On October 20, 1917, Alice Paul carried the following banner in front of the White House: “The Time has come to Conquer or Submit. For Us There Can Be But One Choice. We Have Made It.” She was arrested and sentenced to seven months in prison. She and suffragist Rose Winslow went on a hunger strike which lasted three weeks and a day. During the last two weeks they were fed forcibly and became so weak that they had to be hospitalized. Many other protesters were also imprisoned at the Occoquan Workhouse in Virginia. Some of them also went on hunger strikes.
Mrs. Lawrence Lewis writes:
I was seized and laid on my back, where five people held me, a young colored woman leaping upon my knees, which seemed to break under the weight. Dr. Gannon then forced the tube through my lips and down my throat, I gasping and suffocating with the agony of it. I didn’t know where to breathe from, and everything turned black when the fluid began pouring in. I was moaning and making the most awful sounds quite against my will, for I did not wish to disturb my friends in the next room. Finally the tube was withdrawn. I lay motionless. After awhile I was dressed and carried in a chair to a waiting automobile, laid on the back seat, and driven into Washington to the jail hospital. Previous to the feeding I had been forcibly examined by Dr. Gannon, I struggling and protesting that I wished for a woman physician.
A note from Lucy Burns, smuggled out of jail:
Wednesday 12 m. Yesterday afternoon at about four or five, Mrs. Lewis and I were asked to go to the operating room. Went there and found our clothes. Told we were to go to Washington. No reason, as usual. When we were dressed Dr. Gannon appeared, said he wished to examine us. Both refused. Were dragged through halls by force, our clothing partly removed by force, and we were examined, heart tested, blood pressure and pulse taken. Of course such data was of no value after such a struggle. Dr. Gannon told me that I must be fed. Was stretched on bed, two doctors, matron, four colored prisoners present. Whittaker [superintendent] in hall. I was held down by five people at legs, arms, and head. I refused to open my mouth, Gannon pushed the tube up left nostril. I turned and twisted my head all I could, but he managed to push it up. It hurts nose and throat very much and makes nose bleed freely. Tube drawn out covered with blood. Operation leaves one very sick. food dumped directly into stomach feels like a ball of lead. Left nostril, throat, and muscles of neck very sore all night. After this I was brought into the hospital in an ambulance.
This morning Dr. Ladd appeared with his tube. Mrs. Lewis and I said we would not be forcibly fed. Said he would call in men guards and force us to submit. Went away and we not fed at all this morning. We hear them outside now cracking eggs.
The avenue is misty gray,
And here beside the guarded gate
We hold our golden blowing flags
And wait.
The people pass in friendly wise;
They smile their greeling where we stand
And turn aside to recognize
The just demand.
Often the gates are swung aside:
The man whose power could free us now
Looks from his car to read our plea --
And bow.
Sometiones the little children laugh;
The careless folk toss careless words,
And scoff and turn away, and yet
The people pass the whole long day
Those golden flags against the gray
And can't forget.
Beulah Amidon, ‘On the Picket Line,’ The Suffragist, March 3, 1917, page 6.
I watched a river of women,
Rippling purple, white, and golden,
Stream toward the National Capitol.
Along its border,
Likc a purple flower floating,
Moved a young woman, worn, wraithlike,
With eyes alight, keenly observing the marchers.
Out there on the curb, she looked so little, so lonely;
Few appeared even to see her;
No one saluted her.
Yet commander was she of the column, its leader;
She was the spring whence arose that irresistible river of women
Streaming steadily towards the National Capitol.
Katherine Rolston Fisher, ‘Alice Paul,’ The Suffragist, January 19, 1918, page 9.
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