At first President Wilson was not very responsive to the women's protest. At some points he even seemed amused, lifting his hat and smiling. It was said that at one point Wilson even invited them out for coffee. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an original essay At other times, he ignored the protests altogether, such as when the Sentinels protested on the day of his second inauguration ceremony. As the Sentinels continued to protest, the issue grew bigger and Wilson's opinion began to change. Although he continued to detest the Silent Sentinels, he began to recognize them as a group that posed a serious problem for him. After President Wilson's re-election, Alice Paul invited members of the National Woman's Party to picket the White House to persuade the president to pressure Democratic senators to vote for a constitutional suffrage amendment. Lucy Burns led most of the picket demonstrations. The protesters were not harassed and, in fact, the president often waved to them as he left the White House. To maintain the interest of the press, Paul and Burns organized groups representing women from different walks of life to picket lines on different days. Founded by Alice Paul and Lucy Burns in 1913, the National Woman's Party (NWP) fought for women's suffrage. It was originally called the Congressional Union for Women's Suffrage (CU), until 1916 when it developed a new name, NWP. The party split from a larger party, the National Woman Suffrage Association (NAWSA), which was based primarily in Washington. The NWP split from NAWSA because it wanted work on women's suffrage to be concentrated at the federal level, rather than just at the state and local level. They opposed President Wilson, all Democrats, as well as World War I, often finding themselves at odds. with other suffragettes. The NWP was an aggressive party, with goals of direct action and confrontation to send its message, rather than the passive tactics practiced in the past. The NWP conducted marches, acts of civil disobedience, and became the first group to picket the White House. On June 22, 1917, police arrested marchers Lucy Burns and Katherine Morey on charges of obstructing traffic because they carried a banner quoting Wilson's speech. to Congress. The charges were dropped. The police warned the women that if they continued they would be arrested. However, they persisted. The first arrests took place in June: three-day sentences, most for "obstruction of the sidewalk". The judges fined the protesters $25, which they refused to pay. After serving the three days, the women returned to their places in front of the White House. But the women arrested in August were sentenced to 60 days – in Occoquan. The military often agitated the protesters and, in some cases, attacked the pickets while the police did nothing to prevent the clash. By November, several protesters had been arrested multiple times and Whittaker had lost his temper. The suffragettes asked to be considered political prisoners, a distinction that could perhaps mean better treatment at the D.C. prison instead of Occoquan. When the women arrived at the Occoquan Workhouse (now Lorton Correctional Complex) they were asked to give up everything except their clothes. They were then taken to a shower station where they were ordered to strip naked and wash themselves. There was only one bar of soap available for everyone in the workhouse, so all the suffragettes refused to use it. Subsequently they weregiven them baggy, dirty, uncomfortable prison clothes and taken to dinner. They could barely eat their dinner because it was too sour and disgusting. Conditions at the Occoquan Workhouse were very unsanitary and dangerous. Prisoners had to share cells and many other things with those who had syphilis, and worms were often found in their food. After serving three days in the Occoquan Workhouse in Virginia, Wilson pardoned the women. At first they refused to be pardoned because they were innocent and had nothing to be forgiven for, but eventually they were forced to leave. After heated debate, the House of Representatives created a committee to address women's suffrage in September 1917. Massachusetts Congressman Joseph Walsh opposed the creation of the committee, thinking that the House was giving in to the "complaints of iron-jawed angels." . to the Silent Sentinels as "bewildered, deluded creatures with short skirts and short hair." As the suffragettes continued to protest, prison sentences became longer. Eventually, police arrested Alice Paul on October 20, 1917, as she carried a banner quoting Wilson: "The time has come to conquer or submit, for us there can only be one choice. We have made it." She was sentenced to seven months in prison. Paul and several others were again sent to the Occoquan Workhouse, where Paul was placed in solitary confinement for two weeks, with nothing to eat except bread and water. She became weak and unable to walk, so she was taken to the prison hospital. There she went on a hunger strike and others joined her. In response to the hunger strike, prison doctors force-fed the women by inserting tubes down their throats. They force-fed them substances that contained as much protein as possible, such as raw eggs mixed with milk. Many women