For years, suffragists lobbied Congress and picketed the White House to make the point that women were equal citizens to men and deserved the right to vote. In 1917, with our country newly involved in WWI, women across the nation helped with the war effort, even taking over men’s jobs; and yet they still could not participate in making the laws that governed themselves. So, they increased their presence in front of the White House with daily silent picketing, carrying a variety of protest banners.

The administration couldn’t bear it, and arrested 218 women over four months (168 imprisoned) to send the message to stop. The suffragists had broken no laws. While incarcerated at Occoquan Workhouse, the women were clubbed, beaten, and tortured with force-feedings. Lucy Burns, co-founder of the National Woman’s Party and the subject of this artwork, was manacled by her hands to the bars above her cell and forced to stand all night. Another woman suffered a heart attack and was denied medical care.

November 14, 1917 was the worst night of abuse for the suffragists and was so dubbed the “Night of Terror”. They were released on November 28th. In March 1918, the D.C. Court of Appeals declared that all the suffragist arrests had been unconstitutional.