From time to time people of this great nation have felt oppressed and stood up against opposing forces. The colonists who were tired of taxation from the British, women who wanted the right to vote like their counterparts, and African Americans who wanted equal rights. All of these were achieved with peaceful protests-where the oppressed remained peaceful even when they were attacked or harassed. With recent events in Ferguson I thought it would be interesting too compare a true peaceful protest held by Alice Paul compared to the "peaceful protests" being held in Missouri.
Alice Paul fought for woman's suffrage not only in Britain but in the United States as well. She organized her first political protest outside the gates of the White House in January 1917. Along with other women they held banners demanding the right to vote. The women continued to protest throughout the year by holding up different banners even while the country went into World War I. Paul and the other women were not met kindly while peacefully protesting. Young men would beat up and harass the women with the police never intervening, police would arrest the men who tried to help defend the women. The women were arrested and pardoned once by Wilson. They were sent to Occoquan Workhouse in VA and given no special treatment. The lived in dreadful facilities with infested food and poor sanitation. Paul went on a hunger strike protesting these conditions and she was force feed raw eggs. All of this put pressure on Woodrow Wilson and he finally announced in January 1918 that suffrage was needed urgently as a war measure. For the next two years the House and Senate would vote on women's suffrage finally passing the 19th Amendment on August 18, 1920.
Women stood up with signs merely asking for their voice to be heard and were mistreated by others in the process.
In Ferguson, MI however they did not protest all that peaceful. People were protesting after an African American teen was shot in the street. (This post is not about getting into who did what, who is or isn't innocent, or any of that.) Days after the shooting people were out in protest. They could of taken note from any peaceful protests... the Boston Tea Party, Alice Paul, or the March on Washington for Civil Rights just to name a few. However, they choose to get in police face's taunting them not to shoot. There was also acts of looting, breaking into stores, or damaging property. The "peaceful protests" shut down the city preventing some people from going to work, children to go to school, and curfews set in the city by the Governor. Explain to me how looting or breaking into a store is going to change the way Ferguson or even America views racism?
Comparing the two protests you can see a difference. One lead to women getting the right to vote and the second hasn't lead to anything, in my opinion. People are so quick to judge, but they don't take the time to look at the details.
That is all.
