Winning the Right to Vote: 'Women's Equality Day'
Commemorating the Aug. 26, 1920, passage of the 19th Amendment to the Constitution
According to the Turning Point Suffragist Memorial Committee, "Fairfax County is the site of possibly the most significant moment in the fight for women’s suffrage in the United States." In 1917, more than 120 women were imprisoned in the Occoquan Workhouse portion of the Lorton Prison for picketing at the White House for the right to vote. The woman imprisoned at Lorton included suffragist leaders Lucy Burns, Alice Paul, Mary Nolan, Rose Winslow, Mabel Vernon, and Doris Stevens. The conditions the women endured, including beatings and forced feedings, brought attention to the suffrage movement, and helped to pressure President Woodrow Wilson to recommend the passage of the Susan B. Anthony amendment. The day of August 26, 1920, marked …
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