QUESTION 4

Alice Paul Pulls the Strings

by Freda Kirchwey

Some day the story of the working of the National Women’s machine will be told. It will be an interesting story, full of strange contradictions.

The efforts—wholly unsuccessful—of the representatives of the colored women would form a tragic chapter of the same story. A delegation of sixty women sent by colored women’s organizations in fourteen States arrived in Washington several days before the convention. They requested an interview with Alice Paul so that they might take up with the question of the disenfranchisement of the women of their race. They were told Miss Paul was too busy to see them. They said they would wait till she had time. Finally, grudgingly, she yielded. The colored women presented their case .…

We have come here as members of various organizations and from different sections representing the five million colored women of this country. We are deeply appreciative of the heroic devotion of the National Woman’s Party to the women’s suffrage movement and of the tremendous sacrifices made under your leadership in securing the passage of the Nineteenth Amendment . …

The world has moved forward in these seventy years and the colored women of this country have been moving with it. They know the value of the ballot, if honestly used, to right the wrongs of any class. Knowing this, they have also come today to call your attention to the flagrant violations of the intent and purposes of the Susan B. Anthony Amendment in the elections of 1920. These violations occurred in the Southern States, where is to be found the great mass of colored women, and it has not been made secret that wherever white women did not use the ballot, it was counted worth while to relinquish it in order that it might be denied colored women. …

Therefore, we are assembled to ask that you will use your influence to have the convention of the National Woman’s Party appoint a special committee to ask Congress for an investigation of the violations of the Susan B. Anthony Amendment in the election of 1920.

Miss Paul was indifferent to this appeal and resented the presence of the delegation. Their chance of being heard at the convention was gone.… And only by the use of tactics bordering on Alice Paul’s own vigor and persistence, did their spokesman—the delegate from New York—get a moment to present a resolution on their behalf—a resolution which was promptly defeated and which left the question precisely where it stood.

The content and tone of this article show that its author was . . .

supportive of the delegation

highly critical of the delegation

indifferent to the concerns of the delegation

very supportive of Alice Paul