Minnie Hennessey

Miss Minnie Hennessy of Connecticut, sentenced to six months at Occoquan Workhouse for picketing with a suffrage banner at the gates of the White House

Born 1872, Mrs. Henry Hennessy of Hartford was a self-supporting business woman.  With 32 other women she picketed at the White House 10.16.1917 and was arrested but her sentence was suspended. Rearrested two days later, she was sentenced to 6 months at Occoquan Workhouse. In 1918 the Bridgeport Times called on Congress to look into the arrests of Suffrage picketers at the White House, which were judged in court that year to be illegal.  Scandal over the arrests helped the movement gain support, ultimately leading to a Constitutional Amendment 8.26.1920.

(LC, Records of the National Woman’s Party; Bridgeport Times 3.25.1918; Ancestry, U.S. Census)