Suffragist Commemorative Wall

In 1917, after an unsuccessful appeal to President Wilson, women suffragists from across the country adopted a new campaign of posting pickets around the White House so the president would encounter advocates for the suffrage cause whenever he entered or left; these pickets became known as the Silent Sentinels. From January through November 1917, 91 Silent Sentinels demonstrated peacefully at the White House, and they were among more than 160 suffragists jailed over the seven decades of the suffrage movement. After the United States entered World War I, public opinion turned against them as their messages became more critical of the president, and by June 1917 they were facing mob attacks and the first arrests on charges of obstructing traffic and loitering, charges they denied. Undeterred, they continued their peaceful demonstrations and were arrested and imprisoned on fabricated charges. With few exceptions, they were held in Lorton, Virginia, at the Occoquan Workhouse, in a dormitory-like structure once located on those prison grounds, while some, including National Woman's Party leader Alice Paul, were incarcerated in the District of Columbia Jail. According to Eunice Dana Brannan, jailed women were subjected to lies intended to break their resistance, including claims that no outside efforts were being made for them, that their attorney had left the case, that each woman alone was hunger striking, and that the others had yielded, but they suspected the deception and remained strong.

Laurel Hill, Virginia · United States