Historical perspective

For three months, a 12-year-old embodied a 1900s women’s suffrage advocate.

For a civics class assignment at Haile Middle School, seventh-grade student Hannah Arduini chose to write about Alice Paul, a key player in the early 20th century struggle to secure women with the right to vote.

She dedicated her nights — more than 10 hours each week — to becoming an expert on Paul.

Hannah’s mother, Doreen, remembers her daughter’s late nights of research. She would go downstairs in their East County home to find Hannah asleep on a stack of library books or pages of printouts of information on Paul, she said.

“Alice Paul was all over our entire living room,” Doreen Arduini said. “Papers were spread all over the floor; she lived Alice Paul.”

Haile Middle social studies teacher Carol Charlton submitted Hannah’s and her classmates’ projects to the Manatee County History Fair in January.

Along with the “A” she received on her project, Hannah clinched first place in the middle school age group in the county competition and placed in the top three at the state level. Now she is preparing to compete at the Kenneth E. Behring National History Day (NHD) Contest, held June 15 through June 19, at the University of Maryland.

The first- and second-place junior level (middle school) students and senior level (high school) students from each state as well as students from China, Europe and other countries, will converge this weekend to compete for first-, second- or third-place medals.

Each year, NHD, a national academic program geared toward students in middle and high school, asks students to create one of five types of projects that correlate with the chosen historical theme. Categories include: exhibits, documentaries, performances, websites and papers.

Students mail their projects to the panel of educators and historians who judge the materials beforehand. Starting June 15, the judges will interview the candidates, who will describe their projects and answer questions on their topics and research processes.

For Hannah, researching and writing the project, which she has been studying each night to better prepare herself for possible questions on its content, wasn’t as nerve-wracking as private conversations with the judges at the local and state level.

“(Interviews) made me really nervous at first,” Hannah said, “but I’ve gotten better and learned certain tools. I know how to dress for the interviews and to sit up straight. It’s good experience for job interviews later.”

Hannah also learned to heed advice from the judges to make her project better. The middle-school student incorporated additional paragraphs about the amendment process — a recommendation from the state judges.

After the three months she spent working on the project after Charlton initially assigned it in September, Hannah feels she is ready.

“By now, I pretty much have it memorized,” Hannah said, laughing.

She also feels confident in her final product — a depiction of Paul’s life and struggle to make the right to vote amendment a part of the U.S. Constitution.

The competition isn’t just about winning a medal, however. Hannah hopes to teach her peers and the judges a little more about an unsung hero, she said.

Through her research, she learned about protests Paul held to rebel against the anti-women voting process. Paul’s refusal to eat while in prison, all to prove a point, surprised Hannah. Learning about an advocate who fought for a belief inspired her and has left a lasting impression.

“A lot of people don’t know who Alice Paul is,” Hannah said. “They just know they can vote. She was a powerful person. I learned so much about her life and influence on women’s suffrage, but what I learned most was to stay true to who you are, to your beliefs — to know that you can make a difference.”

DID YOU KNOW? 

Alice Paul hosted Watchfire demonstrations in front of the White House in the early 1900s. During the meets, Paul read quotes from a speech then-President Woodrow Wilson gave about equality and other beliefs that Paul felt conflicted with women not being allowed to vote. Paul then burned the speech in a bonfire in front of the building with picketers marching nearby.

Harry Burn, a representative of the Tennessee General Assembly, was the deciding vote in whether the state — the last to accept the amendment — would allow women to vote. Historians believe a note from his mother, Phoebe Ensminger Burn, persuaded him, a former anti-suffrage official, to vote in favor of the 19th Amendment. Phoebe Ensminger Burn remains known as the woman who helped save suffrage, according to Hannah Arduini’s report.