Born January 11, 1885
Moorestown, New Jersey
Died July 9, 1977
Moorestown, New Jersey

Women’s rights activist

Alice Paul introduced the use of militant tactics—such as marches, demonstrations, picketing the White House, and hunger strikes—to the women’s suffrage (voting rights) movement. Although her methods landed her and her colleagues in jail, they helped secure the passage of a constitutional amendment guaranteeing women the right to vote. Paul also authored the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA) and campaigned, unsuccessfully, for its adoption for half a century.

Although unquestionably committed to the cause of women’s rights, Paul has been criticized for being domineering and elitist and for excluding African American women’s rights from her agenda.

A Quaker upbringing

Paul was born in 1885 in Moorestown, New Jersey. She was the oldest of four children in a well-to-do Quaker family. Paul’s...