In my novel, ALONG THE WAY, Sophie takes a train to Washington in February of 1919 to join Alice Paul and the National Woman's Party in the Watch Fire Demonstrations. An invaluable resource for me in writing these chapters was a book by one of the protestors, Doris Stevens, called JAILED FOR FREEDOM. 

The following are excerpts from this book: 

"December came to an end with no plan for action on the amendment assured. This left us January and February only before the session would end. The President had not yet won the necessary 2 votes. We decided therefore to keep a perpetual fire to consume the President's speeches on democracy as fast as he made them in Europe.

"And so on New Year's Day, 1919, we light our first watchfire of freedom in the Urn dedicated to that purpose. We place it on the
sidewalk in a direct line with the President's front door. The wood comes from a tree in Independence Square, Philadelphia. It burns gaily. Women with banners stand guard over the watchfire. A bell hung in the balcony at headquarters tolls rhythmically the beginning of the watch. It tolls again as the President's words are tossed to the flames. His speech to the workingmen of Manchester; his toast to the King at Buckingham Palace: "We have used great words, all of us. We have used the words `right' and `justice' and now we are to prove whether or not we understand these words;" his speech at Brest; all turn into ignominious brown ashes.

"The bell tolls again when the watch is changed. All Washington is reminded hourly that we are at the President's gate, burning his words. From Washington the news goes to all the world."

Despite harassment from young boys, old men, and police officers, the fires continued to burn. Arrests were made, but as they had broken no law, there were no charges which could be brought against them. 

"But a thorough research was instituted and out of the dusty archives some one produced an ancient statute that would serve the purpose. It prohibits the building of fires in a public place in the District of Columbia between sunset and sunrise. And so the beautiful Elizabethan custom of lighting watchfires as a form of demonstration was forbidden!"

When more women were arrested, a careful examination of the almanac determined that they had violated the above law. 

"The judge pleads almost piteously with them not to go to jail at all, and says that he will put them on probation if they will promise to be good and not light any more fires in the District of Columbia. The prisoners make no promise. They have been found guilty according to the almanac and they file through the little gate into the prisoners' pen.

"Somehow they did not believe that whether the sun rose at 7:26 or 7:28 was the issue which had decided whether they should be convicted or not, and it was not in protest against the almanac that they straightway entered upon a hunger strike."

"And so, throughout January and the beginning of February, 1919, the story of protest continued relentlessly. Watchfires-arrests-convictions-hunger strikes - release - until again the nation rose in protest against imprisoning the women and against the Senate's delay. Peremptory cables went to the President at the Peace Conference, commanding him to act."

"The suffrage score now stood as follows: One vote lacking in the Senate, 15 days in which to win it, and President Wilson across the sea! The Democrats set February 10 as the date on which the Senate would again vote on the amendment, without any plan as to how the last vote would be won.

"We were powerless to secure the last vote. That was still the President's problem. Knowing that he always put forth more effort
under fire of protest from us than when not pressed, we decided to make as a climax to our watchfire demonstrations a more
drastic form of protest. We wanted to show our contempt for the President's inadequate support which promised so much in words and which did so little in deeds to match the words.
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"And so on the day preceding the vote we burned in effigy a portrait of President Wilson even as the Revolutionary fathers
had burned a portrait of King George."

"As the marchers massed their banners, and grouped themselves about the urn, a dense crowd of many thousand people closed in about them, a crowd so interested that it stood almost motionless for two hours while the ceremonies continued. The fire being kindled, and the flames leaping into the air, Miss Sue White of Tennessee and Mrs. Gabrielle Harris of South Carolina dropped into the fire in the urn a figure of President Wilson sketched on paper in black and white -a sort of effigy de luxe, we called it, but a symbol of our contempt none the less."

"Thereupon the police fell upon the ceremonies, and indiscriminate arrests followed. Women with banners were taken; women without banners were taken. Women attempting to guard the fire; women standing by doing nothing at all; all were seized upon and rushed to the patrol."

"The following morning, February 10th, saw two not unrelated scenes in the capital. Senators were gathering in their seats in
the senate chamber to answer to the roll call on the suffrage amendment. A few blocks away in the courthouse, thirty-nine women were being tried for their protest of the previous day.
"There was no uncertainty either in the minds of the galleries or of the senators. Every one knew that we still lacked one vote."

Their time had not yet come, but the National Woman's Party was far from giving up! 

Alice Paul was such a force to be reckoned with that her jailors had to keep her separate from the other women. Her presence was such an inspiration that without even speaking, she could incite riot. The men who thought they could subdue her and bring her into submission were in for a rude awakening. Alice Paul could not be broken.

The day after the police announced that future protesting in front of the White House would result in arrest and imprisonment, Alice Paul led the picket line with a banner quoting President Wilson: "The time has come to conquer or submit for there is but one choice--we have made it." He may have been speaking of the Axis Powers, but she was every bit as determined to win this war for the right of women to have a say in their own government.

She and the other women with her were arrested, although they had committed no crime. Once imprisoned, Alice Paul employed the tactics she had learned in England from Emmaline Pankhurst and went on a hunger strike to prove that though the body may be taken prisoner, the spirit is still free. In this game of wills, the ball was in her jailor's court. They force-fed her and the other women who refused to eat by placing tubes down their nose and injecting raw eggs directly into their stomachs, causing vomiting, bleeding, and psychological trauma.

