When women picketed the White House demanding the vote on January 10, 1917, they broke new ground in political activism. Demanding that they President influence Congress, they petitioned the President and Congress and marched in the streets in the nation's first ever coast-to-coast campaign for political rights. Women were imprisoned for peaceful protest, went on hunger strikes and were beaten and tortured by authorities. But they won the 19th Amendment, ensuring that the right to vote cannot be denied because of gender. Their successful nonviolent civil rights campaign established a precedent