PRINTER'S NO. 26
THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF PENNSYLVANIA
HOUSE RESOLUTION
No.
31
Session of
2017
INTRODUCED BY KRUEGER-BRANEKY, NEILSON, SCHWEYER, ROEBUCK,
SCHLOSSBERG, DEAN, SAMUELSON, KIM, CORBIN, SNYDER, HARPER,
MADDEN, TOEPEL, KULIK, DiGIROLAMO, BOBACK, HAHN, BULLOCK,
WARD, READSHAW, ROZZI, MURT, McCLINTON, FITZGERALD, BARBIN,
DAVIS, KLUNK, FEE, R. BROWN, DRISCOLL, RAPP, PHILLIPS-HILL,
CALTAGIRONE, MILLARD, DONATUCCI, WATSON, D. COSTA, DeLISSIO,
MARSICO, KINSEY, FREEMAN AND SOLOMON, JANUARY 23, 2017
INTRODUCED AS NONCONTROVERSIAL RESOLUTION UNDER RULE 35,
JANUARY 23, 2017
A RESOLUTION
Recognizing the 100th anniversary of the protests by the Silent
Sentinels, whose nonviolent actions shifted the hearts and
minds of American politicians and earned women across the
nation the right to vote.
WHEREAS, The Constitution of the United States did not
initially grant women equal voting rights; and
WHEREAS, After years of organizing parades and demonstrations
to rally support for women's suffrage, the National Woman's
Party began protesting in front of the White House on January
10, 1917; and
WHEREAS, The women earned the name Silent Sentinels for their
silent pickets carrying posters and signs urging President
Woodrow Wilson to grant women voting rights; and
WHEREAS, Over the course of two and one-half years, nearly
2,000 suffragists traveled from 30 states to walk the picket
lines in front of the White House and congressional office
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buildings and in nearby Lafayette Park; and
WHEREAS, One hundred sixty-eight women who were jailed for
protesting, assembling and speaking at rallies for women's
suffrage withstood deplorable prison conditions; and
WHEREAS, Some of these women participated in hunger strikes;
and
WHEREAS, More than a dozen women endured the "Night of
Terror" on November 15, 1917, during which the superintendent of
the Occoquan Workhouse directed guards to beat and brutalize the
jailed suffragists; and
WHEREAS, The Silent Sentinels continued pressuring Federal
lawmakers to approve a constitutional amendment granting women
the right to vote; and
WHEREAS, The 19th Amendment to the Constitution of the United
States was approved by the Congress of the United States in 1919
and ratified by the last required state in August 1920;
therefore be it
RESOLVED, That the House of Representatives recognize the
100th anniversary of the protests by the Silent Sentinels, whose
persistence and fortitude were indispensable in the fight to
secure the indelible right of women to vote.
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