Faculty Publications

The 1919 Prison Special: Constituting White Women's Citizenship

Document Type

Article

Keywords

body argument, citizenship, constitutive outside, Prison Special, woman suffrage

Journal/Book/Conference Title

Quarterly Journal of Speech

Volume

102

Issue

2

First Page

107

Last Page

132

Abstract

ABSTRACT: During the spring of 1919, the National Woman's Party sponsored the Prison Special, a cross-country train tour of 26 white women who had been jailed as a result of their protest activity for woman suffrage. Using visual, embodied, and verbal enactments of imprisonment and civic action, the Prison Special constituted white women's citizenship through simultaneous rhetorics of inclusion and expulsion. The Prison Special's foregrounding of white women's martial capabilities, respectability, and vulnerability justified white women's inclusion in the category of citizen. The Prison Special's contrast of the imprisoned white suffragists to Black women co-prisoners participated in the expulsion of Black women from the category of citizen.

Original Publication Date

4-2-2016

DOI of published version

10.1080/00335630.2016.1154185

Repository

UNI ScholarWorks, Rod Library, University of Northern Iowa

Language

en

Link to Full Text

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