Lucy Daniels House

As you continue down the street, you'll find The Little Brick house, home to Lucy (Lou) Daniels, whose contributions to the suffrage movement included her refusal to pay taxes in 1911 without a vote in Grafton’s governance.

As a member of the “Silent Sentinel” pickets at the White House in Washington, she was arrested in 1917, 1918 and 1919, protesting for a woman’s right to vote. She endured jail each time, including the “Night of Terror” at the Occoquan Workhouse on November 14, 1917. She was also arrested and jailed for protesting at Boston in 1919 when President Woodrow Wilson returned from Europe through that city.

Lou Daniels is also noted for pressing the National American Woman Suffrage Association and its leader Alice Paul to include more black women in suffrage events, especially the 1913 parade in Washington in which she also participated. She offered to contribute money if the participation of black women was increased. The request was turned down, but at least fifty African American women did march, overcoming attempts by some to bar black women from the events entirely.

The marker honoring Lou Daniels is one of four sites in Vermont on the National Votes for Women Trail. There are more than 2,350 sites nationwide.