Suffragist Banners (PDF)

## The Banners They Carried Activists have always rallied around slogans. Today, we might use hashtags like #MeToo, #NeverAgain, or #BlackLivesMatter. In the suffragists' day, banners helped to spread messages. Suffragists used their skills as seamstresses to sew sashes and banners for public event...

## The Banners They Carried Activists have always rallied around slogans. Today, we might use hashtags like #MeToo, #NeverAgain, or #BlackLivesMatter. In the suffragists' day, banners helped to spread messages. Suffragists used their skills as seamstresses to sew sashes and banners for public events. ### To ask Freedom for Women is not a Crime - **Image:** A suffragist named Mary Winsor from Pennsylvania holds a banner in front of her. The banner reads: "To ask Freedom for women is not a crime. Suffrage Prisoners should not be treated as criminals." - **Description of Image:** Mary Winsor is shown with a hat on in a photo. The photo is black and white. She is holding a banner in front of her. She looks directly at the camera. - **Description of Text:** The sign reads "To Ask Freedom for Women is Not a Crime. Suffrage Prisoners should not be treated as criminals." - **Caption under image:** Mary Winsor, a suffragist from Pennsylvania, holds a banner proclaiming the suffragists' demand to be treated as political prisoners, not criminals. As political prisoners, they would have had better treatment in jail and the opportunity to take their cause to the courts. Mary Winsor served two jail terms. ### A Delegation of Pennsylvanian Suffragists at the White House - **Image:** A black and white photo of a group of women with signs walking in a line in front of the White House. - **Caption under image:** A delegation of suffragists from Pennsylvania pickets in front of the White House. ### Suffragists from New York State picket the White House - **Image:** A photo of a group of women picketing at the White House. Some of the signs read: "New York", "Mr. President, what will you do for Woman Suffrage". - **Caption under image:** Suffragists from New York State picket the White House. The women picketed in all kinds of weather—on this cold day in January, the women are wearing rain gear. ### The National Woman’s Party - **Image:** A photo of Alice Paul leading protesters from the National Woman's Party headquarters to the White House. She carries a sign that reads: "The time has come to conquer or submit. For us there is but one choice. We have made it, President Wilson." - **Description of Image:** The photo shows the side view of Alice Paul, who is dressed in a long coat and a large hat. She is holding a sign in front of her and is leading a line of protestors. The sign appears to have a handwritten message. - **Caption under image:** Alice Paul leads a line of picketers from the National Woman’s Party headquarters to the White House. Her banner reads: “The Time Has Come To Conquer Or Submit. For Us There Is But One Choice. We Have Made It, President Wilson.” Dora Lewis, a suffragist from Philadelphia who was in her seventies, follows Alice. President Wilson had just declared that picketers would receive six-month prison sentences. ### Special Prison Pins - **Image:** A black and white image of a simple jail cell, with a barred door and a keyhole. - **Caption under image:** Alice Paul asked artist Nina Allender to design a pin honoring suffragists who were jailed for picketing the White House. Each of the 168 suffragists who were jailed received one of these silver pins. ### Kaiser Wilson - **Image:** A photo of Virginia Arnold, a suffragist from North Carolina, standing in front of a banner that reads: "Kaiser Wilson. Have you forgotten your sympathy with the poor Germans because they were not self-governed? 20,000,000 American women are not self-governed. Take the beam out of your own eye." - **Description of Image:** Virginia Arnold is shown in the photo holding a banner in front of her, in the style of a protest march. She has a serious expression on her face. - **Caption under image:** Virginia Arnold, a suffragist from North Carolina, holds a banner likening President Woodrow Wilson to a tyrant. This banner incited a near riot when it was unfurled in front of the White House.