My Start Story Celebrates: Suffragist Lucy Burns

By: Start TV Staff     Posted: August 20, 2020, 8:00AM

Lucy Burns' (1879-1966) passion for the women’s suffrage movement began in England in the early 1900’s. Returning to the U.S., Burns and fellow women’s rights activist, Alice Paul continued their activism in the militant wing of the suffrage movement, later, forming the National Woman’s Party (NWP). Burns demonstrated, marched and picketed the White House. She was arrested many times and even tortured while in prison, but continued the fight until the 19th Amendment was passed.



About the Narrator:
JILL ZAHNISER
Co-Author of Alice Paul: Claiming Power

Jill Zahniser, PhD, is an expert in women’s history, especially the women's suffrage movement. She is the co-author of Alice Paul: Claiming Power. She has taught at the Universities of Iowa and Minnesota, St. Cloud State University, and the University of Wisconsin-River Falls. Dr. Zahniser is the editor of the series And Then She Said: Quotations by Women Around the World.

About Lucy Burns she said, “She exhibited this kind of fearlessness that other suffragists recognized in her. She knew what she was doing when she went into the picketing and the arresting… They knew they wouldn’t be treated very well and they really didn’t want to be treated very well because that gets more publicity and they were in it for the spectacle and the impression that that made upon the public."

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