Alice Paul Alice Paul Claiming Power z J. D. ZAHNISER & AMELIA R. FRY 1 1 Oxford University Press is a department of the University of Oxford. It furthers the University’s objective of excellence in research, scholarship, and education by publishing worldwide. Oxford New York Auckland Cape Town Dar es Salaam Hong Kong Karachi Kuala Lumpur Madrid Melbourne Mexico City Nairobi New Delhi Shanghai Taipei Toronto With offices in Argentina Austria Brazil Chile Czech Republic France Greece Guatemala Hungary Italy Japan Poland Portugal Singapore South Korea Switzerland Thailand Turkey Ukraine Vietnam Oxford is a registered trademark of Oxford University Press in the UK and certain other countries. Published in the United States of America by Oxford University Press 198 Madison Avenue, New York, NY 10016 © Oxford University Press 2014 All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, without the prior permission in writing of Oxford University Press, or as expressly permitted by law, by license, or under terms agreed with the appropriate reproduction rights organization. Inquiries concerning reproduction outside the scope of the above should be sent to the Rights Department, Oxford University Press, at the address above. You must not circulate this work in any other form and you must impose this same condition on any acquirer. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Zahniser, Jill Diane. Alice Paul : claiming power / J. D. Zahniser & Amelia R. Fry. pages cm Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 978–0–19–995842–9 (alk. paper) 1. Paul, Alice, 1885–1977. 2. Suffragists—United States—Biography. 3. Women—Suffrage—United States—History. 4. Womens rights—United States—History. I. Fry, Amelia R. II. Title. HQ1413.P38Z34 2014 324.6'23092—dc23 [B] 2013050418 1 3 5 7 9 8 6 4 2 Printed in the United States of America on acid-free paper Alice Paul raises a glass to celebrate winning the vote for American women in August 1920. Library of Congress, Prints & Photographs Division, LC-DIG-ds-00180 Contents Acknowledgments vii A Note about Naming x Introduction 1 1. “Mind the Light” 5 2. “We Will Find a Way, or We Will Make One” 25 3. “Heart and Soul Convert” 41 4. “A New and More Heroic Plane” 65 5. “A Little Stone in a Big Mosaic” 86 6. “We Came, They Saw, We Conquered!” 105 7. “A Procession of Our Own” 126 8. “A Dark Conspiracy” 160 9. “We Go to Smash, or Make Good” 178 10. “A Great Body of Voting Women” 192 11. “The Voice of the New Power” 211 12. “The Ghost at the Feast” 231 13. “The Young Are at the Gates” 254 14. “Jailed for Freedom” 279 15. “Not a Gift, but a Triumph” 298 Epilogue 320 Notes 325 Bibliography of Major Sources 381 Index 387 Acknowledgments The path to completing this book became as complicated as its subject. Amelia Fry began researching Alice Paul’s life a decade after her extensive inter- view with Alice completed under the auspices of the Suffragist Oral History Project, based at Berkeley’s Bancroft Library. Beyond this oral history, Amelia found personal information about Paul difficult to acquire because an uncoopera- tive nephew held the suffrage leader’s private papers. Amelia therefore talked to as many former friends, relatives, neighbors, and compatriots as she could locate. She spent the next twenty years excavating Alice Paul’s past and maintain- ing her historical memory. She dipped into the National Woman’s Party (NWP) papers and traveled to Great Britain and Europe to trace Alice’s footsteps. As she worked, Amelia regularly assisted other historians who were working on the NWP or related topics. She often appeared at conferences and before other interested audiences as she developed resources, living her commitment to the legacy of Alice Paul. Her health failed as another new century dawned and the progress of her book stalled. In 2005, I agreed to complete the biography of Alice Paul’s early life and suffrage years, utilizing Amelia’s partial draft and research files. Amelia Fry died in 2009. Many people contributed to Amelia’s work. Corona Machemer, an editor at Harper & Row, initiated the discussion of a biography and assisted Amelia for many years. Amelia’s research assistants included Amy Butler, Susan Hines, and Kristy Nishimoto. Amelia used the resources of the Sewall-Belmont House and the Library of Congress extensively. Smithsonian curator Edie Mayo became an important resource on Paul memorabilia. The late British filmmakers Midge MacKenzie and Stephen Peet offered their knowledge and insight about the Pankhursts and Edwardian England. Margaret Hope Bacon, the late historian of Quakerism, became a touchstone for Quaker history and values. Paul relatives like John and Anita Parry and Lew Robbins and wife Jean (now Stratton) volunteered family photos and memories. Barbara Irvine, then of the Alice Paul Centennial Foundation (APCF), provided early access to Paul’s personal papers and years of viii Acknowledgments moral support. Amelia’s husband, Rex Davis, supported her financially and emo- tionally as she worked on the biography. After both Amelia and Rex died, her sons Randy, Gary, and Byron championed the completion of the work. My own interest in Alice Paul, which began in graduate school, was rekindled in 1987 when I joined an ambitious and successful effort