Turning Point Suffragist Memorial QR Site

Description

The plaques on this wall honor the brave and determined suffragists who in 1917 were imprisoned at both the Occoquan Workhouse on these historic grounds here in Lorton, Virginia, and at the District of Columbia Jail. They were the “Silent Sentinels” who picketed peacefully at the gates and along the fence at the White House in Washington, D.C., to demand the right to vote. Independently, these women responded to a nationwide call from Alice Paul of the National Woman’s Party to pressure President Woodrow Wilson to support a constitutional amendment for women’s voting rights. These were women from many different communities and economic levels across the country who were able to travel to the nation’s capital to make their voices heard. They stood silently holding banners with suffrage messages directed at the president.

For the first 6 months the suffragists’ peaceful demonstrations were uninterrupted. However, after the United States entered World War I, public opinion turned against them as their messages became more critical of the president. They were attacked by mobs and arrested by police. Public reaction to their arrests, imprisonment, and brutal treatment, created a “Turning Point” in the suffrage movement.

References differ, but it is believed that 91 “Silent Sentinels” from half of the states were imprisoned for demonstrating. Sentences ranged from 3 days to 7 months, most 30 or 60 days. With a few exceptions, they were imprisoned at the Occoquan Workhouse. In 1918 and 1919 more women were also imprisoned in Washington, D.C., and Boston, Massachusetts, for demonstrating against President Wilson. Information on this period is found on Informational Stations 10 through 16.

The bars on this wall symbolize prison. The plaques are arranged by state and then in alphabetical order by the last name they used at the time of arrest. (If a suffragist later married, the husband’s last name appears in parentheses.) With as much detail as could be found, birth and death dates are included, if used, as well as hometown and state at the time.

Each suffragist prisoner was awarded the honorary “Jailed for Freedom” pin designed by Alice Paul, shown on the end pillars.