[9] While attending graduate school in Germany, Lucy Burns traveled to England where she met Emmeline Pankhurst and her daughters, Christabel and Sylvia.

[9] While working with the Pankhursts in the United Kingdom, Lucy Burns became increasingly passionate about activism and participated in numerous campaigns with the WSPU.

[14][15] Burns was with Jennie Baines, Mary Leigh, Alice Paul, Emily Davison and Mabel Capper trying to stop a Limehouse meeting on the Budget by Lloyd George.

In a fracas with a senior police officer led to Burns being described by the magistrate as "setting an extremely bad example" and getting a harsher sentence.

[12] While Burns is not a widely known speaker from the woman's rights movement, she did make a variety of speeches in marketplaces and on street corners while in Europe.

[12] Burns and Paul were involved in a stunt at the London Lord Mayor's Ball, mingling with guests then approaching Winston Churchill with a hidden banner shouting "How can you dine here while women are starving in prison?"

[18] Burns and Paul bonded over their frustration with what they considered the inactivity and ineffective leadership of the American suffrage movement by Anna Howard Shaw.

[18] Both women were passionate about activism, and the feminist struggle for equality in the UK inspired Burns and Paul to continue the fight in the United States in 1912.

[1] Suffrage historian Eleanor Clift compares the partnership of Paul and Burns to that of Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton.

"[12] Upon returning to the United States, Paul and Burns joined the National American Women Suffrage Association (NAWSA) as leaders of its Congressional Committee.

[22] By holding an entire party accountable, Paul and Burns believed that congressmen would be forced to take action or risk losing their seats.

[29] NAWSA felt they could no longer tolerate the radical tactics employed and advocated by the Congressional Union, and they wanted to officially sever their ties.

[30] In addition to confronting the Democratic Party, Burns and Paul had to address displeased members within their own organization; some women were complaining that the Congressional Union was elitist, authoritarian, and undemocratic.

[31] Paul believed centralized authority was critical to accomplishing their goals and operating effectively, so they did not make any drastic changes; to appease their members they solicited suggestions and stated "We would be most grateful for any constructive plan which you can lay before us.

[34] This posed a huge threat to the work of Burns and Paul because the Shafroth amendment, if passed, would make suffrage a states' rights only issue.

[36] The fact that she was the first to speak at such a critical time for federal suffrage shows not only her courage in the face of opposition, but how well respected she was by her fellow leaders and suffragists.

The speeches of Burns and Paul were incredibly important at that time in the movement because they showed politicians that women would unite as a voting bloc.

After their convention in 1915, Anna Howard Shaw stepped down as president, and many believed this would be a time for potential reconciliation between the Congressional Union and NAWSA.

[47] After all of the turmoil of the past few years, Alice Paul announced a radical new plan for 1916—she wanted to organize a woman's political party.

[48] Burns adamantly supported this plan and on June 5, 6 and 7, 1916 at the Blackstone Theater in Chicago, delegates and female voters met to organize the National Woman's Party (NWP).

[52] Specifically, she was a chief organizer, lobby head, newspaper editor, suffrage educator, teacher, orator, architect of the banner campaign, rallying force, and symbol of the NWP.

[54] The National Woman's Party led dozens of women to picket the White House in Washington, D.C., as Silent Sentinels beginning in January 1917.

[57] Throughout her career with the National Woman's Party, Burns was known to have a bitter sense of injustice and become angry because of the actions of the President or apathetic Americans.

[58] In jail, Burns joined Alice Paul and many other women in hunger strikes to demonstrate their commitment to their cause, asserting that they were political prisoners.

[63] When they realized Lucy Burns's spirit was not going to be easily broken, they handcuffed her hands above her head to her cell door and left her that way for the entire night.

[63] Despite her courage and extraordinary leadership skills, the burden of working so diligently did bother Burns at times; she once told Alice Paul, "I am so nervous I cannot eat or sleep.

"[64] Realizing something urgent needed to be done or he would potentially have dead prisoners on his hands, the warden moved Burns to another jail and told the remaining women that the strike was over.

"[75] All of her time spent in jail and experiences as a suffragist had left her bitter towards married women and others who didn't take action during the suffrage movement.

[76] After the women of the United States gained the right to vote, Burns retired from political life and devoted herself to the Catholic Church and her orphaned niece.

[79] In 2004, HBO Films broadcast Iron Jawed Angels, chronicling the voting rights movement of Lucy Burns, Alice Paul, and other suffragists.