By Nick McMahan, undergraduate, Louisiana State University
Jennie Bronenberg was born December 10, 1896, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. She was of Jewish descent and her parents were Abraham “Avraham Simcha” and Lizzie, “Leah” Bronenberg. Both of her parents were born in Ostropol, a small town in the Ukraine.
In 1919, Bronenberg was arrested for "obstructing traffic" with other Silent Sentinels of the National Woman's Party, who were picketing at the White House gates to urge President Wilson's advocacy on behalf of a constitutional amendment for woman suffrage. Bronenberg chose jail over the assessed fine and served a 5-day sentence in the district jail. To honor her commitment to suffrage, she was awarded a “prison pin” by the National Woman’s Party. This pin was given to all 166 women who were arrested that year.
At the time that Bronenberg was arrested, she was a 23-year-old female college student at the Wharton School of Business at the University of Pennsylvania. She was also chairman of the Third Congressional district in Pennsylvania for the National Woman’s Party.
In 1921, Jennie Bronenberg married David Henry Prince, a 31-year-old drug store clerk, also from Ostropol in the Ukraine. The two were married in Pennsylvania and remained there for the rest of their lives. In 1926, the couple gave birth to a son whom they named Leo Bronenberg Prince.
Jennie Bronenberg Prince died April 21, 1955 in Montgomery, Pennsylvania at the age of 58.
Sources:
Information about Bronenberg’s arrest can be found in Caroline Katzenstein, Lifting the Curtain (Philadelphia: Dorrance & Company, 1955), and Doris Stevens, Jailed for Freedom (New York: Boni & Liveright, 1920). Other information on the life of Jennie Bronenberg Prince can be found in the U.S. Census found on Ancestry.com.