Editing Emmeline Pankhurst (section)

=== Tactical intensification ===
On 21 June 1908, 500,000 activists rallied in [[Hyde Park, London|Hyde Park]] to demand votes for women. This day is the beginning of "Women' s Sunday". It was organised by the WSPN, the massive demonstration for women's suffrage saw thousands march in seven processions all over London, gathering for a day of peaceful protest.
<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.historyrevealed.com/eras/modern/emmeline-pankhurst-mother-of-the-vote/|title=Emmeline Pankhurst, mother of the vote|website=historyrevealed.com|access-date=13 April 2023|archive-date=29 May 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230529145006/https://www.historyrevealed.com/eras/modern/emmeline-pankhurst-mother-of-the-vote/|url-status=dead}}</ref>
Asquith and leading MPs responded with indifference. Angered by this intransigence and abusive police activity, some WSPU members increased the severity of their actions. Soon after the rally, twelve women gathered in [[Parliament Square]] and tried to deliver speeches for women's suffrage. Police officers seized several of the speakers and pushed them into a crowd of opponents who had gathered nearby. Frustrated, two WSPU members – [[Edith New]] and [[Mary Leigh]] – went to [[10 Downing Street]] and hurled rocks at the windows of the Prime Minister's home. They insisted their act was independent of the WSPU command, but Pankhurst expressed her approval of the action. When a magistrate sentenced New and Leigh to two months' imprisonment, Pankhurst reminded the court of how various male political agitators had broken windows to win legal and [[civil rights]] throughout Britain's history.<ref>Purvis 2002, pp. 108–109; Bartley, pp. 96–97.</ref>

[[Image: Portrait Badge of Emmeline Pankhurst - c1909 - Museum of London.jpg|thumb|upright|Portrait badge of Emmeline Pankhurst – c. 1909 – Sold in large numbers by the WSPU to raise funds for its cause – Museum of London]]

In 1909 the [[hunger strike]] was added to the WSPU's repertoire of resistance. On 24 June [[Marion Wallace Dunlop]] was arrested for writing an excerpt from the [[Bill of Rights 1689|Bill of Rights (1688 or 1689)]] on a wall in the [[House of Commons of the United Kingdom|House of Commons]]. Angered by the conditions of the jail, Dunlop went on a hunger strike. When it proved effective, fourteen women imprisoned for smashing windows began to fast. WSPU members soon became known around the country for holding prolonged hunger strikes to protest their incarceration. Prison authorities frequently force-fed the women, using tubes inserted through the nose or mouth. The painful techniques (which, in the case of mouth-feeding, required the use of steel gags to force the mouth open) brought condemnation from suffragists and medical professionals.<ref>Purvis 2002, pp. 129–135; Bartley, pp. 113–114.</ref>

These tactics caused some tension between the WSPU and more moderate organisations, which had coalesced into the [[National Union of Women's Suffrage Societies]] (NUWSS). That group's leader, [[Millicent Fawcett]], originally hailed WSPU members for their courage and dedication to the cause. By 1912, however, she declared that hunger strikes were mere publicity stunts and that militant activists were "the chief obstacles in the way of the success of the suffrage movement in the House of Commons."<ref name="p194">Quoted in Purvis 2002, p. 194.</ref> The NUWSS refused to join a march of women's suffrage groups after demanding without success that the WSPU end its support of property destruction. Fawcett's sister [[Elizabeth Garrett Anderson]] later resigned from the WSPU for similar reasons.<ref>Purvis 2002, pp. 147, 181.</ref>

[[File: Emmeline Pankhurst addresses crowd.jpg|thumb|right|After selling her home, Pankhurst travelled constantly, giving speeches throughout Britain and the United States. One of her most famous speeches, "[[s: Freedom or death|Freedom or death]]", was delivered in Connecticut in 1913.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Commons Librarian |date=2024-07-08 |title=Watch Inspiring Activist and Protest Speeches : Emmeline Pankhurst, Freedom or Death, 1913 [Women’s suffrage] |url=https://commonslibrary.org/watch-inspiring-activist-and-protest-speeches/#Emmeline_Pankhurst_Freedom_or_Death_1913_Womens_suffrage |access-date=2024-08-10 |website=The Commons Social Change Library |language=en-AU}}</ref>]]

Press coverage was mixed; many journalists noted that crowds of women responded positively to speeches by Pankhurst, while others condemned her radical approach to the issue. ''[[The Daily News (UK)|The Daily News]]'' urged her to endorse a more moderate approach, and other press outlets condemned the breaking of windows by WSPU members. In 1906 ''[[Daily Mail]]'' journalist Charles Hands referred to militant women using the diminutive term "[[suffragette]]" (rather than the standard "[[suffragist]]"). Pankhurst and her allies seized the term as their own and used it to differentiate themselves from moderate groups.<ref>Holton 1996, p. 253; Purvis 2002, pp. 135–138.</ref>

The last half of the century's first decade was a time of sorrow, loneliness, and constant work for Pankhurst. In 1907 she sold her home in Manchester and began an itinerant lifestyle, moving from place to place as she spoke and marched for women's suffrage. She stayed with friends and in hotels, carrying her few possessions in suitcases. Although she was energized by the struggle–and found joy in giving energy to others– her constant travelling meant separation from her children, especially Christabel, who had become the national coordinator of the WSPU. In 1909, as Pankhurst planned a speaking tour of the United States, Henry was paralyzed after his [[spinal cord]] became inflamed. She hesitated to leave the country while he was ill, but she needed money to pay for his treatment and the tour promised to be lucrative. On her return from a successful tour, she sat by Henry's bedside as he died on 5 January 1910. Five days later she buried him beside his brother Frank in Highgate Cemetery,<ref>Oakley 2021, pp. 12–13</ref> then spoke before 5,000 people in Manchester. Liberal Party supporters who had come to heckle her remained quiet as she addressed the crowd.<ref>, Purvis 2002, pp. 98–99, 142–153; Bartley, p. 88.</ref>
[[File:Pankhurst boys' grave.jpg|thumb|Grave of Emmeline Pankhurst's sons in Highgate Cemetery]]