Lucy Burns
| Lucy Burns | |
|---|---|
Burns in 1913
|
|
| Born | July 28, 1879 Brooklyn, New York |
| Died | December 22, 1966 (aged 87) Brooklyn, New York |
| Education | Packer Collegiate Institute |
| Alma mater |
Columbia University Vassar College Yale University Oxford University |
| Occupation | Suffragist, women's rights activist |
| Known for | Co-founding the National Woman's Party with Alice Paul |
Lucy Burns (July 28, 1879 – December 22, 1966) was an American suffragist and women's rights advocate. She was a passionate activist in the United States and in the United Kingdom. Burns was a close friend of Alice Paul, and together they ultimately formed the National Woman's Party.
Burns was born in New York to an Irish Catholic family. She was described by fellow National Woman's Party member Inez Haynes Irwin as "blue-eyed and fresh-complexioned; dimpled; and her head is burdened, even as Alice Paul's, with an enormous weight of hair." She was extremely beautiful, and lewd men always treated her disrespectfully. She was a gifted student and first attended Packer Collegiate Institute, or what was originally known as the Brooklyn Female Academy, for second preparatory school in 1890. Packer Collegiate Institute prided itself on "teaching girls to be ladies", and they emphasized religious education while advocating more liberal ideals such as educating "the mind to habits of thinking with clearness and force." Burns also met one of her lifelong role models, Laura Wylie, while attending Packer Collegiate Institute. Wylie was one of the first women to go to Yale University Graduate School. Burns also attended Columbia University, Vassar College, and Yale University before becoming an English teacher.
Burns taught at Erasmus High School in Brooklyn for two years. While Burns enjoyed the educational field, she generally found the experience to be frustrating and wanted to continue her own studies. In 1906, at age twenty-seven, she moved to Germany to resume her studies in language. In Germany, Burns studied at the Universities of Bonn and Berlin from 1906 to 1909. Burns later moved to the United Kingdom, where she enrolled at Oxford University to study English. Burns was fortunate enough to have a very extensive educational background because her father, Edwards Burns, supported her and financed her international education.
Burns's first major experiences with activism were with the Pankhursts in the United Kingdom from 1909 to 1912. While attending graduate school in Germany, Lucy Burns traveled briefly to England where she met Emmeline Pankhurst and her daughters Christabel and Sylvia. She was so inspired by their activism and charisma that she dropped her graduate studies to stay with them and work in the Women's Social and Political Union, an organization dedicated to fighting for women's rights in the United Kingdom. Burns was employed by the Women's Social and Political Union as a salaried organizer from 1910 to 1912. While working with the Pankhursts in the United Kingdom, Lucy Burns became increasingly passionate about activism and participated in numerous campaigns with the WSPU. One of her first major contributions was organizing a parade in Edinburgh as part of the campaign in Scotland in 1909. While Burns is not a widely known speaker from the woman's rights movement, she did make a variety of speeches in marketplaces and on street corners while in Europe. Her activism resulted in numerous court appearances and reports of "disorderly conduct" in the newspapers.
...
Wikipedia