Alice Paul
Mar. 23rd, 2008 05:14 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
elionwyrA few days ago, my mother posted an entry in her LJ about suffragist leader Alice Paul.
The entry is, frankly, shocking, and hard to believe.
In a nutshell, her participation and leadership in protests resulted in her and a score of other women being incarcerated and treated in ways that one would assume could not happen in America. The abuse these women received in jail, after being arrested for nonviolent protests, included filthy living conditions, being fed worm-ridden food, and being violently attacked by the prison guards in an incident that came to be known as The Night of Terror, when 40 guards were instructed to these 33 already-jailed protesters a particularly violent lesson.
It's a horrible bit of history to learn.
It's terrifying to read that Alice's decision to go on a hunger strike resulted in tube-feedings of liquid and maggot-ridden food; that our then-President, Woodrow Wilson, pushed to have her declared insane, in an effort to discredit her. This is documented in HBO's movie "Iron Jawed Angels." The doctor asked to declare Alice insane responded, Alice Paul was strongand brave. That didn't make her crazy, and to say, "Courage in women is often mistaken for insanity."
...Shared because I think it's important. Terrifying, but important.
The entry is, frankly, shocking, and hard to believe.
In a nutshell, her participation and leadership in protests resulted in her and a score of other women being incarcerated and treated in ways that one would assume could not happen in America. The abuse these women received in jail, after being arrested for nonviolent protests, included filthy living conditions, being fed worm-ridden food, and being violently attacked by the prison guards in an incident that came to be known as The Night of Terror, when 40 guards were instructed to these 33 already-jailed protesters a particularly violent lesson.
It's a horrible bit of history to learn.
It's terrifying to read that Alice's decision to go on a hunger strike resulted in tube-feedings of liquid and maggot-ridden food; that our then-President, Woodrow Wilson, pushed to have her declared insane, in an effort to discredit her. This is documented in HBO's movie "Iron Jawed Angels." The doctor asked to declare Alice insane responded, Alice Paul was strongand brave. That didn't make her crazy, and to say, "Courage in women is often mistaken for insanity."
...Shared because I think it's important. Terrifying, but important.