Profile of the Day: Alice Paul

Alice Paul

On this day in 1885, woman’s right activist and suffragist Alice Paul was born.

She was born on January 11, 1885 in Mount Laurel Township, New Jersey to William Mickle Paul and Tacie Parry and was the eldest of four children.

An influential figure of the women’s right movement, Paul was the leader and strategist of the 1910 campaign for the Nineteenth Amendment, which prohibits sex discrimination in the right to vote. She founded the National Woman’s Party and was known for using provocative visuals during protests. Paul’s picketers were known as the “Silent Sentinels,” and carried banners as they held silent, non-violent protests outside of the White House. Her work would lead to the passage of the Nineteenth Amendment in 1920.

In 1923, Paul proposed the Equal Rights Amendment to ensure constitutional equality for all women. Although the amendment was passed by both houses in Congress in 1972, it was never ratified.

Paul died on July 9, 1977 at the age of 92.

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Image: Library of Congress