Born: 1842, United States
Died: 19 May 1925
Country most active: United States
Also known as: NA
The following is excerpted from Infinite Women founder Allison Tyra’s book The View from the Hill: Women Who Made Their Mark After 40.
As one short biography notes, “Prior to joining the National Woman’s Party (NWP), Mary Nolan led a rather conventional life.” Indeed, a well-off South Carolinian woman who’d previously been involved in more socially acceptable work, like establishing a library and being part of the United Daughters of the Confederacy, was not exactly the archetype of a militant suffragist—especially since she was also in her 70s. Nonetheless, the 73-year-old Nolan came up from her home in Florida to join her fellow activists in picketing the White House in 1917 and was among the 41 women arrested on November 10. Although the judge dismissed them without sentence as a warning, 31—including Nolan—were right back at the White House an hour later. Due to her age, Nolan was sentenced to only six days, while others were sentenced to three or six months. But she was still there at the Occoquan, Virginia, workhouse on November 14 when the 31 suffragists were abused, with Nolan herself literally thrown into her cell to land against the iron bed. After her release on November 20, she went to NWP headquarters and gave a statement about her experiences. The article she wrote for the NWP newspaper described it as a “Night of Terror” and the name stuck.
The experience certainly didn’t scare her off; Nolan later participated in the NWP’s “Watchfires for Freedom,” burning one of President Woodrow Wilson’s speeches on January 24, 1919. She was arrested several more times, serving a few more days in jail. She joined the NWP’s National Advisory Council and toured the U.S. on a speaking campaign with other suffragists who’d been imprisoned for their activism. Unlike many suffragists, she lived long enough to see their work result in the 19th Amendment, granting women the right to vote, passed in 1919. In 1921, she was honored at the national NWP meeting “as the oldest suffrage picket.” In 1980, the National Organization for Women (NOW)’s Jacksonville, Florida chapter created the Mary Nolan Award to recognize an outstanding local feminist each year on August 26, Women’s Equality Day, which is also Mary Nolan Day in Jacksonville. Nolan’s grave had gone unmarked since her death in 1925, until the group placed a headstone to commemorate her.