They further tortured these hungry women by preparing food outside their cells and tempting them with the smells. All it would have taken for me to cave is a whiff of freshly baked chocolate chip cookies, but they stood strong. The next tactic was to have Alice Paul examined by a psychologist, declared insane, and committed to an asylum. Even physically and emotionally weakened by her experiences, Alice kept her wits about her and was able to answer the questions succinctly. The psychologist was a man of integrity and declared her fit. He told her captors that she had "a spirit like Joan of Arc, and it is useless to try to change it. She will die but she will never give up."
 
Reports of the abuse were leaked to the newspapers and created sympathy and support for the suffragists. Another point for Alice Paul. In February of 1919, twenty-six women of the National Woman's Party, including Lucy Burns--who held the record for the most times arrested--brought further attention to their cause by going on tour and giving speeches dressed in prison uniforms. They traveled by train, named the "Democracy Limited," though it was known by the public as "The Prison Special." 

Louisine Havemeyer, a respected art collector and philanthropist, was a frequent speaker on the route. She later wrote: "The women of America were to languish in a dirty, discarded prison, because they dared to ask for their democracy." 

They refused to be silenced. They refused to give up. Alice Paul, who had been raised by a Quaker family followed her mother's words of wisdom: "When you put your hand to the plow, you can't put it down until you get to the end of the row."

After the United States entered World War 2, some expressed concern that it might be considered treasonous to continue protesting outside the White House. However, Alice Paul and many of her stalwart followers insisted that they were not promoting anti-American propaganda, only standing strong in their belief that women should have the right to vote for those who represent them. 

For two and half years, beginning in January of 1917 and lasting until June 4, 1919 when the Nineteenth Amendment was passed by both the House of Representatives and the Senate, the women stood vigil outside the White House six days a week. They were at first met with some amusement, then as the protests continued, the response began to vary. Some supported them, others disapproved (such as Carrie Chapman Catt, leader of the National American Woman Suffrage Association), while others opposed them with words of insult or physical violence.

When the protesters remained undeterred in their commitment and began to gain publicity for their cause, something had to be done about them. They were arrested under charges of obstructing traffic, but the suffragettes refused to pay the fines and accepted jail time instead. As soon as they were released, they resumed their posts and were arrested again.

In July, sixteen women were arrested and sentenced to sixty days in jail or to pay a twenty-five dollar fine. Guess what these brave women chose? They were sent to the Occoquan Workhouse in Virginia where conditions were unsanitary and unsafe. President Wilson pardoned the women after they had served three days, but they refused to accept his pardon on the basis that they were innocent of committing a crime. They contended that they were not criminals but political prisoners. They were forced out, but later arrested again and returned to the workhouse.

In November of 1917, the superintendent of the Occoquan Workhouse ordered the guards to brutalize the women in an event which is referred to as "The Night of Terror." Lucy Burns was beaten, her hands chained to the cell bars above her head, and left for the night. Dora Lewis was violently thrown into a cell and rendered unconscious by the force of her head smashing against the iron bed. Her cellmate Alice Cosu believed Lewis was dead and suffered a heart attack. Other women were beaten, choked, pinched, kicked, and grabbed. 

The story was leaked to the newspapers and brought national attention to the suffragettes, their cause, and their dedication to it. Two weeks after their arrest, the women were released. The Circuit Court of Appeals vacated their convictions on the basis that the charges were overly vague.

In January of 1918, the day before the amendment was presented to Congress for a vote, President Wilson made a statement in support of the women's suffrage movement. Although the vote narrowly passed in the House of Representatives, the Senate refused to debate it until October, where it failed by two votes. 

The protests continued and so did the arrests. 
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She joined the National American Woman Suffrage Association, led by Carrie Chapman Catt, but the two women differed in opinion on tactics and Alice Paul split off to form a new group, the National Woman's Party. Years of asking nicely and playing the demure lady had failed to change anything. Alice Paul believed it was time to shake things up.

​Alice Paul, with her friend Lucy Burns, were the first to lead pickets at the White House. President Woodrow Wilson didn't take the women very seriously, tipping his hat in greeting as he came and went. When the United States entered World War 1 in 1917, many believed that it was unpatriotic to continue these pickets. Alice Paul, Lucy Burns, and other members of the NWP disagreed and continued to bring public attention to their cause.

Their tactics were nonviolent and they were referred to as the Silent Sentinels standing at the gates of the White House with signs that proclaimed their beliefs. No matter how provoked, they held their silence. Under false charges, they were arrested and imprisoned. In response, they went on hunger strikes and were force-fed. They suffered years of ridicule, harassment, and abuse as they continued to push for the basic right women deserved as citizens of their country: the right to elect their own leaders and to participate in their own government. 
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Their tactics brought attention to the inconsistency of the President's campaign to bring democracy to nations abroad while continuing to deny the citizens of his own country the right to vote because of their gender. It finally became politically expedient to grant the women their request and the 19th amendment was ratified in 1920--seventy-two years after the Seneca Falls Convention in 1848, the first national push for women's rights, led by Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Lucretia Mott.