DDeePPaauuww UUnniivveerrssiittyy SScchhoollaarrllyy aanndd CCrreeaattiivvee WWoorrkk ffrroomm DDeePPaauuww UUnniivveerrssiittyy Honor Scholar Theses Student Work 2014 UUnnppaacckkiinngg tthhee SSuuiittccaassee:: TThhee RReeaall LLaasstt CChhaapptteerr ooff AAlliiccee PPaauull aanndd PPeegg EEddwwaarrddss’’ss AAccttiivviissmm,, aanndd WWhhyy TThheessee SSttoorriieess MMaatttteerr Clark Edwards Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarship.depauw.edu/studentresearch Part of the United States History Commons, and the Women's History Commons RReeccoommmmeennddeedd CCiittaattiioonn Edwards, Clark, "Unpacking the Suitcase: The Real Last Chapter of Alice Paul and Peg Edwards’s Activism, and Why These Stories Matter" (2014). Honor Scholar Theses. 3. https://scholarship.depauw.edu/studentresearch/3 This Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by the Student Work at Scholarly and Creative Work from DePauw University. It has been accepted for inclusion in Honor Scholar Theses by an authorized administrator of Scholarly and Creative Work from DePauw University. Unpacking the Suitcase: The Real Last Chapter of Alice Paul and Peg Edwards’s Activism, and Why These Stories Matter   Clark Edwards Honor Scholar Thesis DePauw University 2013-2104 Christy Holmes, Meryl Altman, Aaron Cavin 2 Acknowledgments   Thank you to everyone who has helped make this project possible. Thank you to my committee for helping me finding a context for these stories and reading drafts. Thank you to my mom for helping me proof read and transcribe interviews. Thank you to all of my friends and family for putting up with my stress, sass, and constant questions about what I should include. Most importantly thank you to Nana for allowing me to tell this story and helping me get it right by giving me a thesis in the form of a suitcase.   3 4 Abstract   I was fortunate enough to find a thesis topic within my own family. My paternal grandmother was guardian ad litem for Alice Paul in the later 1970s. Paul was instrumental in securing the passage of the 19th amendment, which gave women the right to vote, and author of the Equal Rights Amendment among other contributions for women’s rights. Fortunately my grandmother saved court records, letters, her notes, and more for her period of activism with Paul and as part of the Ridgefield Connecticut National Women’s Political Caucus. I knew nothing of my grandmother’s work until last year. My thesis seeks to tell the stories of Alice Paul and my grandmother in their own words through the use of oral histories and to examine their paths into activism and the transfer of feminism across generations.           5 6 Table  of  Contents   Introduction  and  Methodology  9   Alice  Paul:  A  Women’s  Icon  23   Peg  Edwards:  The  Common  Activist  85   Conclusion  123   Appendix  One-­‐  November  25,  2012  Interview  transcript  129   Appendix  Two-­‐  February  5,  2014  Interview  Transcript  147   Appendix  Three-­‐  February  8,  2014  Interview  Transcript  159   Appendix  Four-­‐  Peg  Edwards  Document  Collection  Primary  Source  List   175   Bibliography  185       7 8 Introduction  and  Methodology   There was a suitcase sitting in my grandparents’ storage space for years that I had no idea existed. This suitcase and its contents survived multiple moves and downsizing. This suitcase held a part of my grandmother’s history that was completely unfamiliar to me. Exploring this suitcase and the research and conversations its contents inspired introduced me to my grandmother’s activism and allows me to share it now as my honor scholar thesis. Introduction   In my first semester at DePauw University I ended up in a women’s history class. I was unfamiliar with the topic, trying to balance playing college basketball with my first semester of college classes, and intimidated by the seniors who seemed to get so much more out of the reading than I did. I found the class interesting, but was just trying to survive with an acceptable grade rather than really appreciate the class. Intrigued, I took additional classes emphasizing women’s history. In one class we watched the movie Iron Jawed Angels. I found the movie interesting and for the first time it put faces to the struggle for improving women’s rights in the early 20th century. I had not realized how contentious this issue was. I called my mom shortly after class to tell her I finally watched the movie after her telling me to watch it for years. She then asked if I knew my grandmother, Peg Edwards, had been Alice Paul’s court appointed guardian. I did not. Iron Jawed Angels stars Hillary Swank and focuses on Alice Paul and her efforts to secure the passage of the 19th amendment granting women the right to vote.1 The movie is dramatic, emphasizing Paul’s time in jail and being force-fed, but I had been told it was fairly                                                                                                                 1 “Iron Jawed Angles (2004),” IMDb, accessed March 2014, http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0338139/. 9