Today in Herstory: Suffragists Return to District Jail

[niyad]

Today in Herstory: Suffragists Return to District Jail


The Washington Asylum and Jail, often called the “District Jail.”


November 25, 1917: The struggle of the imprisoned suffragists continues today in D.C.’s Washington Asylum and Jail, commonly referred to as the “District Jail.”
But now, instead of just a relatively small number of suffrage prisoners in his custody, Warden Zinkham now must deal with several dozen suffrage prisoners, nineteen of whom are hunger strikers. This is because U.S. District Court Judge Edmund Waddill ruled yesterday that all of those sent to serve their sentences in Virginia’s Occoquan Workhouse had been transferred there illegally.

Three of those in Occoquan, who were in such poor condition that they would not likely survive further confinement in any institution, were released on parole while their cases are appealed. The rest were sent to the District Jail, where half of them continue to refuse all food. Five of those already there have been subject to force-feedings, with Alice Paul and Rose Winslow having undergone the procedure three times a day since November 8th.

Though no direct communication is allowed with any of the prisoners, details of their ordeals are becoming known to the public thanks to notes smuggled out of Occoquan and the District Jail, or passed while they were brought to court for a hearing yesterday and the day before.
The reasons for the transfer of Lucy Burns and Dora Lewis from Occoquan to the District Jail several days ago have always been clear. They were “ringleaders” of the rebellion and hunger strike at the Workhouse, and in danger of death from starvation, so Superintendent Whittaker had two good reasons for wanting them transferred out. What wasn’t known publicly until now were the graphic details of Lucy Burns’ force-feeding. According to notes she wrote on tiny scraps of paper and made public by the National Woman’s Party:

Wednesday, 12m. Yesterday afternoon at about four or five, Mrs. Lewis and I were asked to go to the operating room. Went there and found our clothes. Told we were to go to Washington. No reason as usual. When we were dressed, Dr. Gannon appeared, and said he wished to examine us. Both refused. Were dragged through the halls by force, our clothing partly removed by force, and we were examined, heart tested, blood pressure and pulse taken. Of course, such data was of no value after such a struggle.

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http://feminist.org/blog/index.php/2014/11/25/today-in-herstory-suffragists-return-to-district-jail/