Last updated: February 11, 2023
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NAMA Notebook: January Birthdays
NPS
Belmont-Paul Women's Equality National Monument
Alice Paul: January 11, 1885
Have you or your students heard of Alice Paul? She was an outspoken suffragist and feminist. A suffragist is someone who believes in and works for the right to vote. A feminist is someone who believes in and works for equality based on sex.
Alice Paul grew up in New Jersey where her family was a part of a religious community called the Society of Friends, popularly known as Quakers. Quakers believe in equality for men and women, including the right to vote. Alice's mother Tacie took her to woman suffrage meetings when she was a girl. After graduating from a Quaker high school, Alice attended Swarthmore College, which was founded by a committee of Quakers including her grandfather and suffragist Lucretia Mott. The college offered equal education opportunities for male and female students. Alice Paul later said that because she grew up in a community that believed in the equality of the sexes, she "never had any other idea" but that women and men should be treated equally.
- Talk with your students about the effect that our caregivers and our community have on our beliefs about ourselves and the world.
Alice Paul joined the fight for women's right to vote in America after participating in suffragette protests in England. She believed that the best way to guarantee that all women could vote was to amend the U.S. Constitution. By 1912, women could vote in some western states, or in local elections in some jurisdictions, but progress for full voting rights was slow. Alice Paul was known for organizing demonstrations that got a lot of publicity, like the 1913 Woman Suffrage Procession down Pennsylvania Avenue and the Silent Sentinel pickets of the White House in 1917. Many people who supported women's suffrage disagreed with Alice Paul's tactics.
- Use the story of the 19th Amendment, which guaranteed women's right to vote, to learn about the process of amending the Constitution. Our 19th Amendment page has lots of resources, including biographies, podcasts, and activities for kids.
- Why might other suffragists have thought that pushing for a woman suffrage amendment was the wrong strategy?
- Discuss the ways that people work for change.
Alice Paul founded the National Woman's Party (NWP) in 1916 to campaign for women's equality. The NWP continued their political activism after women won the vote with the ratification of the 19th Amendment in 1920. From their headquarters on Capitol Hill, they lobbied to change laws and to pass the Equal Rights Amendment.
- Why do you think that the National Woman's Party chose a headquarters near the U.S. Congress on Capitol Hill?
This activity explores the relationship between location and the work for social change using a map and historic photos.
A Woman's Place Is In This House: Alice Paul and the Work For Women's Equality
The Spirits of Fierce Women: Writing Prompt
This video was recorded for the National Writing Project's annual Write Out. Is Belmont-Paul haunted? What message might the ghosts of women who fought for equality have for you?-
Belmont-Paul Women's Equality NM Writing Prompt
Learn about the spirits of the fierce women who inspire us at the Belmont-Paul Women's Equality National Monument. Then it's your turn. Imagine that a person from the past visited you as a ghost. What message does the spirit have for you? Write a story or create a meme.
- Duration:
- 5 minutes, 7 seconds
Martin Luther King, Jr. Memorial and Lincoln Memorial
Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.: January 15, 1929
Dr. King and the Civil Rights Movement have many connections to the Lincoln Memorial, but that connection didn't start with the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom on August 28, 1963. When Martin Luther King, Jr. was a boy, Marian Anderson performed a concert at the Lincoln Memorial on April 9, 1939 after the Daughters of the American Revolution (D.A.R.) refused to allow her to perform at their venue, Constitution Hall. A crowd of about 75,000 people gathered in front of the Lincoln Memorial and along the Reflecting Pool for the concert that Easter Sunday. It was also broadcast over the radio, and 10-year-old Martin may have listened to it from his home in Atlanta, Georgia.
In 1944, when he was a junior at Booker T. Washington High School, Martin Luther King, Jr., wrote an essay called "The Negro and the Constitution" about the Marian Anderson concert. He called the event "a new baptism of liberty, equality, and fraternity." He also pointed out that all the celebration of the concert didn't change anything for Black Americans. "That was a touching tribute," he noted, "but Miss Anderson may not as yet spend the night in any good hotel in America."
The essay won a local contest, and young Martin traveled with his teacher to represent his school in a statewide contest. During the trip, he and his teacher were forced to give up their seats on a bus for white passengers, an experience he remembered later as he became an activist to end segregation.
You and your students can read the essay online in the digital resources of the Martin Luther King, Jr. Research and Education Institute at Stanford University. "The Negro and the Constitution."
- Compare the essay that Dr. King wrote when he was 16 years old to the "I Have a Dream" speech as well as other quotations found at the Martin Luther King Jr., Memorial. Can you find similar themes and phrases?
NPS
Franklin Delano Roosevelt Memorial
Franklin D. Roosevelt: January 30, 1882
The statue of FDR in a wheelchair that greets visitors to the Franklin Delano Roosevelt Memorial was not there when the memorial was first dedicated in 1997. FDR used leg braces and a cane to help him stand, and wheelchairs, many of his own design, to move around. But President Roosevelt hid his disability from the public. Perhaps he was worried that people at that time would believe being physically weak and unable to walk meant he would be a weak leader. Or perhaps he had already experienced discrimination. The memorial's designer, Lawrence Halprin, thought that Roosevelt should be remembered the way he wanted to be seen. The large statue of Roosevelt by Neil Estern in the third room shows him seated in a chair with a large cloak covering his legs. The memorial design team decided that if FDR did not show his disability to the public in his life, the memorial shouldn’t either.
When the memorial opened, many people were unhappy that the memorial seemed to hide FDR's paralysis. The National Organization for Disability believed that it was important that the memorial show the president in his wheelchair. Most of Roosevelt's grandchildren agreed, and changes were authorized to the memorial. On January 10, 2001, the Prologue Room opened. It includes a life-size statue of FDR which shows him seated in a wheelchair of his own design- a kitchen chair modified with tricycle wheels. On the wall behind the statue is a quote from Eleanor Roosevelt. It says, "Franklin's illness...gave him strength and courage he had not had before. He had to think out the fundamentals of living and learn the greatest of all lessons - infinite patience and never-ending persistence."
- What do your students think about the controversy?
- Why might it be important to show FDR in his wheelchair?
Even though the original design did not include a statue of FDR in his wheelchair, Lawrence Halprin and the other artists who designed the memorial wanted it to be accessible for people with all kinds of ability levels. Visitors can touch and interact with the statues. Fountains in each room help tell the story of FDR's presidency with sound. The mural in the third room that represents different programs of the New Deal includes braille among the elements on bronze panels. Recently, the National Park Service added display panels with tactile and audio descriptions of the memorial.
- What design elements can your students find in your classroom and school that make them accessible to students of different abilities? Can you come up with improvements?
- Take a Virtual Field Trip with Ranger Jen along with staff from the Home of Franklin D. Roosevelt National Historic Site in Hyde Park, New York; and the Franklin D. Roosevelt Little White House State Historic Site in Warm Springs, Georgia, in this video hosted by the Trust for the National Mall:
VIRTUAL FIELD TRIP: CELEBRATING FDR'S BIRTHDAY AT PARKS AROUND THE COUNTRY