There is a bill in Congress that would help propel Alice Paul from local legend to national hero.
The bill, sponsored by congressmen Joe Baca (D-CA) and Mount Laurel native Jon Runyan (R-NJ), would posthumously award Paul with the Congressional Gold Medal. The medal is one of the highest civilian awards in the United States.
Valerie Buickerood, executive director of the Alice Paul Institute at Paulsdale, is anxiously awaiting the good news.
“We’re hoping that both houses of Congress will pass the resolution so that Alice can then received national recognition for the work that she did for the suffragette movement and for equal rights,” Buickerood said, noting she is looking for people across the country to urge their representatives to co-sponsor the bill.
The Congressional Gold Medal is reserved for those who have achieved outstanding things for the nation.
“She is a national hero and she deserves the Congressional Gold Medal because of her work,” Buickerood said.
Not satisfied with just getting the vote for women, Paul also introduced the equal rights amendment.
“With that recognition of her work for equality might be the impetus that the equal rights amendment needs in order to finally get that passed and ratified,” Buickerood said.
Paul believed in equality for all, not just women, Buickerood said, noting the passage of the 19th amendment is Paul’s greatest achievement.
Despite her role in getting the vote for women, Buickerood said Paul’s name is not known widely enough. More people than not don’t know who she was.
“There’s still much to be done,” Buickerood said, adding that right now Paul is still just a footnote in history. “She’s a major force in our history.”
Other suffragettes like Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton are very well known.
“They worked tirelessly for many, many years in the 19th century,” Buickerood said. “Paul energized the movement and radicalized it to the point where women could not be dismissed any longer.”
Past Congressional Gold Medal recipients include George Washington, Ulysses S. Grant, the Wright brothers, Robert Frost, Bob Hope, and Walt Disney.
Women recipients include Marian Anderson, Queen Beatrix I from the Netherlands, Lady Bird Johnson, Mary Lasker, Ruth Graham, Mother Teresa, Betty Ford, Rosa Parks, Nancy Reagan, Dr. Dorothy Height, Coretta Scott King, and Aung San Suu Kyi.
In 1917, in response to public outcry about the prison abuse of suffragists, President Woodrow Wilson reversed his position and announced his support for a suffrage amendment, calling it a “war measure.”
In 1919, both the house and senate passed the 19th Amendment and the battle for state ratification commenced. Three-fourths of the states were needed to ratify the amendment.
The battle for ratification came down to the state of Tennessee in the summer of 1920; if a majority of the state legislature voted for the amendment, it would become law.
The deciding vote was cast 24-year-old Harry Burn, the youngest member of the Tennessee assembly. Originally intending to vote “no,” Burn changed his vote after receiving a telegram from his mother asking him to support women’s suffrage.
On August 18, 1920, Tennessee ratified the 19th Amendment. Six days later, Secretary of State Bainbridge Colby certified the ratification, and, with the stroke of his pen, American women gained the right to vote after a 72 year battle. August 26 is now celebrated as Women’s Equality Day in the United States.
