Biography
Annie Arniel was a suffragist, women's rights advocate, and member of the Silent Sentinels who picketed the White House in 1917.
Arniel was born in May 1873 in Harrington, Delaware. She married in 1891 and was widowed in 1910, thereafter supporting herself and her daughter as a factory worker.
In 1914, Arniel and her daughter participated in a Washington, D.C., suffrage parade. The same year, she served as a delegate for the Delaware Equal Suffrage Association to the National American Woman Suffrage Association's annual convention. In 1915, she served as executive secretary of the Congressional Union. When the Congressional Union formed the National Woman’s Party, Arniel became a member.
Arniel was among the first of the NWP's Silent Sentinels arrested on June 27, 1917, at the White House, and served three days in jail after refusing to pay a $25 fine. She ultimately served 103 days in jail over eight jail terms for suffrage protesting, including 60 days in the Occoquan Workhouse in Virginia.
After passage of the Nineteenth Amendment, Arniel remained an active member of the NWP and became chairman of the Republican Women’s League. She died on February 9, 1924.
Source:
Boylan, A.M. (2015). Biographical Sketch of Annie Melvin Arniel [Arneil]. In Dublin, T. and Sklar, K. (eds.), Online Biographical Dictionary of Militant Woman Suffragists, 1913-1920,. Alexandria, VA: Alexander Street Press. Accessed on 9/19/2019 at https://documents.alexanderstreet.com/d/1009054733.