Famous Americans

Famous American Women

Lucy Burns

1879-1966

Lucy was born in Brooklyn, and studied at both Vassar College and at Yale university. She became an English teach in New York. Later she studied language in Germany, returned to New York to teach for a few years, then moved to England where she graduated from Oxford.

In Englad, Lucy joined the Women's Social and Political Movement where she met Alice Paul. When the two returned to the US, they joined the National American Suffage Union and lobbied Congress to extend voting rights to women.

In a dispute over tactics, Alice Paul and Lucy Burns formed the Congressional Union for Women Suffrage.

Meeting resistance in Congress, the organization began to pickett the Whie House. Woodrow Wilson was president. He had the women arrested for "unlawful assembly", and they were sent to jail.

In 1920, the 19th amendment was ratified and Lucy Burns retired from politics. She died in 1966.

Netlinks for Lucy Burns

Iron Jawed Angels: A movie about the Suffragettes

Wikipedia: Lucy Burns