The Fifteenth Star: Alice Paul and the National Woman's Party in Minnesota
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The Fifteenth Star Alice Paul and the National Woman’s Party in Minnesota J. D. Zahniser n June 3, 1915, Alice Paul hur- Oriedly wrote her Washington headquarters from the home of Jane Bliss Potter, 2849 Irving Avenue South, Minneapolis: “Have had con- ferences with nearly every Suffragist who has ever been heard of . in Minnesota. Have conferences tomor- row with two Presidents of Suffrage clubs. I do not know how it will come out.”1 Alice Paul came to Minnesota in 1915 after Potter sought her help in organizing a Minnesota chapter of the Congressional Union for Woman Suffrage (CU). The CU was a new- comer on the national suffrage scene, founded by Paul in 1913. She focused on winning a woman suffrage amend- ment to the US Constitution. Paul, a compelling— even messianic— personality, riveted attention on a constitutional amendment long Alice Paul, 1915. before most observers considered it viable; she also practiced more frage Association (MWSA), had ear- she would not do. I have spent some assertive tactics than most American lier declined to approve a Minnesota hours with her.”3 suffragists thought wise.2 CU chapter; MWSA president Clara After Paul’s visit, Ueland and the Indeed, the notion of Paul coming Ueland had personally written Paul to MWSA decided to work cooperatively to town apparently raised suffrage discourage a visit. Nonetheless, once with the Minnesota CU; their collabo- hackles in the Twin Cities. Paul wrote Paul arrived in town, she reported ration would prove a marked contrast from Minneapolis that the executive that Ueland “has been very kind and to the national scene. State suffrage board of the only statewide suffrage has spoken at both of my meetings, history has largely erased the work of group, the Minnesota Woman Suf- which she previously announced the Minnesota CU. Yet the Minnesota 154 MINNESOTA HISTORY chapter proved one of the more vig- bers of the MWSA state board signed orous branches of the controversial the call to convene a Minnesota CU organization, with numerous members chapter on June 28. As Paul noted, who actively furthered the cause by “Everyone signed whom we asked & organizing and demonstrating, in addi- we asked nearly everyone of impor- tion to contributing financially. The tance.” Members included women in synergy between the MWSA and Min- their 20s like Ueland’s daughter Elsa nesota CU would break down in 1917. and seasoned, well- to- do suffragists Nonetheless, the Minnesota suffrage like Potter and Emily Bright (both in scene maintained a respect that was their 50s). Paul left town with nearly sorely lacking at the national level. $1,200 in pledges or cash, including Alice Paul’s storied persuasiveness $2 from Clara Ueland herself. 4 won the day in June 1915. She salved Minnesota reflected the success the frustration of local activists who Paul had enjoyed elsewhere. She had labored for years to pass a state emerged on the American suffrage suffrage amendment. Paul shone scene in early 1913 as the organizer light in a new direction, urging direct of the first national suffrage parade, Congressional Union member Elsa Ueland, lobbying of the Minnesota congres- held in Washington, DC, on the eve daughter of Minnesota Woman Suffrage sional delegation to win votes for the of Woodrow Wilson’s inauguration. Association president Clara Ueland, 1908. federal amendment. After unruly spectators harassed the Now convinced that the CU marching women, Paul engineered ened visibility to the suffrage cause. offered promise rather than threat, a Senate hearing on the melee. The It also lent the 28- year- old Paul a Clara Ueland and eight other mem- event and its aftermath gave height- national reputation as a woman who could get things done. Many suffrage devotees longed for just such a leader. The movement to win the vote for American women had languished. Years of petitioning Congress to pass a constitutional amendment for woman suffrage, led by Susan B. Anthony, had proved fruitless. Women in a few sparsely populated western states won the vote prior to 1900; then state- based initiatives stalled. After Anthony’s death in 1906, the sole national suffrage group, the National Amer- ican Woman Suffrage Association (NAWSA), chose to focus on state campaigns once a resurgent Jim Crow South made enfranchising Black women a political minefield. By 1910, however, the last state victory was 14 years in the past.5 Alice Paul's National Woman's Party created a suffrage flag. A star would be added for each state that ratified the Nineteenth Amendment. On September 8, 1919, Minnesota added the fifteenth star. (Note: this depiction is not from Minnesota.) FALL 2020 155 The most engaging suffrage action injected the new assertive that a constitutional amendment news in American newspapers was tactics into their hometown suffrage was the quickest