Iron Jawed Angels

In the beginning women didn't have rights to do much. One major right that they didn't have was the right to vote. Alice Paul and Lucy Burns put there life on the line and started a protest for women rights and ended up forcing Woodrow Wilson to pass the 19th amendment in 1920.

During this time Alice Paul and Lucy Burns were protesting in front of the White House. Women were getting arrested for doing such charges as obstructing traffic. The charges were unusual because the women were just standing out in front of the White House and men would come and beat them and try to take their banners away. The police would come and take the women, who were just standing on the sidewalk, and put them in prison.

These women were taken to Occoquan Prison where they would have to stay for sixty-days or could be bailed for ten dollars. The suffragist didn't want anyone to bail the out because they said they shouldn't even be in prison for a reason that isn't true so why do they have to be bailed. While they were in jail they were fed horrible food and had to sew different types of clothing. During the sewing Alice Paul was sent to solitary confinement after she had thrown here own shoe to break a window so they could have cool air.

While in solitary confinement Alice Paul went on a hunger strike and didn't eat food for days. After a while the prison guards started to have to force food down her mouth so she would eat and wouldn't die. Alice Paul did this because it had worked before in Germany because "no prison wants a dead body in they hands," Paul said. Soon after Alice Paul went on the strike women suffragist followed and it became that most women were doing this. Lucy Burns was one of the main suffragist who was following Alice Paul. Then after Alice was forced to eat food most women, but not all, stopped this hunger strike.

In the end Alice Paul was taken out of prison and she was sent home. Later Woodrow Wilson passed the 19th amendment after the votes came down to the wire and the women suffragists had won. Alice Paul is a great political hero not only to me but to many others to this day.