Lucy Gwynne Branham

Lucy Branham

Lucy Gwynne Branham (1892 in Kempsville, Virginia - 1966) was an American suffragist associated with the National Women's Party.[1][2] She earned degrees in history from Washington College in Maryland, Johns Hopkins University (Masters' degree), and Columbia University (PhD).[2] While teaching in Florida, she received a Carnegie Medal for saving Dema T. Nelson from drowning in the ocean in 1915.[2][3]

In 1916 she was a National Women's Party organizer in Utah, and in September of the following year she was arrested for picketing the White House as part of the Silent Sentinels, a NWP campaign for women's suffrage, for which she served two months in the Occoquan Workhouse and the District jail.[4]

In 1918 Branham lobbied in Georgia, Tennessee, and Alabama for a federal amendment in the Senate that would legalize women's suffrage.[4] She traveled around America speaking of her experiences in prison as part of the NWP's “Prison Special” tour of 1919.[4] Also in 1919, Branham burned a letter from President Woodrow Wilson in Lafayette Square to protest for women's suffrage.[5]

After women's suffrage was obtained, she led the Inez Milholland Memorial Fund Committee, which created an ongoing endowment fund for the NWP.[2] She taught briefly at Columbia University, worked with the American Friends Service Committee, and became executive secretary of the American Society for Cultural Relations with Russia (1926–30).[2] She also worked with the World Woman’s Party in Geneva and lobbied the League of Nations on equal rights issues.[2] In the late 1950s she lived at Sewall-Belmont House and served on the NWP’s Congressional Committee to lobby for the Equal Rights Amendment. [2]

Branham also wrote An outline of the political history of Georgia, during the revolutionary war.[6]

Branham's mother, Lucy Fisher Gwynne Branham, was also a suffragist, and was arrested for her part in the watch fire demonstrations in January 1919 and served three days in the District jail.[4][6]

See also

References

  1. ↑ "Women's history". Learnnc.org. 1999-02-22. Retrieved 2013-10-05.
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 "Photographs from the Records of the National Woman's Party - Profiles: Selected Leaders of the National Woman's Party - (American Memory from the Library of Congress)". Memory.loc.gov. Retrieved 2013-10-05.
  3. ↑ "Search Awardees | Carnegie Hero Fund Commission". Carnegiehero.org. Retrieved 2013-10-05.
  4. 1 2 3 4 "Suffragist of the Month". Suffragistmemorial.org. Archived from the original on September 19, 2012. Retrieved 2013-10-05.
  5. ↑ "ArchiveGrid". Beta.worldcat.org. Retrieved 2013-10-05.
  6. 1 2 "An outline of the political history of Georgia, during the revolutionary war". Worldcat.org. Retrieved 2013-10-05.

External link

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