Marker Logo HMdb.org THE HISTORICAL
MARKER DATABASE
“Bite-Size Bits of Local, National, and Global History”
“Bite-Size Bits of Local, National, and Global History”
Near Lorton in Fairfax County, Virginia — The American South (Mid-Atlantic)
REMOVED
SEE LOCATION SECTION
 

Women Suffrage Prisoners at Occoquan Workhouse

Occoquan Regional Park

 
 
Women Suffrage Prisoners at Occoquan Workhouse Marker image. Click for full size.
Photographed By Kevin White, September 6, 2007
1. Women Suffrage Prisoners at Occoquan Workhouse Marker
Inscription. Adjacent to this park a group of women was imprisoned in 1917 for demanding the right to vote. The road to Occoquan Workhouse had started in 1848.

In July 1848 at the Seneca Falls Convention in New York, officially opening the American women’s rights movement, a controversial resolution was adopted: “Resolved, which is the duty of women of this country to secure to themselves their sacred right to the elective franchise.” Elizabeth Cady Stanton was able to get the resolution passed only with the help of Frederick Douglas, the former slave and famous abolitionist orator. For many years progress was slow and as late as 1913 women had full suffrage only in nine states and the territory of Alaska which had no presidential electors.

Marking a dramatic change in the polite crusade for votes for women, the National Woman’s Party, founded in 1916 by Alice Paul, adopted the strategy of holding the party in power responsible for the success or failure of woman suffrage. Attempting to persuade President Wilson and the Democratic Party to support actively the Susan B. Anthony amendment, first proposed in 1878, the National Woman’s Party began to picket the White House in 1917. Beginning in June 1917 scores of women were arrested, found guilty of unlawful assembly, sentenced to pay a fine of $25, or serve a term in jail. Preferring
Paid Advertisement
Click on the ad for more information.
Please report objectionable advertising to the Editor.
Click or scan to see
this page online
jail rather than paying what they considered to be unjust fines, the women were given sentences ranging from 30 to 60 days and in some instance 6 months. Some went to D.C. Jails the majority were sent to Occoquan Workhouse, now Lorton Reformatory, Lorton, Virginia.

Among those arrested were graduates of distinguished educational institutions, students, teachers, nurses, at least two physicians, a geologist, and a professor of history. The socially prominent included Lucy Ewing, niece of Adlai Stevenson, Vice President under Cleveland. The youngest arrested was 19 and the oldest to serve at Occoquan was 73. She found scrubbing floors almost beyond her strength.

The women had their mail withheld, were confronted with unwashed blankets, contaminated food, forced into prison dress and ordered to perform prison work. Protesting the poor treatment and general state of prison conditions, the women insisted they were political prisoners and should be treated accordingly. Some refused to work, were put in solitary confinement and given bread and water. Others, led by Lucy Burns of the Executive Committee of the National Woman’s Party, went on a hunger strike and were force-fed. As news of the extreme treatment given the suffrage prisoners began to emerge, public indignation and demands for an investigation of conditions finally forced their release late in 1917. Upon
Women Suffrage Prisoners at Occoquan Workhouse Marker image. Click for full size.
Photographed By Kevin White, September 6, 2007
2. Women Suffrage Prisoners at Occoquan Workhouse Marker
In the background is the Occoquan Workhouse Beehive Brick Oven, which convicts used to make the bricks used in constructing historic durable buildings throughout northern Virginia.
appeal, the sentences of the women imprisoned at Occoquan were reversed in 1918.

By August 26, 1920, the Susan B. Anthony amendment was ratified, ending a struggle for basic political rights that had lasted for 72 years. The woman suffrage prisoners at Occoquan had contributed significantly to that victory.

Sixty-five years after imprisonment, recognition was finally given these women. On March 6, 1982, under the leadership of Joseph T. Flakne and the auspices of the League of Women Voters of Fairfax, a handsome marker commemorating them was unveiled on route 123, near Youth Center No.2. The commonwealth of Virginia ratified the amendment giving women the right to vote in February 1952.

Evelyn L. Pugh
Professor of History
George Mason University


Sidebar under the right picture: Alice Paul designed the jail door pin as a symbol of appreciation for the women who had been imprisoned.
 
Erected by Northern Virginia Regional Park Authority.
 
Topics and series. This historical marker is listed in these topic lists: Civil RightsLaw EnforcementWomen. In addition, it is included in the Elizabeth Cady Stanton, the Former U.S. Presidents: #28 Woodrow Wilson, and the NOVA Parks series lists. A significant historical month for this entry is February 1952.
 
Location.
Jail Door Pin image. Click for full size.
Photographed By Allen C. Browne, September 17, 2017
3. Jail Door Pin
Alice Paul designed the jail door pin as a symbol of appreciation for the women who had been imprisoned.

This jail door pin belonged to Betsy Graves Reyneau. It is on display at Sewall-Belmont House in Washington, DC.
This marker has been replaced by another marker nearby. It was located near 38° 40.91′ N, 77° 15.21′ W. Marker was near Lorton, Virginia, in Fairfax County. Marker was on Occoquan Regional Park Road near Ox Road (Virginia Route 123), on the left when traveling east. Touch for map. Marker was at or near this postal address: 9751 Ox Rd, Lorton VA 22079, United States of America. Touch for directions.
 
Other nearby markers. At least 8 other markers are within walking distance of this location. The Beehive Brick Kiln (a few steps from this marker); Turning Point Suffragist Memorial (within shouting distance of this marker); Suffragist Commemorative Wall (within shouting distance of this marker); a different marker also named Suffragist Commemorative Wall (within shouting distance of this marker); Silent for Suffrage (within shouting distance of this marker); "Forward Out of Darkness" / Issuing a Call for Women's Rights (within shouting distance of this marker); "Forward Into Light," Toward Equality, 1920 - Present / The 19th Amendment (within shouting distance of this marker); Building a Political Movement / Testing Constitutional Amendments (within shouting distance of this marker). Touch for a list and map of all markers in Lorton.
 
More about this marker. The marker is placed near the Occoquan Workhouse Beehive Brick Oven, which is what you see in the background
Paid Advertisement
Click on the ad for more information.
Please report objectionable advertising to the Editor.
of Picture 2.
 
Regarding Women Suffrage Prisoners at Occoquan Workhouse. "Frederick Douglas" should be "Frederick Douglass".
 
Related marker. Click here for another marker that is related to this marker. It is the Seneca Falls Convention Marker.
 
Also see . . .
1. Occoquan Workhouse Marker. This is the marker referred to in the text. (Submitted on September 7, 2007, by Kevin W. of Stafford, Virginia.) 

2. Brutal Treatment of Women Suffragists at Occoquan Workhouse. (Submitted on September 7, 2007, by Kevin W. of Stafford, Virginia.)
 
Additional keywords. Women's Suffrage
 
 
Credits. This page was last revised on May 6, 2022. It was originally submitted on September 7, 2007, by Kevin W. of Stafford, Virginia. This page has been viewed 17,196 times since then and 41 times this year. Last updated on March 17, 2021, by Carl Gordon Moore Jr. of North East, Maryland. Photos:   1, 2. submitted on September 7, 2007, by Kevin W. of Stafford, Virginia.   3. submitted on March 18, 2021, by Allen C. Browne of Silver Spring, Maryland. • Bernard Fisher was the editor who published this page.

Share this page.  
Share on Tumblr
m=168931

CeraNet Cloud Computing sponsors the Historical Marker Database.
This website earns income from purchases you make after using our links to Amazon.com. We appreciate your support.
Paid Advertisements
Mar. 28, 2024