- For other people named Burns, see Burns (disambiguation).
Lucy Burns (July 28, 1879 – December 22, 1966) was an
AmericanThe United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
suffragistSuffrage is the civil right to vote, or the exercise of that right. It is also called political franchise or simply the franchise. Suffrage may apply to elections, but also extends to initiatives and referendums...
and
womenA woman is a female human. The term woman is usually reserved for an adult, with the term girl being the usual term for a female child or adolescent...
's rights advocate. She was a close friend of
Alice PaulAlice Stokes Paul was an American suffragist leader. Along with Lucy Burns and others, she led a successful campaign for women's suffrage that resulted in the passage of the Nineteenth Amendment to the U.S...
. Together, they formed the
National Woman's PartyThe National Woman's Party , was a women's organization founded in 1916 that fought for women's rights during the early 20th century in the United States, particularly for the right to vote on the same terms as men...
.
Burns was born in Brooklyn, New York to an
IrishIreland is the third-largest island in Europe and the twentieth-largest island in the world. It lies to the north-west of continental Europe and is surrounded by hundreds of islands and islets. To the east of Ireland, separated by the Irish Sea, is the island of Great Britain...
CatholicThe word Catholic is derived from the Greek adjective , meaning "universal". In the context of Christian ecclesiology, it has a rich history and several usages. For some, the term "Catholic Church" refers to the church in full communion with the Bishop of Rome, made up of the Latin Rite and the 22...
family. She was a gifted student and attended
universityA university is an institution of higher education and research, which grants academic degrees in a variety of subjects. A university provides both undergraduate education and postgraduate education...
at
Vassar CollegeVassar College is a private, coeducational, liberal arts college situated in the town of Poughkeepsie, New York, USA. Founded as a women's college in 1861, it became coeducational in 1969.-Overview:...
and
Yale UniversityYale University is a private research university in New Haven, Connecticut, and a member of the Ivy League. Founded in 1701 in the Colony of Connecticut, the university is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States. Yale has produced many notable alumni, including five...
before becoming an English teacher.
- For other people named Burns, see Burns (disambiguation).
Lucy Burns (July 28, 1879 – December 22, 1966) was an
AmericanThe United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
suffragistSuffrage is the civil right to vote, or the exercise of that right. It is also called political franchise or simply the franchise. Suffrage may apply to elections, but also extends to initiatives and referendums...
and
womenA woman is a female human. The term woman is usually reserved for an adult, with the term girl being the usual term for a female child or adolescent...
's rights advocate. She was a close friend of
Alice PaulAlice Stokes Paul was an American suffragist leader. Along with Lucy Burns and others, she led a successful campaign for women's suffrage that resulted in the passage of the Nineteenth Amendment to the U.S...
. Together, they formed the
National Woman's PartyThe National Woman's Party , was a women's organization founded in 1916 that fought for women's rights during the early 20th century in the United States, particularly for the right to vote on the same terms as men...
.
Early life and education
Burns was born in Brooklyn, New York to an
IrishIreland is the third-largest island in Europe and the twentieth-largest island in the world. It lies to the north-west of continental Europe and is surrounded by hundreds of islands and islets. To the east of Ireland, separated by the Irish Sea, is the island of Great Britain...
CatholicThe word Catholic is derived from the Greek adjective , meaning "universal". In the context of Christian ecclesiology, it has a rich history and several usages. For some, the term "Catholic Church" refers to the church in full communion with the Bishop of Rome, made up of the Latin Rite and the 22...
family. She was a gifted student and attended
universityA university is an institution of higher education and research, which grants academic degrees in a variety of subjects. A university provides both undergraduate education and postgraduate education...
at
Vassar CollegeVassar College is a private, coeducational, liberal arts college situated in the town of Poughkeepsie, New York, USA. Founded as a women's college in 1861, it became coeducational in 1969.-Overview:...
and
Yale UniversityYale University is a private research university in New Haven, Connecticut, and a member of the Ivy League. Founded in 1701 in the Colony of Connecticut, the university is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States. Yale has produced many notable alumni, including five...
before becoming an English teacher. In 1906 at age twenty-seven she moved to
GermanyGermany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a country in Central Europe. It is bordered to the north by the North Sea, Denmark, and the Baltic Sea; to the east by Poland and the Czech Republic; to the south by Austria and Switzerland; and to the west by France, Luxembourg, Belgium,...
to resume her studies in language. She returned to New York in 1908 to work as a teacher again. Three years later Burns moved to the
United KingdomThe United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland is a sovereign state located off the northwestern coast of continental Europe. It is an island country, spanning an archipelago including Great Britain, the northeastern part of Ireland, and many small islands...
, where she graduated from Oxford University.
Suffragist
Lucy Burns met
Alice PaulAlice Stokes Paul was an American suffragist leader. Along with Lucy Burns and others, she led a successful campaign for women's suffrage that resulted in the passage of the Nineteenth Amendment to the U.S...
in England after becoming a member of the
Women's Social and Political UnionThe Women's Social and Political Union was the leading militant organisation campaigning for Women's suffrage in the United Kingdom...
