Silent Sentinels

The Silent Sentinels were a group of women in favor of women's suffrage organized by Alice Paul and the National Woman's Party. They protested in front of the White House during Woodrow Wilson's presidency starting on January 10, 1917. The women protested for six days a week until June 4, 1919 when the Nineteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution was passed both by the House of Representatives and the Senate.

The name Silent Sentinels was given to the women because of their silent protesting. Using silence as a form of protest was a new principled, strategic, and rhetorical strategy within the national suffrage movement and within their own assortment of protest strategies.

Throughout this two and a half year long vigil many of the women were harassed, arrested, and unjustly treated by local and US authorities, including the torture and abuse inflicted on them before and during the November 14, 1917 Night of Terror.

The Suffragist was the National Woman's Party (NWP) weekly newsletter. The Suffragist acted as a voice for the Silent Sentinels throughout their vigil. It covered the Sentinels' progress and included interviews with protesters, reports on President Woodrow Wilson's (non) reaction, and political essays. "Although The Suffragist was intended for mass circulation, its subscription peaked at just over 20,000 issues in 1917. Further, most copies went to party members, advertisers, branch headquarters, and NWP organizers, which strongly suggests that the suffragists themselves were a key audience of the publication."

The following are examples of banners held by the women:

The Sentinels' all wore purple, white, and gold sashes which are the NWP's colors. Their banners were also usually colored this way.

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