Alumna Alice Paul ’22 Honored with Women’s Rights Memorial

Alice Paul marching out of the National Woman's Party headquarters on
Madison Place in Washington, DC (c. 1916).

 

On April 12, President Obama announced the renaming of the Sewall-Belmont House and Museum to the Belmont-Paul Women’s Equality National Monument. The designation honors Alva Belmont, benefactor of the National Woman’s Party, and Washington College of Law class of 1922 alumna Alice Paul, founder of the Party.

Paul authored the original Equal Rights Amendment while studying at WCL and played a pivotal role in the passage of the Nineteenth Amendment, which gave women the right to vote.

The historic Capitol Hill house, which contains the largest collection of women’s suffrage and equal rights movement records, has served as the headquarters of the National Woman’s Party, a key political organization in the fight for women’s suffrage, since 1929.

The Washington Post reports that during his remarks at the historic building, “the president called the site ‘a hotbed of activism, a centerpiece for the struggle for equality, a monument to a fight not just for women’s equality but, ultimately, for equality for everybody.”

The president also noted that the actions of Paul and other party members “became a blueprint for civil rights organizations and activities throughout the 20th century. Today, the House tells the story of a century of courageous activism by American women.”

Read the full Washington Post article here.

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