Belmont-Paul Women's Equality National Monument Historic Resource Study

Quinn Evans

The Historic Resource Study (HRS) for the Belmont-Paul Women’s Equality National Monument in Washington, DC, provides a complete historic overview of the park and identifies and evaluates the park’s cultural resources within appropriate historic contexts. Belmont-Paul Women’s Equality National Monument tells the story of a century of activism by American women, including the role of African Americans in the suffrage movement. The historic home, in the shadow of the US Capitol and Supreme Court, was purchased in 1929 under the benefaction of Alva Belmont, president of the National Woman’s Party (NWP) from 1920 to 1933. The NWP, led by founder Alice Paul, developed innovative strategies and tactics to secure passage of the 19th amendment, giving women voting rights and more. Under the leadership of Alice Paul and later Alva Belmont, nonviolent, dramatic protests became the hallmark of the NWP’s operations in Washington. Suffrage marches, daily picketing and arrests at the National Mall and White House, and speaking tours raised the public profile of the movement. Protesters faced daily violence from both passersby and the police, including having their banners ripped from their hands and being physically attacked and arrested. While imprisoned for their activism, some women protested through highly-publicized hunger strikes that resulted in forced feedings and even worse prison conditions. The brutality with which the women were treated created enormous public support for suffrage. Despite the unifying goal of women’s suffrage and equal rights, various minority women’s groups were excluded or segregated throughout the public advocacy campaigns by the more conservative National American Women’s Suffrage Association and later by the National Woman’s Party. During the 1913 Women’s Suffrage Parade, occurring prior to Woodrow Wilson’s inauguration, African American women led by notable minority women’s rights advocates Ida Wells-Barnett and Mary Church Terrell, were asked to march at the back of the parade to avoid negative press coverage and maintain the support of southern legislators who feared an increase of registered African American voters in their congressional districts. Although minority groups were often dismissed or segregated within the larger NWP’s campaigning strategies, minority groups formed their own organizations and operated with agency of their own to make their voices heard. During the march of 1913, Ida Wells-Barnett ignored the segregation policy and emerged from the crowd, taking her place between two white supporters of the Illinois delegation. After years of aggressive protesting campaigns and highly publicized brutal imprisonments, the House of Representatives and the Senate passed the Susan B. Anthony amendment in June 1919, and sent the amendment to the state legislatures for ratification. Finally on August 26th, 1920, the 19th amendment was ratified in Tennessee, marking the thirty-sixth state to ratify the bill into law. Following the long-awaited victory, the NWP focused on the next step: complete equality of the sexes under law. In 1923, Alice Paul authored the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA), and launched a campaign to win full equality for women. Paul’s dedication to women’s rights became a life-long struggle, and her fight for equality extended beyond American women, resulting in the formation of the World Woman’s Party and advocating for equal women’s rights around the world.

Belmont-Paul Women's Equality National Monument Historic Resource Study

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