How Women Won the Vote: Alice Paul, Lucy Burns, and Their Big Idea

Gr 2-5–Just in time for the 100th anniversary of the passage of the 19th Amendment, this nonfiction picture book shines a light on the women’s right to vote initiative of the early 1900s. When American activists Alice Paul and Lucy Burns met by chance in a London jail in 1909, they formed a strong alliance that would later have a profound impact on the suffragette movement. Over the course of the next decade, the two helped engineer the campaign for a woman’s right to vote using protests, “unladylike” boycotts, and an unprecedented parade in Washington, DC, that involved more than 5,000 participants and 250,000 spectators. Bartoletti briefly addresses the racial discrimination Black women (including Ida B. Wells) faced when they tried to join the parade. Historical photographs, letters, and articles are interspersed with Chen’s illustrations. A thorough bibliography, a time line, and an index are included. End pages features copies of Paul’s correspondence.