Lucy Burns

Suffragist, women’s rights activist

• Born: July 28, 1879
• Place of Birth: Place of birth: New York, New York
• Died: December 22, 1966
• Place of Death: Place of death: New York, New York

Education: Vassar College; Yale University; Columbia University; University of Berlin; University of Bonn; University of Oxford

Significance: Lucy Burns was an American activist who fought for women’s right to vote. She was part of the National Woman’s Party, a group that broke from the National American Woman Suffrage Association (NAWSA). After years of fighting, women gained the right to vote on August 26, 1920.

Background

Lucy Burns was born on July 28, 1879, in the Brooklyn section of New York City, a daughter of Edward and Ann Early Burns. The Irish Catholic family included eight children. Burns’s father, who was a bank vice president, wanted his five daughters to be educated. Burns and her sisters attended the all-girls school Packer Collegiate Institute in Brooklyn Heights.

Burns graduated from Vassar College in 1902 with a degree in English. She then studied entomology at Yale University and German at Columbia University. Over the next few years, she struggled to find employment, noticing the limited options for women. She eventually found a job teaching English at Erasmus Hall High School; she also coached basketball.

Burns traveled to Europe, where she attended the University of Berlin and the University of Bonn in Germany and the University of Oxford in England. While at the latter, she became interested in women’s rights and joined the suffrage movement in Britain. She decided to leave her studies and become a member of the Women’s Social and Political Union (WSPU), which was headed by Emmeline Pankhurst. Burns was arrested during a protest at Parliament in 1909. While at the police station, she met fellow American Alice Paul, who also was arrested for the disturbance. The two became close friends and worked for women’s rights in Britain.

Life’s Work

In 1912, Burns returned to the United States; she again teamed with Paul, who had arrived in the country earlier, to fight for women’s right to vote in America. They became members of the congressional committee for the National American Woman Suffrage Association (NAWSA). With the help of NAWSA, they staged a parade on March 3, 1913, the day before the inauguration of President Woodrow Wilson.

Burns and Paul had disagreements about their tactics with NAWSA and eventually broke free to form the Congressional Union for Woman Suffrage (CU). Burns served as national vice chairman and in other capacities of the CU. In November 1913, Burns wrote a meeting notice in chalk on a sidewalk in Washington that got her in trouble with the law. NAWSA president Anna Howard Shaw got involved and demanded that Burns plead ignorance of the law. Burns, who thought the incident was funny, obliged. This widened the gap between NAWSA and the CU.

In 1914, Burns urged the CU to oppose the Democratic candidates in a defiant act to hold the party in power responsible for not allowing women the right to vote. In the years that followed, she traveled to western states where women could vote to spread her campaign message. The CU became the National Woman’s Party in 1916, and Burns served as its executive committee member and also held other positions within the organization.

Wilson was reelected in 1916, and in December, Burns and a few others attended Wilson’s address to Congress. They brought a banner that read, "Mr. President, What Will You Do for Woman Suffrage?" The following year, Burns organized pickets at the White House. She also was involved in another incident in mid-1917 at the White House, in which she held a banner that read Russian women had more freedoms than American women did at the time. Bystanders attacked the women, and Burns was arrested along with several others for obstructing traffic.

Burns was arrested a few more times throughout 1917 and 1918; she was once imprisoned for six months in a Maryland workhouse. Burns was defiant in prison, refused to eat, and was eventually force-fed via a feeding tube put up her nose.

After her release, Burns continued to fight for her cause. Women eventually gained the right to vote in 1920 with the passage of the Nineteenth Amendment. At this time, Burns felt her work was finished, and she retired. She moved back home to care for her family in Brooklyn, where she remained until her death in 1966.

Impact

Burns grew up in a household that believed women should have the same rights as men. She noticed that women were not treated the same as men, and this angered her. She believed that women should be granted the right to vote; Burns worked hard for this cause. During her lifetime, Burns was arrested and sent to prison six times for her involvement in the women’s suffrage movement. She refused to back down and continued to fight for what she believed all women deserved. Her tireless fighting eventually paid off when women received the right to vote. Although she retired afterward, she inspired many women to stand up for what they believed.

Personal Life

After women gained the right to vote, Burns stayed in New York out of the public eye and away from the political arena. She raised her niece after her youngest sister died during childbirth in 1923. Burns devoted her later years to the Catholic Church.

Bibliography

"Burns, Lucy." Social Welfare History Project. Social Welfare History Project. Web. 13 May 2016.

"Lucy Burns." National Women’s History Museum. National Women’s History Museum. Web. 13 May 2016.

"Lucy Burns." US National Park Service, 7 Aug. 2024, www.nps.gov/people/lucy-burns.htm. Accessed 30 Sept. 2024.

"Our Story." Lucy Burns Institute. Lucy Burns Institute. Web. 13 May 2016.

Walton, Mary. "Lucy Burns." American National Biography Online. American Council of Learned Societies. Feb. 2000. Web. 13 May 2016.

"Women We Celebrate: Lucy Burns." Sewall-Belmont House & Museum. Sewall-Belmont House & Museum. Web. 13 May 2016.