I have spent a lifetime studying Miss Alice Paul. She has been my North Star in countless ways. To her feminism was a full time vocation and nothing diminished her devotion. She lived within the etiquettes of Quakerism while applying the most radical ideas and groundbreaking public behavior. Under Alice's direction, ladies wore their hats with boots buttoned while burning the speeches of the President at the White House fence. Her social propriety was always evident while creating a major revolution.
Years tick on and my interest in Miss Paul has expanded, my investigations deepened and my passion to share my understanding of her is overwhelming. One day Alice Paul will be recognized as the first American to use Nonviolent Direct Action, Civil Disobedience and political protest within a political movement and I hope I will be one of the instruments of that righteous occasion. As we see thousands of people at the White House fence, it was Alice Paul who set this lineage in motion; relentlessly confronting the President and Congress at their very door.
We need to acknowledge her. We need to insist that history honor her. We need her point of view. We need her inspiration. We need to see her as the radical lifelong committed activist that she was. It is my hope to lift her off the pages of academic and history books, scrape off the disturbing fiction slathered on her and offer you the Alice I know, love and hold as my dearest most inspiring political activist. She is human, flawed, funny and "pure feminist." I hope you will join with me in lifting her to the rightful moniker of The American Feminist Gandhi and more.
My current deep dive into her life began in earnest December 2012 when Purdue University invited me give the keynote address at their Centennial March commemorating the Suffrage March of 1913. That unfolded into a 90 minute program. Miss Alice Paul ~ The Heart of an Activist. Half was on Miss Paul’s life and half on her relevance to our lives as modern day activists. Each time the content and relevance bloomed.
Sharing stories, activist lessons and insights about Alice Paul present modern obstacles which require a realistic examination of writing, publishing and distributing information. Starting with books; what is the lifespan of a traditional book, be it either a printed or digital? Big corporate conglomerates now dictate much of that pipeline. Secondly, teeming with ideas and activism changing daily, a book would have come to an artificial halt when the world is still turning and activism unfolding.
My vision is to build this ever expanding, open ended Headquarters for Miss Alice Paul. Adopting the tested and true model of serial installments, this will be an ever expanding body of information and goods. The plan is to pour all I know about Miss Paul and activism into this website. It will be public and available as I go. It will be dynamic, influenced by today’s news. It is my idea of fun. I hope you enjoy it too.
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