Category Archives: 19th Amendment

Woman Suffrage Hero’s Story Revealed in “Why Can’t Mother Vote?”

News out of Memphis!

MEMPHIS, Tenn., Aug. 25, 2020 /PRNewswire/ — As the national woman suffrage centennial celebration continues, there’s a new book from author Bill Haltom about the unsung hero of Tennessee’s final ratification, Rep. Joseph Hanover of Memphis.

The book, Why Can’t Mother Vote: Joseph Hanover and the Unfinished Business of Democracy, tells the story of a Jewish immigrant from Poland who believed so strongly that women should vote that he ran for the Tennessee General Assembly to support woman suffrage. He revered this country’s founding documents and always questioned why his mother couldn’t vote. He strongly supported the partial suffrage bill that passed in Tennessee in April 1919 granting women the right to vote in municipal and presidential elections only. Later, he became the House floor leader during the raucous special session of August 1920 when Tennessee was the last state that could possibly ratify the 19th Amendment.

READ THE FULL STORY!

Whiskey Almost Derailed Suffrage

News shared from Knoxville Branch

In the summer of 1920, Tennessee Gov. A.H. Roberts called a special session in Nashville for legislators to vote whether to ratify the 19th Amendment.

With women’s right to vote on the line – if Tennessee voted yes, the amendment would become the law of the land – suffragists and anti-suffragists swarmed the city and set up their headquarters at The Hermitage Hotel, the bastion for the battle that ensued.

The hallways of the hotel were like trenches, and the lobby was the battlefield.

Suffragists shot accusations, and antis fired insults back, each side wearing roses like battle emblems, yellow for the suffragists, red for the antis.

But the antis had a secret weapon – the Jack Daniel’s Suite, a wild room on the eighth floor where legislators were wooed and boozed by liquor lobbyists allied with the antis.

The room is still shrouded in mystery because it was illegal – Prohibition was newly in place just that January – but the hotel’s historian Tom Vickstrom and suffrage researchers have preserved some of the stories from its time.

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Women Were Not “Given” The Vote: They Took It

Round up from the AAUW National site :

A 2020 Perspective on the 19th Amendment

This month marks the 100th Anniversary of the Ratification of the 19th Amendment, which marked a significant milestone in American feminist history. But looking back at this history, today’s thought leaders have focused on the ways the Amendment did not fully deliver on its promise – as well as on how many Americans still lack access to the ballot today.  Read these excerpts about this important centenary.

Women Were Not ‘Given’ The Vote: They Took It

The Christian Science Monitor

“We tend to envision the American woman suffrage movement as a triumphant newsreel of women in white dresses and fabulous hats marching to victory, as enlightened men suddenly and nobly hand the ballot to female citizens – all female citizens. That newsreel is romantic fiction.

“The truth is grittier, and more important: It required three generations of fearless activists over a span of more than seven decades working in more than 900 state, local, and national campaigns to finally win the vote for American women. And that active verb – win – is important: Women were not given the vote; they were not granted the vote. As one commentator so aptly describes it: ‘They took it.’

“The woman suffragists offer a legacy of persistence and courage that holds vital lessons for today’s political activists: Protest is important – and patriotic – but it must be followed up by well-designed and sustained political strategies in order to enact lasting change. The suffragists did not just march and picket; they also debated and lobbied, drafted legislation and campaigned. They learned to effectively communicate their cause to the public, build alliances, master the intricacies of legislative procedure, and pull the levers of political power.”

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The Battle for Equality Is Not Over

NBC Today Show

The appointment of Kamala Harris, the first woman of color to run on a major party’s presidential ticket, is a “breakthrough in the struggle for equality first demanded more than a century ago by the Suffragists fighting for the 19th Amendment,” reports Rehema Ellis of NBC News. “But the amendment didn’t give all women the right to vote, which is why we call this a commemoration, not a celebration. Black women had to continue their fight until the 1965 Voting Rights Act, and that fight is still not over. In certain communities, voter suppression is real – it just looks different in 2020 than it did 50 or 100 years ago. The right of Black women right to participate in Democracy has involved struggle every step of the way. But given the opportunity, Black women show up at the polls in higher numbers than other voting blocs.”

WATCH VIDEO

The Suffrage Movement Is Still Unfinished

The 19th

“We’re in a year where there are folks who would like to do a little more than celebrate, and that requires too often muting these stories [of women of color]  and turning down the volume on the fact that racism runs through this movement in every chapter of the story, and ultimately leaves Black women to build their own movement for voting rights,” says Nikole Hannah-Jones, Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter for The New York Times Magazine and creator of the 1619 Project.

Another myth Hannah-Jones cites is the idea that Black women weren’t politically engaged. Even before 1920, Black women in some states, including California, Illinois and New York, were becoming part of party machines and building political power. After the 19th Amendment was ratified, Black women all over the country mobilized to “test the amendment,” Jones said. Some succeeded more than others. For example, nearly every Black woman registered to vote in St. Louis in 1920, but in Daytona, Florida, the Ku Klux Klan showed up to intimidate Black women away from the polls.

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Michelle Obama: We Cannot Take the Right to Vote for Granted

Harper’s Bazaar

“It took decades of marching, organizingand standing up to folks who thought that democracy should be of, by and for only some of the people, And then we had to fight for decades more to ensure that women of color could cast their ballots as well. These victories were hard won. But the struggle was worth it, because our foremothers knew that our vote is our voice. It gives us the power to determine the course of our lives and the direction of our country. And this year in this election, we cannot take that power for granted. We all know that some people out there are just hoping that we decide to give up our power and stay home on Election Day. But we can’t let that happen. Not this year, not any year. We owe it to ourselves, and to our kids and grandkids, to make our voices heard. That’s what our mothers and grandmothers did for us. And now it’s our turn.”