ended up vomiting because their stomachs couldn't handle the protein. One doctor reported that Alice Paul 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." Nolan and most of the others were arrested on November 10, 1917. , they were sent to the Occoquan Workhouse in Virginia. Upon arrival at the shelter, the women refused to wear prison uniforms or work; guards became violent, kicking and beating prisoners in what became known in the suffrage movement as “The Night of Terror.” The women again resorted to hunger strike. After their release, many were too weak to walk on their own. The heart of the story, during the event: When Woodrow Wilson took office in January, protesters took stands outside the White House, holding vigils around the clock demanding votes for women. Despite the ongoing world war, they refused to step aside or muffle their demands. Instead, Alice Paul, Lucy Burns, and other members of the National Woman's Party aimed to humiliate the president and expose the hypocrisy of "making the world safe for democracy" when there was none at home. Their banners read: "Mr. President, how long must women wait for freedom?" They hung Wilson in effigy and burned copies of his speeches. The arrests began in June. “Obstructing traffic” was the usual charge, but many prison officials, as well as citizens, considered the suffragettes traitors. In the Occoquan Workhouse in Virginia they ate rancid food; they were denied medical care and refused visits. The protesters demanded political prisoner status. It was denied. But the government's tactics didn't work. Once released from prison, the women returned to the gates of the White House. Their ranks swelled. In November there were more marches and more arrests. She had beenan investigation was launched into the conditions of Occoquan and the activities of its superintendent, W. H. Whittaker, whose particular cruelty was well known. Whittaker and his hospice guards welcomed 33 returning protesters in what became known as the infamous "Night of Terror" in November. 14, 1917. Forty-four club-wielding men beat, kicked, dragged, and suffocated their accusers, including at least one 73-year-old woman. Women were lifted into the air and thrown to the ground. One was stabbed between the eyes with the broken staff of her banner. Lucy Burns was handcuffed to the bars of her cell in a torturous position. Women were dragged by arm-twisting guards and thrown into concrete "punishment cells." At Occoquan, rats ran in and out of dark cells. The prisoners held competitions to count the number of worms in the food. And prison denied women the most basic human dignity: privacy. “In the morning we were taken one by one to a bathroom down the hall,” Day recalled in her memoir, “The Long Solitude.” “There was a toilet in each cell, open, and paper and flushing were provided by the guard. It was as if we were in a zoo with the bars open looking onto the corridor." Four hours later, Occoquan superintendent W. H. Whittaker placed his guards on the women. Dora Lewis, thrown into a cell, hit her head on an iron bed. Cellmate Alice Cosu thought Lewis was dead (she survived) and suffered a heart attack. Lucy Burns was stripped naked, with her hands raised above her head and chained to the bars until the next day. Some women protested against the physical abuse they suffered that night by going on hunger strike. For their troubles, they were force-fed raw eggs and milk, which made them violently ill. Those who did not fast were fed such horrible food, part of the psychological game of cat and mouse, that they sent the maggots found in the soup and bread to the director. Soon after: Newspapers carried stories about how protesters were treated. The stories angered some Americans and subsequently created more support for the suffrage amendment. On November 27 and 28 all the protesters were released, including Alice Paul, after spending five weeks in prison. Later, in March 1918, the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals overturned the convictions of six suffragettes. The court found that the information on which the women's conviction was based was overly vague. Despite all the pain, this brutal night may have changed that. Less than two weeks later, a court-ordered hearing exposed the beaten women to the world, and the judge agreed that they had been terrorized simply for exercising their constitutional right to protest. It would take another three years to get the vote, but the brave women of 1917 had achieved a new definition of female patriotism. After about two weeks, a court-ordered hearing into the charges against the women suffragettes took place. The hearing's decision declared that each of the 218 suffragettes had been unlawfully arrested, unlawfully convicted and unlawfully imprisoned. The Night of Terror was not addressed at the hearing. The women who were illegally imprisoned and tortured for picketing aimed to promote women's rights, and were supported by the National Woman's Party. However, when the Nineteenth Amendment for women's rights was passed in 1920, the NWP was given very little credit. Aside from the fact that women were illegally arrested for exercising their constitutional right to protest, their human rights were continually violated.