TENNESSEE MAKES VOTES FOR WOMEN LAW OF THE LAND
Nashville, Tennessee (JFK+50) One hundred years ago today, August 18, 1920, Tennessee's House of Representatives passed the Susan B. Anthony Amendment. The vote marked Tennessee as the 36th and deciding state to make "Votes for Women" the law of the land.
After a "decades-long, national struggle," sex discrimination at the polls of the United States of America was history. Passage in the Tennessee House, however, had not come easy.
Representative Harry T. Burn of Niota surprised everyone when he voted "Aye". The vote ended 49 to 47 in favor of the amendment. After a moment of stunned silence, a great cheer rose from the gallery packed with suffragists.
President of the National Women's Party Alice Paul* said...
"The victory of women today completes the political democracy of America and enfranchises half the people of a great nation."
*Alice Stokes Paul (1885-1977) was born in Mt. Laurel Township, NJ & educated at Swarthmore College (1905), University of Pennsylvania (1907), & earned her L.L.B. at American University (1922). In 1913, ASP co-founded the National Women's Party. In 1928, she earned a doctorate in Civil Law at American University.
SOURCES
"How three men, the 'Suffragists' were pivoted to enacting woman's suffrage," by Bill Halton and Tyler Boyd, August 11, 2020, www.tennessean.com/
"August 18, 1920," by David Dismore, Turning Point, www.suffragistmemorial.org/
VOTE POSTER
League of Women Voters (1920)
Library of Congress Image
