Dora Lewis (October 13, 1862 – January 31, 1928), also known as Mrs. Lawrence Lewis, was an American suffragist.
She was active in the
National American Woman Suffrage Association
The National American Woman Suffrage Association (NAWSA) was an organization formed on February 18, 1890, to advocate in favor of women's suffrage in the United States. It was created by the merger of two existing organizations, the Nationa ...
and later helped found the
National Woman's Party
The National Woman's Party (NWP) was an American women's political organization formed in 1916 to fight for women's suffrage. After achieving this goal with the 1920 adoption of the Nineteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution, the NW ...
.
Lewis took part in the
Silent Sentinels
The Silent Sentinels, also known as the Sentinels of Liberty, were a group of over 2,000 women in favor of women's suffrage organized by Alice Paul and the National Woman's Party, who protested in front of the White House during Woodrow Wilson's ...
protest to advocate for women's suffrage.
Involvement with the National Woman's Party
In 1913 Dora Lewis became a very early executive member of the National Woman's Party (NWP). She was a very active member of the NWP and she was arrested numerous times for her advocacy in support of suffrage. Lewis served three days in jail for picketing in July 1917 and was arrested on November 10, 1917. After this arrest she was sentenced to 60 days in a workhouse. Lewis was also arrested in August 1918 at the Lafayette Square meeting in honor of the late
Inez Milholland
Inez Milholland Boissevain (August 6, 1886 – November 25, 1916) was a leading American suffragist, lawyer, and peace activist.
From her college days at Vassar, she campaigned aggressively for women’s rights as the principal issue of a wi ...
(where she was the primary speaker) and sentenced to 15 days. Later she was arrested in January 1919 during the watchfire demonstrations (which she began when she set fire to copies of President Wilson's speeches on democracy) and sentenced to five days.
Night of Terror
On the night of November 14, 1917, known as the "
Night of Terror", the superintendent of the
Occoquan Workhouse
The Lorton Reformatory, also known as the Lorton Correctional Complex, is a former prison complex in Lorton, Virginia, established in 1910 for the District of Columbia, United States.
The complex began as a prison farm called the Occoquan Wor ...
, W.H. Whittaker, ordered the nearly forty guards to brutalize the suffragists there, including Dora Lewis.
The guards threw