way for American now coming from abroad. Long- groups. Street rallies, parades, and women to win the vote. Despite more time activists Emmeline Pankhurst automobile tours began to aug- practiced hands insisting that key and her daughter Christabel had ment the closed- door meetings and states must be won first, she sought founded the UK’s Women’s Social conventions of years past. The first to lead NAWSA’s 1913 Congressional and Political Union (WSPU) in 1905. American suffrage parade took place Committee, a role that took her to They brought the brash militancy of in the spring of 1910. Women in five Washington. After the success of labor protests to the British suffrage western states won the vote between the parade in March 1913, however, movement, organizing spectacular 1910 and 1912.7 relations quickly soured between the parades and marches on Parliament; Many felt the movement’s lead- impatient young Paul and the battle- news correspondents— including er ship was not seizing the moment. hardened NAWSA leadership. Their Americans— ate it up. American NAWSA leaders feared the Pankhursts’ ideas about acceptable methods and women on tour soon made a point influence, remembering how Amer- overall strategy were poles apart.9 of attending WSPU rallies and came ican suffragists were once ridiculed By early 1914, NAWSA had jet- away energized. Alice Paul, in Britain for trying to take women where many tisoned Paul from their ranks. Paul for graduate work, became a “heart felt they didn’t belong. They worried responded by establishing the Con- and soul convert.” Paul worked for that marching, speaking out of doors, gressional Union as the national the WSPU as an organizer, ultimately and other unwomanly activities would alternative to NAWSA. NAWSA enduring several arrests, impris- damage the movement’s reputation leaders were none too pleased to onments, and hunger strikes. She and lead, as in Britain, to arrests and compete with Paul’s controversial returned to the United States in Janu- worse. They believed a woman’s repu- attention- getting tactics. By the time ary 1910 determined to continue the tation was her most important asset 8 Jane Bliss Potter contacted the CU work that had captivated her.6 Paul returned to the United leader in 1915 about starting a Min- She wasn’t the only one. A new States a celebrity as a result of press nesota chapter, Paul’s activities had spirit was invigorating the suffrage coverage of the Pankhursts’ demon- thrilled some and horrified others. movement. Some Americans who strations. Studying the American It was little wonder that Clara Ueland had witnessed the Pankhursts in movement, Paul became convinced was at first wary of Paul.10 After the successful Washington, DC, suffrage parade in March 1913, relations between Alice Paul and national suffrage leadership suffered. founding member of two women and others of the MWSA had even workers’ clubs and one of Paul’s 1914 more reason to appreciate the orga- campaign organizers in Wyoming, nization. They attended a mid- year and Sarah Tarleton Colvin, an Ala- NAWSA meeting in Chicago, con- bama native and trained nurse, who vened to reassure state officers about had moved to St. Paul after marrying a rival constitutional amendment that Dr. Alexander Colvin in 1897. Colvin NAWSA leaders had begun to push discovered the CU in early 1915 while in Congress. NAWSA leaders resisted visiting Washington, DC. She had MWSA and other states’ contentions soured on NAWSA, judging it to be in that competing amendments con- “a completely static condition with- fused supporters and blunted momen- out possibility of progress.”12 tum. NAWSA also seemed intent on Early on, the memberships of attacking the CU. MWSA members MWSA and the Minnesota CU over- openly expressed their dismay.15 lapped. It was common for large “A splendid opportunity for con- urban areas to have several suffrage structive work it seems to us was groups, each with a different focus; entirely lost,” Clara Ueland wrote one some women joined multiple clubs. NAWSA leader a few weeks later. She After being ousted by NAWSA, Alice Paul At the June 1915 founding conven- confirmed that many MWSA mem- established the Congressional Union (later tion, Jane Potter, already an officer in bers were “much alienated” and con- known as the National Woman's Party) MWSA, was elected state chair of the sidering withdrawal from NAWSA. as an alternative. Minnesota CU, with sister Minneap- These MWSA members opposed any olitan Emily Bright (a former MWSA rival suffrage amendment; after all, MWSA leader Ueland had an president) as vice chair. Summit Ave- icon Susan B. Anthony had authored open mind, but she also had clear nue resident Sophie Kenyon (MWSA the original amendment language. notions about propriety for women vice president) took charge of solic- engaging in politics. When Emmeline iting new subscriptions for the CU Pankhurst came to Minneapolis for newspaper The Suffragist.