Suffragist mural permanently installed at Workhouse Arts Center, Lorton, depicts marching suffragist and yellow roses symbolizing victory of the movement
Much of women’s progress toward equality can be traced to the decades long suffragist movement to win the right to vote for women in the United States. Passed by Congress on June 4, 1919, and ratified on Aug. 18, 1920, the 19th Amendment guarantees all American women the right to vote. Much of the work of that lengthy struggle went on in the nearby District of Columbia, with moments of significance even nearer, at the Workhouse in Lorton.
Known as ‘Silent Sentinels’ for picketing in front of the White House gates, 91 suffragists were jailed in 1917 in DC and Lorton for simply picketing quietly on the sidewalk. Of historical note, the Silent Sentiments were the first group ever to picket in front of the White House. Thirty-three suffragists from the National Woman’s Party, arrested on Nov. 10, 1917, were clubbed, beaten, and tortured by guards while imprisoned at the Lorton Workhouse. Known as the ‘Night of Terror’, sympathy such treatment generated from the public was a turning point for the movement.
Today, the Turning Point Suffragist Memorial, located on the grounds of the Occoquan Regional Park, 9751 Ox Road, Lorton, honors those who participated in the suffragist movement; providing “a visual symbol and educational tool intended to elevate these women to their proper place in history and recognize this bloodless revolution.”, as described by the memorial association.
Near the Turning Point Memorial, a museum is sited on the grounds of the former Lorton Workhouse, dedicated to Lucy Burns, a suffragist leader, who served more time in jail than any other suffragist in America. (Library of Congress). The Lucy Burns museum tells the story of the prison, operated for 91 years, and of the suffragists held there. Opened in 2018 as part of the Workhouse Art Center, the museum includes a restored section of the prisoner cells, and provides examples of the work the incarcerated performed to rehabilitate their lives.
Also on the quad at the Arts Center, visitors can view the newly installed mural, “Equality for All,'' by artist Sunny Mullarkey. Commissioned to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the 19th Amendment, by the national Women’s Suffrage Centennial Commission, “The mural depicts suffrage leaders Carrie Chapman Catt, Mary Church Terrell, Alice Paul, and Ida B. Wells amid silhouettes of marching suffragists. The portraits of these trailblazing women are surrounded by 36 yellow roses, a symbol of the victory of the movement. At the center of the piece stands a mythological woman, inspired by historic suffrage artwork, holding a banner with the words, “Equality for All.”
The mural can be viewed in building W-16 at the Workhouse Arts Center.
These nearby commemorations of women’s struggle for suffrage: the Turning Point Suffragists Memorial, the Lucy Burns Museum, and the Equality for All mural, create an opportunity to steep oneself in the history of the women’s movement, appropriate for the March recognition of women.