Lucy Burns

Lucy Burns was a suffragist and women's rights advocate, and a co-founder of the National Women's Party.

Burns was born in Brooklyn, New York City on July 28, 1879. She attended Columbia University, Vassar College, and Yale University, then became a high school English teacher in Brooklyn. In 1906, she moved to Germany, where she continued her education, studying at University of Bonn and Berlin. She then moved to the United Kingdom, where she studied at Oxford University.

In the United Kingdom, Burns met Emmeline Pankhurst and her daughters, Christabel and Sylvia, who were prominent social activists and suffragists. She discontinued her education to focus on voting rights and social activism. She created a newsletter called Votes for Women. Later, she was employed by the Women's Social and Political Union as an organizer.

Following Burns' moving back to the United States in 1912, she and Alice Paul went on to lead the Congressional Committee of the National American Woman Suffrage Association. Burns and Paul soon founded a new organization, the Congressional Union for Woman Suffrage, which later became the National Woman's Party. Over her course of activism, Burns was arrested numerous times and endured harsh and punitive treatment in prison.

Burns retired from activism after the Nineteenth Amendment was passed. She passed away on December 22, 1966, in Brooklyn, New York