Has anyone seen the HBO movie, 'Iron Jawed Angles' staring Hilary Swank, Anjelica Huston, Julia Ormond, Frances O'Conner and the adorable Patrick Dempsey?
I watched it last night in my hotel room and though it was very late, couldn't turn it off. I was not aware of the many sacrifices that were made so that I, a woman could have the right to vote.
If you have not seen the movie, I highly recommend it. It is a much needed reminder to many of us - That We Vote Because WE CAN!
From the Movie Blog: "Synopsis
IRON JAWED ANGLES recounts for a contemporary audience a key chapter in U.S. history: in this case, the struggle of suffragists who fought for the passage of the 19th Amendment. Focusing on the two different women, Alice Paul (Hilary Swank) and Lucy Burns (Frances O'Connor), the film shows how these activists broke from the mainstream women's-rights movement and created a more radical wing, daring to push the boundaries of political protest to secure women's voting rights in 1920.
The women are thrown in jail, with an ensuing hunger strike making headline news. The women's resistance to being force-fed earns them the nickname 'The Iron Jawed Angels'. However, it is truly their wills that are made of iron and their courage inspires a nation and changes it forever."
In looking for more details on this movie I found the following comments on a blog and thought I would add them here as well. "The women were innocent and defenseless. And by the end of the night, they were barely alive. Forty prison guards wielding clubs and with their warden's blessing went on a rampage against the 33 women wrongly convicted of "obstructing sidewalk traffic." They beat Lucy Burn, chained her hands to the cell bars above her head and left her hanging for the night, bleeding and gasping for air. They hurled Dora Lewis into a dark cell, smashed her head against an iron bed and knocked her out cold. Her cellmate, Alice Cosu, thought Lewis was dead and suffered a heart attack. Additional affidavits describe the guards grabbing, dragging, beating, choking, slamming, pinching, twisting and kicking the women.
Thus unfolded the "Night of Terror" on November 15, 1917 (a mere 87 years ago), when the warden at the Occoquan Workhouse in Virginia ordered his guards to teach a lesson to the suffragists imprisoned there because they dared to picket Woodrow Wilson's White House for the right to vote. For weeks, the women's only water came from an open pail. Their food -- all of it colorless slop -- was infested with worms. When one of the leaders, Alice Paul, embarked on a hunger strike, they tied her to a chair, forced a tube down her throat and poured liquid into her until she vomited. She was tortured like this for weeks until word was smuggled out to the press.
So, refresh my memory. Some women won't vote this year because--why, exactly? We have carpool duties? We have to get to work? Our vote doesn't matter? It's raining?"
Suffrage for Women - The Right to Vote
On August 26, 1920, the United States ratified the 19th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, granting women the right to vote. The struggle for women's suffrage lasted for more than half a century. Now - Let's get out and Vote and make ourselves heard and appreciate this gift give to us from these Iron Jawed Angles.
