Basic Information
Mabel Vernon was born on the 19th of September 1883 in Wilmington, Delaware. She was endowed with great skills for public speaking, organizing, and fundraising. Vernon used these skills to facilitate the movement for the ratification of the Nineteenth Amendment.
Background Information
Vernon’s father was an editor for a Republican paper and their family was Presbyterian. Mabel attended Wilmington Friends School, a Quaker school in her home town, as a child and went to Swarthmore college with Alice Paul (Gillmore, 1921, p. 8). After graduating from college, Vernon went on to teach German and Latin at Radnar High School in Pennsylvania. In 1913, Alice Paul invited Vernon to work with her at the Congressional Union for Woman’s Suffrage (CU) (Iowa State University, 2020). It was the work at the CU that prompted Vernon to dedicate her efforts to the movement.
Contributions to the First Wave
Working under Paul at the CU, Vernon helped to organize a suffrage parade that was planned for the eve of Woodrow Wilson’s presidential inauguration. It was this parade that provided a wider audience for the women’s suffrage movement (Iowa State University). Paul escorted Sara Bard Field as she made a cross-country trip to deliver a petition to the sixty-fourth Congress. As Field traveled East, she would stop at designated towns and hold meetings to collect signatures for the petition. Vernon held a key role in this trip, she went ahead of the envoy and made arrangements in each town for the meetings to occur (Gillmore, 1921, p. 106). The next year, Mabel Vernon took on the role as the secretary for the National Woman’s Party (NWP) (Iowa State University, 2020).
On July 4th, 1916 President Wilson delivered a speech that did not reference the issues of Woman’s Suffrage. Taking a militant stance, Vernon interrupted the President after he said “that he stood for the interests of all classes, when Mabel Vernon, who sat on the platform a few feet away, called in a voice which has a notably clear, ringing, quality, ‘Mr. President, if you sincerely desire to forward the interests of all the people, why do you oppose the national enfranchisement of women?’ ” (Gillmore, 1921, p. 166). Vernon was escorted out by the secret service after she interrupted the President a second time before the end of his speech, asking for an answer to her question. On the 14th of December, Vernon and four other suffragists went to the sixty-fourth Congress meeting and strategically sat themselves directly in view of the speakers’ desk. Vernon pulled out a banner that she had pinned to her skirt and dropped it on the floor. During President Wilson’s speech, Vernon signaled to the women to unfurl the banner. “It unrolled with a smart snap and displayed these words: MR. PRESIDENT, WHAT WILL YOU DO FOR WOMAN SUFFRAGE” (Gillmore, 1921, p. 181). This caused the president to hesitate in his speech and for the room to hum with murmurs from the congressmen. This incident made the front page in many newspapers, pushing the president’s speech out of the headlines.
Through the NWP, Vernon helped to organize the Washington picket lines for many months. On June 21st, 1917, there were pickets set up at the gates of the White House. A mob rose and tore the banners from the women and destroyed them. When word got back to Vernon, she and three other women immediately brought out more banners through the crowds to resupply the women. The crowd backed off and the police shut down the picket line that day. That same day the NWP was told by the Chief of Police for the District of Columbia that if their picket lines went out again, they would be arrested. The next day the suffragists passed policemen on their way to the White House, meeting up at the gate. Vernon delivered banners to the women in a box that she carried past the police. When the police saw the women a few minutes later, they were arrested (Gillmore, 1921, pp. 210-211). On the 23rd of June, Mabel Vernon was arrested at the capital while holding a suffrage banner. Three days later Vernon and five other suffragists were tried in the District of Columbia’s police court. Mabel Vernon conducted the defense. Through technical discussions about how wide the sidewalk was and how empty the area was, the women were found guilty of obstructing traffic (Gillmore, 1921, p. 221). The suffragists refused to pay a fine and thus had to spend three days in jail. The NWP gained sympathy from the women going to jail. The NWP even organized a “prison special” where the women preached about their jail experiences (Gillmore, 1921, p. 407).
After the 19th Amendment was passed, Vernon continued to serve as the secretary for the NWP. Vernon went back to school and earned her master’s degree from Columbia University (Meet the Suffragists, 1999). In the 1930’s, Vernon became an organizer for the international conferences on behalf of the Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom. In the 1940’s, Vernon became a representative for the People’s Mandate Committee for Inter-American Peace and Cooperation and a member of “an inter-American delegation at the founding of the United Nations” (Iowa State University, 2020).
” MR. PRESIDENT, WHAT WILL YOU DO FOR WOMAN SUFFRAGE.”
~ Mabel Vernon (Gillmore, 1921, p. 181)
Analysis and Conclusion
Mable Vernon helped to usher in the militant stage during the first wave of the feminist movement. Picketing the White House, getting arrested and sharing her stories helped to win the sympathy of many Americans. Vernon’s valor seemed almost unending. She displayed courage when interrupting President Wilson twice during his speech on Independence Day, when unfurling the banner in the middle of President Wilson’s speech, and when facing down an angry mob at the picket lines. In each of these situations Vernon made calculated decisions that were bold but not overly excessive.
Because she attended Quaker schools growing up, Vernon was committed to peace and women having a more equal place in society. Vernon played an important role in the movement. She was able to draw people together and lead them. Her strengths were debating, public speaking, and fundraising. Vernon used her strengths accordingly with her bravery and faced adversity from many directions. Vernon’s valor and determination aided in the ratification of the 19th Amendment.
References
(1916) Mabel Vernon Speaking at Suffrage Rally, May. Chicago Delaware Illinois United States Wilmington, 1916. [Photograph] Retrieved from the Library of Congress, https://www.loc.gov/item/mnwp000287/.
Edmonston, W. (ca. 1917) Miss Mabel Vernon, National Secretary, National Woman’s Party. Delaware United States Wilmington, ca. 1917. [Photograph] Retrieved from the Library of Congress, https://www.loc.gov/item/mnwp000179/.
Gillmore, I. H. (1921) The story of the Woman’s Party. New York: Harcourt, Brace. [Web.] Retrieved from the Library of Congress, https://lccn.loc.gov/21003312.
Hunkins Hallinan, H., Reyher, R. H., & Reyes-Calderon, C. (2011). Speaker for Suffrage and Petitioner for Peace: Mabel Vernon. Retrieved November 03, 2020, from http://content.cdlib.org/view?docId=kt2r29n5pb&&doc.view=entire_text
Iowa State University, C. (2020). Mabel Vernon. Retrieved November 04, 2020, from https://awpc.cattcenter.iastate.edu/directory/mabel-vernon/
Meet the Suffragists. (1999, March 4). Retrieved November 03, 2020, from https://groups.ischool.berkeley.edu/archive/suffragists/SuffragistsSpeak/meetthesuffragistsframe.htm
Suffragist History. (2020). Retrieved November 03, 2020, from https://suffragistmemorial.org/suffrage-history/