, an organization dedicated to fighting for women's rights in the United Kingdom. The feminist struggle for equality and woman's suffrage in the UK inspired Burns and Paul to continue the fight on their return to the United States. They joined the National American Women Suffrage Association as its
CongressionalThe United States Congress is the bicameral legislature of the federal government of the United States of America, consisting of two houses, the Senate and the House of Representatives. Both senators and representatives are chosen through direct election....
lobbyists. However, they eventually split from NAWSA in a dispute over tactics and, in 1913 formed the Congressional Union for Women Suffrage.
Suffrage historian
Eleanor CliftEleanor Clift is an American political reporter, television pundit and author. She is currently a contributing editor for Newsweek magazine. Her column, "Capitol Letter" is posted each week on the Newsweek and MSNBC websites...
compares the partnership of Paul and Burns to that of
Susan B. AnthonySusan Brownell Anthony was a prominent American civil rights leader who played a pivotal role in the 19th century women's rights movement to introduce women's suffrage into the United States. She traveled the United States and Europe, and gave 75 to 100 speeches every year on women's rights for 45...
and
Elizabeth Cady StantonElizabeth Cady Stanton was an American social activist abolitionist, and leading figure of the early woman's movement...
. She notes that they "were opposites in appearance and temperament... [w]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."
Three years later, dissatisfied with the progress of congressional lobbying, they formed the
National Woman's PartyThe National Woman's Party , was a women's organization founded in 1916 that fought for women's rights during the early 20th century in the United States, particularly for the right to vote on the same terms as men...
(NWP). They were feared and despised by many men of the era, and were opposed by conservative women as well as by more conservative
suffragetteSuffragette is a term originally coined by the Daily Mail newspaper as a derogatory label for the more radical and militant members of the late-19th and early-20th century movement for women's suffrage in the United Kingdom, in particular members of the Women's Social and Political Union...
s who advocated less militant tactics. However, Burns and Paul were committed to direct action in fighting for
women's rightsThe term women's rights refers to freedoms and entitlements of women and girls of all ages. These rights may or may not be institutionalized, ignored or suppressed by law, local custom, and behavior in a particular society...
, particularly the right to vote. The National Woman's Party led dozens of women to picket the
White HouseThe White House is the official residence and principal workplace of the President of the United States. Located at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW in Washington, D.C., it was built between 1792 and 1800 of white-painted Aquia sandstone in the late Georgian style and has been the residence of every...
in
Washington, D.C.Washington, D.C. , formally the District of Columbia and commonly referred to as Washington, the District, or simply D.C., is the capital of the United States, founded on July 16, 1790...
beginning in 1916. The NWP was not a
politicalPolitics is a process by which groups of people make decisions. The term is generally applied to behavior within civil governments, but politics has been observed in all human group interactions, including corporate, academic and religious institutions...
party
per se and did not run candidates for office. A bi-partisan organization, it directed its attacks at the office of the
President of the United StatesThe President of the United States is the head of state and head of government of the United States and is the highest political official in the United States by influence and recognition...
, in this case,
Woodrow WilsonThomas Woodrow Wilson was the 28th President of the United States. A leading intellectual of the Progressive Era, he served as President of Princeton University from 1902 to 1910, and then as the Governor of New Jersey from 1911 to 1913...
. Burns also opposed
World War IWorld War I , also known as the First World War, the Great War, and the War to End All Wars, was a global military conflict which involved most of the world's great powers, assembled in two opposing alliances: the Triple Entente and the Triple Alliance...
, seeing it as a war led by powerful men that resulted in young men being drafted and giving their lives with little free will.
Burns was arrested while picketing the White House and was sent to Occoquan Workhouse. In jail, Burns joined Alice Paul and many other women in
hunger strikeA hunger strike is a method of non-violent resistance or pressure in which participants fast as an act of political protest, or to provoke feelings of guilt in others, usually with the objective to achieve a specific goal, such as a policy change. Most hunger strikers will take liquids but not...
s, to demonstrate their commitment to their cause, claiming that they were political prisoners. Burns was force-fed and possibly
tortureTorture, according to the United Nations Convention Against Torture, is:In addition to state-sponsored torture, individuals or groups may be motivated to inflict torture on others for similar reasons to those of a state; however, the motive for torture can also be for the sadistic gratification of...
d, as was Paul. Clift recounts that the force feeding of Lucy Burns required "five people to hold her down, and when she refused to open her mouth, they shoved the feeding tube up her nostril." Of the well-known suffragists of the era, Burns spent the most time in jail.
After women gained the right to vote in the United States, Burns retired from political life and devoted herself to the Catholic Church and her orphaned niece. She died on December 22, 1966.
In 2004,
HBO FilmsHBO Films is a division of the cable television network HBO that produces feature films and miniseries. While much of HBO Films' output is created directly for the television market, such as the film Witness Protection and the mini-series Band of Brothers and Angels in America, it has also...
broadcast "
Iron Jawed AngelsIron Jawed Angels is a 2004 film about the American women's suffrage movement during the 1910s. It was filmed in Virginia, produced by HBO Films, and released in 2004...
", chronicling the struggle of Lucy Burns, Alice Paul and other suffragists. Burns was portrayed by Australian actress
Frances O'ConnorFrances O'Connor is a British-born Australian actress.-Background:O'Connor was born in Wantage, Oxfordshire, England to a pianist mother and nuclear physicist father. When O'Connor was two, her family moved back to Perth, Western Australia. O'Connor was raised a Roman Catholic and attended the...
.
External links