Early Activism
Burns first major experiences with activism were with the Pankhursts in the United Kingdom from 1909 to 1912. While attending graduate school in Germany, Lucy Burns traveled briefly to England where she met Emmeline Pankhurst and her daughters Christabel and Sylvia. She was so inspired by their activism and charisma that she dropped her graduate studies to stay with them and work in the Women's Social and Political Union, an organization dedicated to fighting for women's rights in the United Kingdom. Burns was employed by the Women’s Social and Political Union as a salaried organizer from 1910 to 1912. While working with the Pankhursts in the United Kingdom, Lucy Burns became increasingly passionate about activism and participated in numerous campaigns with the WSPU. One of her first major contributions was organizing a parade in Edinburgh as part of the campaign in Scotland in 1909. While Burns is not a widely known speaker from the woman’s rights movement, she did make a variety of speeches in marketplaces and on street corners while in Europe. Her activism resulted in numerous court appearances and reports of “disorderly conduct” in the newspapers.
While working with the WSPU, Lucy Burns met Alice Paul at a London police station. Both women had been arrested for demonstrating, and Alice Paul introduced herself when she noticed that Lucy Burns was wearing an American flag pin on her lapel. The women discussed their suffrage experiences in the United Kingdom and the American women’s movement. Burns and Paul bonded over their frustration with the inactivity and ineffective leadership of the American suffrage movement by Anna Howard Shaw. Their similar passions and fearlessness in the face of opposition made them quickly become good friends. Both women were passionate about activism, and the feminist struggle for equality in the UK inspired Burns and Paul to continue the fight in the United States in 1912.
Suffrage historian Eleanor Clift compares the partnership of Paul and Burns to that of Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton. She notes that they "were opposites in appearance and temperament... hereas Paul appeared fragile, Burns was tall and curvaceous, the picture of vigorous health...unlike Paul, who was uncompromising and hard to get along with, Burns was pliable and willing to negotiate. Paul was the militant; Burns, the diplomat." Despite their stark differences Paul and Burns worked together so effectively that followers would often describe them as having “one mind and spirit.”. This information can be fixed.
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