Lucy Burns

Lucy Burns (July 28, 1879 – December 22, 1966) was an American suffragist and women's rights advocate. She was a passionate activist in the United States and the United Kingdom, who joined the militant suffragettes. Burns was a close friend of Alice Paul, and together they ultimately formed the National Woman's Party.

Burns was born in New York to an Irish Catholic family. She was described by fellow National Woman's Party member Inez Haynes Irwin as "a woman of twofold ability. She speaks and writes with equal eloquence and elegance. [...] Mentally and emotionally, she is quick and warm. [...] She has intellectuality of a high order; but she overruns with a winning Irishness which supplements that intellectuality with grace and charm; a social mobility of extreme sensitiveness and swiftness."

She was a gifted student and first attended Packer Collegiate Institute, or what was originally known as the Brooklyn Female Academy, for second preparatory school in 1890. Packer Collegiate Institute prided itself on "teaching girls to be ladies", and they emphasized religious education while advocating more liberal ideals such as educating "the mind to habits of thinking with clearness and force."

Burns also met one of her lifelong role models, Laura Wylie, while attending Packer Collegiate Institute. Wylie was one of the first women to go to Yale University Graduate School. Burns also attended Columbia University, Vassar College, and Yale University before becoming an English teacher.

Burns taught at Erasmus Hall High School in Brooklyn for two years. While Burns enjoyed the educational field, she generally found the experience to be frustrating and wanted to continue her own studies. In 1906, at age twenty-seven, she moved to Germany to resume her studies in language.

In Germany, Burns studied at the Universities of Bonn and Berlin from 1906 to 1909. Burns later moved to the United Kingdom, where she enrolled at Oxford University to study English. Burns was fortunate enough to have a very extensive educational background as her father, Edwards Burns, supported her and financed her international education.

Burns's first major experiences with activism were with the Pankhursts in the United Kingdom from 1909 to 1912. While attending graduate school in Germany, Lucy Burns traveled to England where she met Emmeline Pankhurst and her daughters, Christabel and Sylvia. She was so inspired by their activism and charisma that she dropped her graduate studies to stay with them and work in the Women's Social and Political Union, an organization dedicated to fighting for women's rights in the United Kingdom. She started selling their newsletter Votes for Women, and joined a protest on June 29, 1909, where she was arrested.

Burns was later employed by the Women's Social and Political Union as a salaried organizer from 1910 to 1912. While working with the Pankhursts in the United Kingdom, Lucy Burns became increasingly passionate about activism and participated in numerous campaigns with the WSPU. She amazed a young Grace Roe, for coming from America to support the movement, even saying she had come to London to be arrested and that it "was a very grave honour." One of her first major contributions was organizing a parade in Edinburgh as part of the campaign in Scotland in 1909. She was the WSPU Edinburgh organiser for two years.