Descriptive Record 
Enlarge Image1917
For more information on these and other NWP-related events, including links to additional images, see the Detailed Chronology (PDF).*
Jan. 9 - President Wilson rebukes deputation presenting him with Boissevain memorial resolutions.
Jan. 10 - NWP begins silent picketing of White House.
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The first suffrage picket line leaving Congressional Union headquarters to march to the White House gates. Harris & Ewing. January 10, 1917.
Mar. 1-4 - CU and NWP merge into one organization—the NWP, at convention in Washington, D.C.
Mar. 4 - “Grand Picket” — More than 1,000 women march around White House in icy, driving rain on eve of President Wilson’s second inauguration.
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“Marching seven times around the walls of Jericho,” Grand Picket at the White House, eve of President Woodrow Wilson’s second inauguration. March 4, 1917.
Apr. 2 - Federal woman suffrage amendment reintroduced in House of Representatives. Jeannette Rankin of Montana, first woman elected to Congress, formally joins House of Representatives.
Apr. 4 - Federal woman suffrage amendment reintroduced in Senate.
Apr. 6 - United States enters World War I.
June 20 - Lucy Burns and Dora Lewis picket with “Russian” banner, accusing President Wilson and American envoy Elihu Root of deceiving Russia—by claiming United States a democracy. Angry crowd destroys banner.
June 22 - Lucy Burns and Katherine Morey, first pickets arrested while demonstrating outside White House; never brought to trial.
June 22-26 - Police arrest 27 more pickets—charged with obstructing traffic; all but six released without penalty.
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[Detail] Policewoman arrests Florence Youmans (left) of Minnesota and Annie Arniel (center) of Delaware for refusing to give up their banners. June 1917.
June 27 - Six pickets sentenced to three days in District jail—first of 168 women to serve prison time for suffrage activities.
July - More pickets arrested and sentenced to jail.
Aug. 14 - Pickets carry “Kaiser Wilson” banner critical of President Wilson. Angry mob attacks pickets while police fail to intervene.
Aug.-Oct. - Attacks by bystanders and arrests of pickets continue.
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[Detail] Police arrest pickets. Harris & Ewing. August 1917.
Sept. 14 - Senator Andrieus Aristieus Jones, chair, Senate Woman Suffrage Committee, visits Occoquan Workhouse to investigate treatment of suffrage prisoners.
Sept. 15 - Senate Woman Suffrage Committee suddenly reports out suffrage bill.
Sept. 24 - After years of NWP lobbying, House of Representatives creates separate Woman Suffrage Committee, allowing suffragists to bypass House Judiciary Committee, which routinely tabled all suffrage bills.
Oct. - Imprisoned suffragists circulate secret petition demanding political prisoner status. Petition smuggled out and presented to commissioners of District of Columbia. All who signed petition put in solitary confinement.
Oct. 20-22 - Alice Paul arrested (Oct 20). Sentenced (Oct. 22) to seven months in Occoquan Workhouse.
Nov. 5 - Paul and Rose Winslow begin hunger strike after demands for treatment as political prisoners rejected; subject to force-feeding one week later. Paul transferred to psychiatric ward at District jail in effort to intimidate and discredit her.
Nov. 6 - New York becomes first eastern state granting women the vote.
Nov. 10 - Large picket protests treatment of Paul and other suffrage prisoners; 31 pickets arrested.
Nov. 15 - Force used against suffrage prisoners at Occoquan Workhouse in “Night of Terror” prompts public outcry against treatment of protesters.
Nov. 27-28 - Under political pressure, government authorities release Alice Paul, Lucy Burns, and 20 other suffrage prisoners.
