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Played by Laura Fraser
DORIS STEVENS (1892-1963)
Doris Stevens joined with Alice Paul, Lucy Burns, Mabel Vernon, Olympia Brown, Mary Ritter Beard, Belle LaFollette, Helen Keller, Maria Montessori, Dorothy Day and Crystal Eastman to form the Congressional Union for Women Suffrage (CUWS) in 1913. The women attempted to introduce the militant methods used by the Women's Social and Political Union in Britain. This included organizing huge demonstrations and the daily picketing of the White House. Over the next couple of years the police arrested nearly 500 women for loitering and 168 were jailed for "obstructing traffic". By 1914 the CUWS had a membership of 4,500 and had raised more than $50,000 for its campaign. The following year Stevens was the organizer of the National Convention of Women Voters. The Congressional Union for Women Suffrage became the National Woman's Party (NWP) in 1916. Stevens, who published Jailed for Freedom in 1920, was member of the NWP's national council between 1931 and 1936. She was also chairman of the Inter-American Commission of Women (1924-48). Doris Stevens died March 22, 1963.
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