Alice Paul

Alice Paul
Alice Paul in 1915
Born	(1885-01-11)January 11, 1885 Mount Laurel Township, New Jersey
Died	July 9, 1977(1977-07-09) (aged 92) Moorestown, New Jersey
Alma mater	University of Pennsylvania Swarthmore College American University
Occupation	Suffragist
Political party	National Women's Party
Parent(s)	William Mickle Paul I Tacie Parry

Alice Paul (January 11, 1885 – July 9, 1977) was an American suffragist, feminist, and women's rights activist, and one of the main leaders and strategists of the 1910s campaign for the Nineteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution which prohibits sex discrimination in the right to vote. Along with Lucy Burns and others, Paul strategized events, such as the Woman Suffrage Procession and the Silent Sentinels, which were part of the successful campaign that resulted in its passage in 1920.

After 1920, Paul spent a half century as leader of the National Woman's Party, which fought for her Equal Rights Amendment to secure constitutional equality for women. She won a large degree of success with the inclusion of women as a group protected against discrimination by the Civil Rights Act of 1964. She insisted that her National Woman's Party focus on the legal status of all women and resisted calls to address issues like birth control.

Alice Paul was born on January 11, 1885, at Paulsdale in Mount Laurel Township, New Jersey. She was the eldest of four children of William Mickle Paul I (1850–1902) and Tacie Paul (née Parry), and a descendant of William Penn, the Quaker founder of Pennsylvania. Her siblings were Willam, Helen, and Parry. She grew up in the Quaker tradition of public service; her ancestors included participants in the New Jersey Committee of Correspondence in the Revolutionary era and a state legislative leader in the 19th century. The Quakers believed that all people, including women, were equal in the sight of God. Alice first learned about women's suffrage from her mother, a member of the National American Woman Suffrage Association; Paul would sometimes join her mother in attending suffragist meetings.