Stories of Suffragettes Immortalized at Virginia Memorial

In 1917, a group of women was forcibly shoved into freezing prison “punishment” cells, brutally injured by male guards, and left to survive the night without medical treatment—simply because they wanted to vote. While many people take this privilege for granted today, the battle for women to represent themselves at the ballot box was hard-fought and hard-won—yet can still easily be taken away. 

Recent discussions of the SAVE Act bill, which could impact approximately 20 million legitimate voters, including married women, poorer people, and people of color, make it even more important to understand the sacrifices that women and minorities made to be able to vote in the first place.

The Turning Point Suffragist Memorial 

One of the best places to take a deep dive into this history is at the Turning Point Suffragist Memorial in Occoquan Regional Park in Lorton, VA. This stunning outdoor park explains just how difficult it was for anyone other than white men to find representation—and why it took seven decades for women’s voices to finally be heard. The park’s location is especially significant as it is located across from the site of the original Occoquan Workhouse, where 33 protesting suffragettes were imprisoned, beaten, tortured, intimidated, threatened, and starved for 36 hours on what is known as ‘The Night of Terror.’ The atrocities were so heinous that the abuse attracted public attention and outrage, which became a turning point in the push for equal voting rights. 

Through 19 panels—a nod to the 19^th Amendment, which gave women the right to vote—the memorial shares the stories of the brave women who were willing to die for the cause. Three bronze life-size statues of suffrage leaders stand as sentinels at the memorial, frozen in time and purpose. These include Alice Paul, co-founder of the National Woman’s Party and author of the Equal Rights Amendment; Mary Church Terrell, co-founder of the NAACP and professor; and Carrie Chapman Catt, president of the National American Woman Suffrage Association and founder of the League of Women Voters. 

The Suffragist Commemorative Wall at the memorial lists, by state, the names of suffragists who were arrested and jailed for picketing at the White House in 1917, otherwise known as the Silent Sentinels. The wall also displays the Jailed for Freedom pin, designed by Alice Paul and given to suffragists who had been jailed or imprisoned. 

The Workhouse Arts Center 

 While the original Occoquan Workhouse building no longer exists, the site, which was later turned into Lorton Reformatory and then Lorton Correctional Complex, is still in use today. In 2005, it was added to the National Register of Historic Places, and in 2008, became the Workhouse Arts Center. The arts and education mecca, which is open to visitors, now houses studio space for emerging artists and hosts exhibitions, performances, and other events. 

The 55-acre center also includes a history of the suffragettes held at the workhouse, as well as the stories of inmates formerly housed at the reformatory and correctional complex. The Lucy Burns Gallery (building W-2) features statues of female suffragettes and an intriguing logbook of arrests that shows—perhaps not surprisingly—that the women were housed with inmates serving sentences for pickpocketing, bootlegging, drunkenness, theft, or prostitution. They were treated as common criminals, despite having committed no major crimes. In fact, most were booked under “unlawful assembly” or the trumped-up charge of “obstructing traffic.” 

All told, more than two million women from every state, race, and nationality fought for more than 72 years to win ratification of the 19th Amendment to the Constitution. But the fight still wasn’t over. 

Equality Doesn’t Mean Everyone 

Even after public outcry forced male legislators to pass the 19^th Amendment on August 18, 1920, not every person could vote, largely because of state-sanctioned voter suppression activities. While the 15^th Amendment (ratified in 1870) extended voting rights to men of all races, and the 19^th Amendment extended voting rights to women in many states. African Americans were still denied the right to vote by Jim Crow laws, poll taxes, literacy tests, the “grandfather clause,” and outright intimidation.

 The 24^th Amendment (ratified in 1964) finally prohibited the use of poll taxes in federal elections, and the Voting Rights Act of 1965 secured voting rights for adult citizens of all races and genders through federal laws that enforced the amendments. 

Even today, U.S. citizens are still fighting for their right to vote as legislators try to find ways to manipulate the polling place to benefit their own political parties. Voter suppression efforts include gerrymandering, overly difficult voter ID requirements such as those listed in the SAVE Act, polling place closures/consolidations, lack of funding for elections resulting in equipment and staffing shortages, reduced voting hours, intimidation of voters and election officials, and more. 

While many of us now expect the right to vote, it should never be taken for granted. As the suffragettes showed, having a voice in government—and fighting for equal rights—is worth the price of battle. 

The Turning Point Suffragist Memorial is located in Occoquan Regional Park, 9751 Ox Road, Lorton, VA 22079. The Workhouse Arts Center is located at 9518 Workhouse Way,
Lorton, VA 22079. 

 

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