Alice Paul followed in the footsteps of many 19th century suffragists but she was the one who led the successful crusade to secure the vote for women. All it required of her was seven arrests, three jail terms, a threat to be sent to an insane asylum, multiple hunger strikes, and the enmity of much of the country.

Paul graduated Swarthmore College with a degree in biology then followed that with a Ph.D. from the University of Pennsylvania in 1912.

She dedicated her life’s work to earning women the right to vote, and she helped organize the National Women’s Party to lead the fight. Her crusade was met with deaf ears in Washington, both in Congress and from incoming President Woodrow Wilson.

In response, Paul organized one of the largest protest parades ever seen in the nation’s Capital on Wilson’s inauguration day. For the next 18months, she and her colleagues picketed in front of the White House - the first known instance of picketing there.

She was arrested numerous times but news coverage of the rough treatment she endured in prison began to shift the national conscience. Wilson eventually came around to support her cause and after a number of failures, the 18th Amendment to the Constitution was passed by Congress in 1920 and ratified by the requisite 36 states.

Paul has been inducted into the New Jersey Hall of Fame, the National Women’s Hall of Fame and, in April, 2016, it was announced that Paul’s image would be one of those included in the redesign of the $5 bill in honor of the women’s suffrage movement.