![Meeting at Coffee House, New York](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/d0/Meeting_at_Coffee_House%2C_New_York._160014v.jpg)
The Congressional Union for Woman Suffrage was an American organization formed in 1913 led by
Alice Paul
Alice Stokes Paul (January 11, 1885 – July 9, 1977) was an American Quaker, suffragist, feminist, and women's rights activist, and one of the main leaders and strategists of the campaign for the Nineteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, ...
and
Lucy Burns to campaign for a
constitutional amendment guaranteeing
women's suffrage
Women's suffrage is the right of women to vote in elections. Beginning in the start of the 18th century, some people sought to change voting laws to allow women to vote. Liberal political parties would go on to grant women the right to vot ...
. It was inspired by the
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotland, Wales and North ...
's
suffragette
A suffragette was a member of an activist women's organisation in the early 20th century who, under the banner "Votes for Women", fought for the right to vote in public elections in the United Kingdom. The term refers in particular to members ...
movement, which Paul and Burns had taken part in. Their continuous campaigning drew attention from congressmen, and in 1914 they were successful in forcing the amendment onto the floor for the first time in decades.
Early history
Alice Paul created the Congressional Union (CU) after joining the
National American Woman Suffrage Association
The National American Woman Suffrage Association (NAWSA) was an organization formed on February 18, 1890, to advocate in favor of women's suffrage in the United States. It was created by the merger of two existing organizations, the National ...
(NAWSA) and gaining leadership of its Congressional Committee.
The CU was initiated to assist the NAWSA Congressional Committee and its officers were part of that committee.
The CU shared the same goal with NAWSA, to gain an amendment to the United States Constitution giving all women the right to vote.
In the beginning, the CU worked within NAWSA to strengthen the declining Congressional Committee. In March 1913, after realizing the amount of work to be done, the CU became in charge of their own operations and funding but still remained affiliated with NAWSA. In the fall of 1913,
Carrie Chapman Catt of NAWSA accused the CU of insubordination and financial irregularities, allegations which she later retracted.
The strategies of the two organizations were conflicting and NAWSA's leadership felt threatened.
In December 1913, the National American Woman Suffrage Association selected a new Congressional Committee and formally cut ties with the Congressional Union.
Initiative
The Congressional Union for Woman Suffrage appealed to young women with a new approach in the fight for women's suffrage, inspired by the British suffragettes.
Alice Paul believed women should not have to beg for their rights. Paul introduced some of the militant methods used by the
Women's Social and Political Union
The Women's Social and Political Union (WSPU) was a women-only political movement and leading militant organisation campaigning for women's suffrage in the United Kingdom from 1903 to 1918. Known from 1906 as the suffragettes, its membership and ...
in Britain to the CU and its members.
These included direct actions, organizing huge demonstrations, and the daily picketing of the White House.
The CU had 4,500 members and had raised more than $50,000 in funds by 1914.
Over time, the efforts of hundreds of members led to their arrest and sometimes imprisonment.
Organization
The Congressional Union's headquarters were located on F Street in Washington, D.C., near the
Willard Hotel in a highly visible office which they paid for themselves.
They started women's "suffrage schools" to spread awareness about their cause and held multiple meetings each day.
The CU was never organized by states or districts, but there were different branches of the organization in a number of states. The Washington headquarters was central to their work but they were also a mobile organization.
The CU published a newspaper called ''
The Suffragist
''The Suffragist'' was a weekly newspaper published by the Congressional Union for Woman Suffrage in 1913 to advance the cause of women's suffrage. The publication was first envisioned as a small pamphlet by the Congressional Union (CU), a new ...
'', featuring articles by prominent members including Alice Paul, Lucy Burns and
Inez Milholland
Inez Milholland Boissevain (August 6, 1886 – November 25, 1916) was a leading American suffragist, lawyer, and peace activist.
From her college days at Vassar, she campaigned aggressively for women’s rights as the principal issue of a wide ...
. The newspaper employed
Nina Allender as its main cartoonist, and also published cartoons by artists such as Cornelia Barns, Boardman Robinson and Marietta Andrews.
Campaigning
The Congressional Union actively campaigned for a constitutional amendment guaranteeing universal woman suffrage. Following the methods used by suffragettes in Britain, the CU fully blamed the majority party for failure to advance the Federal Suffrage Amendment.
The majority party at the time was the Democratic Party, and Democrat
Woodrow Wilson
Thomas Woodrow Wilson (December 28, 1856February 3, 1924) was an American politician and academic who served as the 28th president of the United States from 1913 to 1921. A member of the Democratic Party, Wilson served as the president of ...
was president. Members traveled west and campaigned against Democrats in hopes of impeding their reelection. They even campaigned against Democrats who approved women's suffrage, despite criticism from the National American Woman Suffrage Association. They traveled through the west by train while using a number of tactics to increase their visibility and their whistle-stop speeches attracted the attention of reporters. Their campaign resulted in the defeat of 20 Democrats who supported suffrage, much to the dismay of NAWSA.
National Woman's Party
The Congressional Union created the
National Woman's Party at a meeting in Chicago in 1916.
The party included members of the Congressional Union, and Alice Paul was in charge.
A Campaign Committee was formed within the party with Anne Martin serving as chairman.
In 1917, the two organizations officially joined to form the National Woman's Party (NWP) and elected Alice Paul as their chairman.
After the ratification of the 19th Amendment, the National Woman's Party launched a long campaign to secure the passage of the
Equal Rights Amendment
The Equal Rights Amendment (ERA) is a proposed amendment to the United States Constitution designed to guarantee equal legal rights for all American citizens regardless of sex. Proponents assert it would end legal distinctions between men and ...
.
Congressional Union for the Equal Rights Amendment
In 1981, a group of women including Mary Ann Beall and notable feminist
Sonia Johnson formed an organization they called Congressional Union in New York City to continue to struggle for the ERA.
The women were inspired by the suffragists as Johnson noted in her book, Going Our of Our Minds: The Metaphysics of Liberation, "...we called ourselves the Congressional Union, taking the name and philsophy from the women's suffrage group created in 1914 by Alice Paul and Lucy Burns..."
At the end of June in 1982, the Congressional Union organized a "ritual of mourning" as well as a "celebration of rebirth" for the ERA at the
National Archives.
This organization later splitered off and a group of women including Johnson formed a new feminist organization known as
A Group of Women."
Notable members
See also
*
List of suffragists and suffragettes
*
Timeline of women's suffrage
*
Women's suffrage organizations
This list of suffragists and suffragettes includes noted individuals active in the worldwide women's suffrage movement who have campaigned or strongly advocated for women's suffrage, the organisations which they formed or joined, and the #Women ...
References
External links
*
*
The Suffragist' at Internet Archive
Congressional Union for Woman Suffrage newsletter collection-
University of Maryland Libraries
The University of Maryland Libraries is the largest university library in the Washington, D.C. - Baltimore area. The university's library system includes eight libraries: six are located on the College Park campus, while the Severn Library, an of ...
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Women's suffrage advocacy groups in the United States
Feminist political parties in the United States
Progressive Era in the United States
Alice Paul
National Woman's Party
Militant feminism
Equal Rights Amendment organizations