rules - which must bend to the fact." As a Texas democrat, Henry was likely anti-suffrage. The line "Y is for You - with statesmanlike tact" is perhaps advocating for Henry's separation of his own opinions of suffrage from his role as Chairman. An appeal to Henry's "statesmanlike tact" is an appeal to his ability to decide the rules of the Susan B. Anthony amendment when it comes before Congress on its own merits, rather than on Henry's personal feelings towards the bill.

"The war changes everything!"

By the beginning of the 20th century, the efforts of suffragists had begun to bear fruit. Wyoming, Colorado, Utah, and Idaho had given women full suffrage rights and in many states women were allowed to vote in municipal and school board elections.

During the Progressive Era (1890-1920), women played more active roles in the larger economic, cultural, and political transformation of American society. This growth in women's public roles allowed suffragists to be more aggressive in support of their cause as they developed stronger bases of support in the settlement houses, temperance organizations, labor unions, and reform movements that now sprang up across the country.

Sixteen states, including New York, had given women the right to vote by 1917, but the U.S. Constitution was not amended to enfranchise women until after World War I.


"If we push Wilson now, there's going to be consequences."

No Justice No Peace!

Hariet Stanton Blatch believed that the time had come for suffragists to escalate the pressure on President Woodrow Wilson, whom she supposedly told: "I have worked all my life for suffrage, and I am determined that I will never again stand in the street corners of a great city appealing to every Tom, Dick, and Harry for the right of self-government."

Heads or Tails?

"Land hard, roll left!"

The NWP effectively commanded the attention of politicians and the public through its aggressive agitation, relentless lobbying, creative publicity stunts, repeated acts of nonviolent confrontation, and examples of civil disobedience and other "unladylike" tactics to draw attention to the cause. The NWP forced the more moderate NAWSA toward greater activity.

"I'm sorry Miss you're under arrest."

Nonviolence accrues support and participants.

Nearly 2,000 suffragists traveled from 30 states to take turns on the picket line. Special days were set aside for women representing specific states, schools, organizations, and occupations. When the United States entered World War I in April 1917, however, some women resigned from the NWP because they viewed picketing as unpatriotic as well as unwomanly. These departures, however, were offset by new recruits–including many socialists, labor organizers, and average working women–who were attracted to the militancy, justice, and free speech aspects of the campaign.
 
  "Obstructing traffic!"

Banners, emblazoned with thought-provoking messages, were essential elements of the picketing campaign. They were the medium for explaining the picket’s purpose and for embarrassing and pressuring Wilson into action. Many years later Paul still expressed pride, noting, "Our banners were really beautiful."

"We haven't broken the law."

Sacrifice can be widely shared.

The banners also sometimes inflamed onlookers and became targets of vandalism. The first of the famous "Russian" banners lasted less than a day. Pulled away from its bearer, it survived only a few minutes before the crowd shred it to pieces. The same fate befell the "Kaiser Wilson" banners. Many of the most effective banners carried quotes lifted directly from Wilson’s own speeches. Parroting Wilson’s words helped to highlight the government’s hypocrisy in supporting democracy abroad while denying its women citizens the right to vote at home. Also, as one historian noted, the tactic may have helped the suffragists avoid prosecution under federal espionage and sedition laws during a period of unprecedented government repression.

Even if mob violence was the exception rather than the rule, underlying tension and intimidation existed on almost any given day. Suffragist Inez Haynes Irwin wrote of the "slow growth of the crowds; the circle of little boys who gathered about . . . first, spitting at them, calling them names, making personal comments; then the gathering of gangs of young hoodlums who encourage the boys to further insults; then more and more crowds; more and more insults. . . . Sometimes the crowd would edge nearer and nearer, until there was but a foot of smothering, terror-fraught space between them and the pickets." When skirmishes broke out, the police invariably stood and watched, or else they arrested the women on charges of obstructing traffic.

 "These arrests are purely political. The charge of obstructing traffic is political subterfuge..."

Lucy Burns’s sympathy with labor organizations and the Left helped develop her responses.

Most important among the strategies used in court–and later in detention–in either the District of Columbia jail or Virginia’s Occoquan Workhouse, was the demand that arrested suffragists be treated as political prisoners. Arrested on criminal charges of obstructing traffic, NWP activists emphasized that their assembly on city sidewalks and their silent and peaceable picketing had been conducted entirely within legal grounds. Under the leadership of Paul and Burns they began insisting that the courts acknowledge that the real motivation for their arrests was politically based. They also placed the blame for the repressive response to their actions squarely on the Wilson administration.

"Not one dollar!"

1917 Price List
Eggs, Choice Western, .39/dozen

Lemons, large juicy, .15/dozen

Wash boards, .39/each

Borax, 20 Mule, .08/10 oz box

Women's boots, black, 4.95/pair

 

   

Because sometimes that is the point – we have to act.

Up next ADD MY NAME! and the personal is political.


RESOURCES:
http://www1.cuny.edu/portal_ur/content/voting_curriculum/women_suffrage.html
http://www.ask.com/question/what-could-you-buy-in-1917-with-5-cents
http://www.gti.net/mocolib1/prices/1917.html
http://lcweb2.loc.gov/ammem/collections/suffrage/nwp/tactics.pdf