by the recently formed APCF to purchase Paul’s private papers and memorabilia and donate them to the Smithsonian Institution and Harvard’s Schlesinger Library. The APCF, now the Alice Paul Institute, went on to purchase the former Paul family home in order to create a leadership institute for women and girls. I am indebted to many individuals though, of course, responsibility for any errors is entirely my own. I thank each and every person who contributed to this biography, including those who helped Amelia but whose names were lost over time and other people I have inadvertently forgotten. My greatest appreciation goes to the distinguished historian Linda K. Kerber, once my thesis advisor, who encouraged my efforts and graciously introduced me to publishers. Women’s history is thriving because of scholars like Linda doing superior work of their own and sustaining other historians of women as well. My longtime friend Barbara Irvine played this role on the activist side, sharing her enthusiasm, experience, and contacts, and going out of her way to help this project along. Other friends and colleagues served as sounding boards. Early readers Betty LaSorella and Julie Goldstein applauded my first drafts, and historian Betty A. Bergland took time from her own work to read chapters and listen to my frus- trations. Lucy Burns’s grand-niece, Janet Campbell Burns, kindly obliged all my questions. Sidney R. Bland conversed with Amelia for years, initially about his thesis, one of the first about the NWP; he kindly delved into his files at my request, became another early reader, a reference, and eventually a valued colleague. My siblings all contributed to this project. My sister Judy Voshell pitched in to help with microfilm research. My brother Rick offered financial advice and an ear to bend, while brother Bert found opportunities to publicize the book and helped me sort out technological puzzles. Historical accounts of the NWP and its leader paved the way for this book. Most sources still cite Sidney Bland’s 1972 dissertation and subsequent article on the 1913 parade; his article on Lucy Burns remains the best source of informa- tion about her. Christine A. Lunardini brought her incisive political acuity to two books about the NWP. Linda G. Ford’s examination of militancy drew attention to the political and cultural diversity in the ranks of the NWP pickets. Ford inad- vertently gave HBO producers the title for their docudrama on Alice Paul and the NWP, Iron-Jawed Angels. While popularized to a fault, Angels nevertheless introduced Alice Paul to millions. Acknowledgments ix Research librarians and curators are a godsend for historians. Sarah Hutcheon and the staff at the Schlesinger Library were unfailingly helpful with the Alice Paul Papers. Lily Pforzheimer Foundation Director Nancy Cott and executive director Marilyn Dunn obligingly gave me access to closed files on the library’s history. Rhonda DiMascio and Lucy Beard, successive executive directors of the Alice Paul Institute, offered Amelia’s files a home, and program director Kris Myers patiently dug into her files to find photographs and answer queries. Edie Mayo, now retired, and current curator Lisa Kathleen Graddy lent moral support and enthusiastically walked me through the Alice Paul collection in the Political History Division at the Smithsonian. Elspeth Kursh at the Sewall-Belmont House and Museum tracked down photographs and copyrights. Christopher Densmore of the Friends Historical Library at Swarthmore College unfailingly provided details and tracked down obscure documents. Likewise, Nancy R. Miller of Penn’s archives helped me pin down important details about Penn’s early gradu- ate women. Ian C. Jackson, librarian at Woodbrooke, clarified my understand- ing of the Quaker study center; his precedessors had opened their files to Amelia Fry. The librarians and staff at the Moorestown Friends School also graciously offered their records and expertise on Alice Paul and the school to both myself and Amelia. My research assistants completed the daunting and tedious microfilm work for this book. The amazing Lin Salisbury scanned every page of the NWP records between 1913 and 1920; Christine Manganaro efficiently examined a wide range of other records. I am deeply appreciative of their diligence. I often worked out ideas while lecturing about Alice Paul and women’s his- tory to K–12 teachers for the American Institute for History Education (AIHE). I thank Kevin T. Brady, AIHE president, for those opportunities and his support of this project. I am grateful to my audiences for helping me refine the themes of this book. The New Jersey Historical Commission, a division of the New Jersey Department of State, generously supported the final stages of writing with a grant. Once the book was in production, Molly Morrison expertly led me through the process. Heather Hambleton’s careful eye for copyediting eased my review considerably. It was great good fortune that I was introduced to Nancy Toff, who became my editor. Her ready interest in Alice Paul and willingness to advocate for a focused political biography were essential to the completion of the book. She insisted I clarify ideas and refine expressions to keep this book accessible. I am in debt to her. J. D. Z.