The Unfurling of the Ratification Banner on Jackson Place
This photograph was taken on August 20, 1920 outside of the Jackson Place headquarters of the National Woman's Party (NWP) in Lafayette Square, just steps from the front gates of the White House. In the photograph, Alice Paul, a founding member of the NWP, unfurls the ratification banner from a second floor balcony. Just two days prior, the 19th Amendment to the United States Constitution was ratified, guaranteeing women the right to vote. The stars on the banner were sewn on as each state ratified the amendment. The members of the NWP, including founders Lucy Burns and Paul, were an integral force in the women's suffrage movement, often picketing outside the White House gates and holding a suffrage parade during President Woodrow Wilson's 1913 inauguration festivities.
The NWP was headquartered in Ewell House at 14 Jackson Place, now 722 Jackson Place and the home of the Council on Environmental Quality, a part of the Executive Office of the President. Prior to their occupancy in Ewell House, the NWP was headquartered across Lafayette Park at Tayloe House at 21 Madison Place. In 1929, the organization moved from the President's Neighborhood to its permanent headquarters on Capitol Hill at the Sewall-Belmont House. In April 2016, the Sewall-Belmont House joined the National Park Service as the Belmont-Paul Women's Equality National Monument, the second national monument to women's history in the country.
- Photographer
- National Photo Company
- Date of Work
- August 20, 1920
- Type
- Photograph
- Credit
- National Woman's Party at the Belmont-Paul Womens Equality National Monument
