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One hundred years ago today, August 18, 1920, a mighty drama culminated in the ratification of the 19th amendment to the US Constitution which gave white women the right to vote.
One year prior, Congress had passed the amendment but 36 state legislatures had a limited time to agree in order for it to be ratified. By August 1920, 35 states had ratified and it was unclear whether TN or NC - or neither - would be the 36th. The weeks were running short.
NCian women, such as Gertrude Weil and Lillian Exum Clement, had been organizing across the state, lobbying their legislators to ratify. Anti-suffragists were out in full force, too, fretting that if women could vote then Black Americans would be fully enfranchised.
(Black men had earned the technical right to vote 50 years earlier, during Reconstruction.)
A similar battle of wills was taking place simultaneously in neighboring TN.
A similar battle of wills was taking place simultaneously in neighboring TN.
Both TN and NC Governors called special sessions to vote up or down on ratification. Even tho the NC Gov urged the legislature to vote YES and not be dragged into the future, the NCGA voted down ratification by only 2 votes.
They then sent a telegram to the TN legislature, still in session, to tell them they better vote NO also because state's rights. (Our neighbor ought not make us do something we just said we don't wanna do.)
Over in TN, the vote was really tenuous. The nation's youngest ever legislator at the time, Harry Burn, just 25 years old, had been inclined to vote YES on ratification. But, he was wavering under the strong lobbying efforts of anti-suffragists.
At the last minute, he heard from his mama.
She said: I taught you to read. I taught you to write. Now I wanna vote.
He went in the next day, carrying a letter from his mama as he cast his vote YES. Ratification was adopted in TN by 1 vote. And with that, women got the vote.
She said: I taught you to read. I taught you to write. Now I wanna vote.
He went in the next day, carrying a letter from his mama as he cast his vote YES. Ratification was adopted in TN by 1 vote. And with that, women got the vote.
The suffragist movement was racist and classist in the extreme, even though suffrage is deeply rooted in the same values as abolition. Black activists like Harriett Tubman, Sojourner Truth, Ida Wells and Rose Parks had to keep fighting for decades for the full enfranchisement
of Black women - especially in the South. And they did it largely without white women.
The Voting Rights Act wasn't passed in this country until 1965, after much blood was spilled. And today it is being undermined right in front of our eyes.
The Voting Rights Act wasn't passed in this country until 1965, after much blood was spilled. And today it is being undermined right in front of our eyes.
Today I'm celebrating the passage of the 19th amendment, but I'm also recommitting myself to the fight for full enfranchisement of the citizenry. The run-up to November is fraught with high emotions and the stakes feel like they couldn't be higher.
Please vote, y'all. Our ancestors paid a high price for the privilege.
