Lucy Burns - Final Push For Suffrage

Final Push For Suffrage

Burns and other suffragists had been told by the chairman of the House Committee on Suffrage that the House would not pass a suffrage amendment before 1920. To their surprise, it was announced in late 1917 that the House would make a decision on January 10, 1918. The amendment passed in the House by a vote of 274 to 136, and the women of the NWP, including Burns, began working on the 11 additional votes they would need for the amendment to pass in the Senate. Unfortunately on June 27, 1918, the Senate narrowly failed to pass the amendment.

Burns and Paul were enraged, but after coming so close there was no chance that they were going to give up now. They resumed their protests at the White House on August 6, 1918. Once again the women were jailed, exposed to horrendous conditions, and released shortly thereafter. Their focus then was moved to helping pro-suffrage candidates get elected in November. For the first time the NWP did not give allegiance to one party over another; they supported anyone who was willing to support suffrage, and this cost the Democrats their majority in Congress.

As tensions grew between the suffragists and President Wilson, he realized something had to be done quickly to end the highly publicized protests and clashes between the police and suffragists. He requested that Congress convene for a special session in May 1919. On May 21 the House of Representatives passed the Susan B. Anthony amendment 304 to 89, and on June 4, the Senate passed it 66 to 30. Surprisingly, the suffragists were very subdued at the announcement of this victory. The suffragists battle was not yet over; they still had to make sure a majority of the states ratified the amendment. Finally on August 1920, Tennessee became the thirty-sixth state to ratify the Anthony amendment, and Burns quest for federal suffrage was finally over.

At this point Burns was completely exhausted and quoted as saying “I don’t want to do anything more. I think we have done all this for women, and we have sacrificed everything we possessed for them, and now let them fight for it now. I am not going to fight anymore.” All of her time spent in jail and experiences as a suffragist had left her bitter towards married women and others who didn’t take action during the suffrage movement. After the women of the United States gained the right to vote, Burns retired from political life and devoted herself to the Catholic Church and her orphaned niece. She died on December 22, 1966 in Brooklyn, New York.