"‘Cause franchise isn’t just the right of a man"

January 11, 1885 a Quaker girl was born who would grow up to be prominent in the fight for women's right to vote. Alice Paul grew up learning about the importance of public service as well as women's suffrage because her mother was a member of the National American Woman Suffrage Association (NAWSA). After graduating from Swarthmore College, Paul became determined to join the effort to end injustice. 

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She moved to London to continue her studies and while there she became involved in the militant Women's Social and Political Union, where she learned to use the tactics of parading, picketing and speeches -- and the message that an arrest can send. Paul was arrested several times while helping Englishwomen fight for their rights.

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Upon her return to the US in 1910, Paul joined the same group her mother had been a part of, the National American Woman Suffrage Association, applying the radical tactics she had learned while in England. Her goal was to focus national attention on the issue of women's suffrage and she succeded by organizing a parade in every state of the Union the day before President Woodrow Wilson's first inauguration. Although some marchers were attacked, the nation became aware of the women marchers and their goal.

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Due to a disagreement in tactics, Paul left the NAWSA and started the National Women's Party, a radical organization based on her experiences in England. She chose a prime location to picket: the White House. She and a group of women stood in front of the White House, silent, holding banners asking President Wilson what he would do for the right to vote for women. The protestors were arrested and sent to a workhouse, where Paul began a hunger strike.

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Paul's tactics of attracting national attention to the issue put pressure on President Wilson and in 1918, Wilson publicly supported women's suffrage. He tied the issue to the Great War because women were more involved in the war effort than ever before. But the proposed 19th Amendment to the Constitution failed to pass by two votes in the Senate until the next year, when it was passed and sent to the states for ratification. Eventually, it was Tennessee's decision if the amendment would pass or not. The Tennessee state Senate voted to ratify while the state House of Representatives was in a deadlock, until Representative Harry T. Burn changed his vote because of a note his mother had given him:  "Hurrah, and vote for suffrage!...Don't forget to be a good boy."

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With Tennessee's ratification, the 36 states required for an amendment to the Constitution was achieved and women had the right to vote. However, Paul's work was not finished. She continued to fight for women's equality in the US and abroad. In 1977, Paul died in Moorestown, New Jersey, where she was born. She has been honored with her image placed on a postage stamp and on a gold coin. Most recently, Lady Gaga's Bad Romance was re-written to be about Alice Paul and her fight for women's right to vote.