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The Woman’s Vote: Controversial Long After Amendment Passed

Time Magazine

“Several states reacted actively rejected the Amendment in 1919 and 1920. Eleven states ratified it after it had already been certified in 1920—but not all at once. It would be fifty years before South Carolina, Georgia and Louisiana would do so, with Mississippi becoming the last to join in 1984. From state to state, several factors were at play. In Virginia, which ratified in 1952, the Virginia Association Opposed to Woman’s Suffrage distributed pamphlets that argued that the vote would actually have a negative impact on the everyday lives of women, that it was the “vanguard of socialism” and that it would undermine the role of husbands in the family. Similarly, in Alabama, which ratified in 1953, the Women’s Anti-Ratification League put forward the idea that Alabama women should be more concerned about raising families than participation in civic life, and in Florida which ratified in 1969, opposition from newspapers and politicians to suffrage was fierce.”

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Women in the United States Are Still Denied the Right to Vote

The New Republic

“One hundred years on from ‘woman suffrage,’ and women in the United States are still denied the right to vote, whether through outright disenfranchisement for past involvement with the criminal legal system, voter intimidation, bogus claims of ‘voter fraud,’ or the realization—perhaps logical—that there isn’t much worth voting for in a political system that has so often failed and excluded them. The Nineteenth Amendment, under which no state may abridge or deny the right to vote based on sex, was ratified one hundred years ago this August. The women who remain locked out of the franchise are the fractured legacy of a fractured movement.

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Breaking down the myths around suffrage hero Harry Burn

News shared from Knoxville Branch – read the full story here

Harry T. Burn stands as an outsized figure in the suffrage movement, the story of his dramatic turnabout vote in favor of ratifying the 19th Amendment part of Tennessee lore.

As the centennial anniversary of Tennessee’s ratification – which gave the amendment approval from enough states to become constitutional law – is commemorated, myths still linger about Burn, who was 24 at the time of the Aug. 18, 1920, vote.

Those myths obscure the full story not only of his actions right before, during and after his historic vote, but also the rest of his life.

And oft forgotten in East Tennessee is that Burn’s vote would not have been so memorable without the help of the three Knox County state House members who also voted for ratification but aren’t venerated the way Burn is.

Tyler Boyd, a teaching assistant at Lenoir City High and the great-grandson of Burn’s brother, Jack, recently wrote a book called “Tennessee Statesman: Harry T. Burn” that dispels three myths about Burn, who was born and lived in the McMinn County community of Niota at the time of his vote.

read the full story here

Maryville Votes for Women Centennial Car Parade

Hosted by AAUW Maryville & League of Women Voters of Blount County

It was a grand turnout of at least 70 cars to celebrate the centennial of women winning the right to vote with the ratification of the 19 Amendment to the US Constitution in Tennessee! Participants came ready for the occasion.

See all the pictures and a video here! https://maryville-tn.aauw.net/

 

Walls for Women – Mural Project Hires Female Artists

We’re celebrating 100 years of women’s suffrage and Tennessee’s place in history in ratifying the 19th Amendment with the creation of original art throughout the state by an all-female team of professional muralists. See below who’s painting where currently.

LEARN MORE (and see recent projects!)

WHY WOMEN, AND WHY ART?

Like nearly every profession, a gender gap exists in the art world: Women muralists are not afforded the same opportunities as their male counterparts. The street art scene in Tennessee is predominantly male, despite there being hundreds of female muralists every bit as talented. To commemorate 100 years of women having federally- recognized voting rights, we want to give female artists the chance to create and leave a piece of history behind. Thus, we are partnering with more than a dozen cities across Tennessee to do just that.

Febb Burn : Great-Grandma Helped Secure Women’s Suffrage

One hundred years ago, a letter changed one man’s mind and millions of women’s lives forever.

The letter was sent from Febb Burn to her son Harry T. Burn, a 24-year-old Tennessee representative, in the midst of a career-defining decision — vote “aye” or “nay” on the ratification of the 19th Amendment.

We know how the vote played out, but the untold story about the Burn family remains a small-town tale.

Three Burn family sisters — CEO Cathy Allen, Vice President Sandra Boyd and co-owner Pat Cotton — now own and operate the family business, Crescent Sock Company, in Niota, Tennessee. It’s the longest-running hosiery mill in the United States, according to the family.

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8/18/20 – Event: Commemorative Unfurling of 36-Star Ratification Flag

Tuesday, August 18, 2020 at 2:30 PM – 3 PM

https://www.facebook.com/events/803374526733337/

In honor of the 100th Anniversary of the ratification of the 19th Amendment, the Tennessee State Museum will unfurl a banner replica of the 36-star ratification flag of the National Woman’s Party (NWP) off the veranda on the south side of the building, facing the State Capitol and Bicentennial Mall, on Tuesday, August 18 at 2:30 p.m. CST. Members of the NWP hand-sewed the original gold, white, and purple flag adding a star for each state that ratified the Amendment. Tennessee was the 36th state to ratify and members of the National American Woman’s Suffrage Association and the National Woman’s Party both worked toward the success of ratification.

The final star was sewn on August 18, 1920, when word was received by telegram that Tennessee had ratified the amendment, and soon the flag was unfurled from the balcony of the NWP headquarters in Washington, DC. The Museum’s symbolic unfurling of the banner replica is open to the public and will also be livestreamed on the Museum’s Facebook channel. The banner will remain hanging through at least August 26, the date the 19th Amendment was officially signed into law.

For more about the flag, please visit the Museum’s Stories blog for a post by executive director, Ashley Howell, at https://tnmuseum.org/Stories/posts/36-stars-millions-of-stories.