The Fight in Nashville
“ We are rejoicing over the results of our work so far, but we intend to continue just as strenuously during the two weeks intervening before the special session because we want the vote for ratification to be as nearly unanimous as possible.”
— Abby Crawford Milton from Noted Suffragist to Visit Memphis Today, Commercial Appeal, July 26, 1920.
WILL TENNESSEE RATIFY?
With Tennessee back in play, political forces from all sides bore down on Nashville, focusing intense political pressure on the state legislature who could ultimately decide whether to give women across the country the ballot or not.
“SHELBY DELEGATION IS READY TO RATIFY. Legislators Sign Pledge to Work for Suffrage.”
Commercial Appeal, July 29, 1920.
![](https://www.memphislibrary.org/wp-content/uploads/img-Suffrage-Nashville_Suffrage0056-1.jpg)
At the outset, Carrie Chapman Catt did not have much hope for Tennessee. As part of the South, a region that had generally proven unfriendly terrain for suffrage, the state had only recently given women the right to participate in any elections at all. Beyond that, many of Tennessee’s neighboring southern states had already rejected the Nineteenth Amendment due to concerns about potential federal oversight, which could undermine the system of Jim Crow laws that kept white supremacy in place in the region.
Before the start of the legislative session, House Speaker Seth Walker, who had previously pledged to support ratification, switched sides. Labeled a traitor by suffragists like Betty Gram, Walker devoted his considerable political skill to the anti-suffrage cause, as did his friend the House Majority Leader, William Bond.
In East Tennessee, Republican legislators were largely divided. Under pressure from the Republican National Committee, the state party had openly declared support for ratification and encouraged legislators to do the same. However, there were holdouts. For example, Herschel Candler, a long serving state senator, and his protege representative Harry Burn had both voiced opposition to ratification.
In West Tennessee, legislators from Memphis and Shelby County formed a solid phalanx of support for ratification, thanks in part to local political boss E.H. Crump, whose wife Bessie Crump was staunchly pro-suffrage. However, local support went beyond the city’s political machine. For instance, Mayor Rowlett Paine, a political independent, had openly declared his support for women’s suffrage by agreeing to serve on the statewide Men’s Ratification Committee, as had editor C.P.J. Mooney of the Commercial Appeal, who fiercely hated Crump.
The city sent an enthusiastic contingent from the local chapter of the League of Women Voters to Nashville. At their head was school superintendent Charl Williams, who had recently become the first woman to be made a national vice chair of a major political party. She would serve as an intermediary between the various factions supporting ratification.
![](https://www.memphislibrary.org/wp-content/uploads/img-Suffrage_Nashville_SKDM0057.jpg)
Joe Hanover, who represented the Binghampton neighborhood in Memphis, served as floor leader for the pro-suffrage legislators in the Tennessee House of Representatives. Working tirelessly, he lost nearly twenty pounds during the battle over the Nineteenth Amendment. During the session, the governor assigned him a police escort due to threats against him.
At the start of the session, the suffrage amendment fared well in the Senate. It took only five days for it to pass by a wide margin despite stiff opposition from a few holdouts. However, it struggled in the House. There, legislators opposed to the amendment fought a war of delay, making strategic use of parliamentary procedure at critical points as the pro-suffrage side tried to advance the measure. The goal was to run out the clock, forcing the proposed constitutional amendment to die a death of a thousand delays until the energy behind the push for women’s suffrage evaporated.
Both pro-suffrage and anti-suffrage activists went to work to hold together their coalitions. Simultaneously, they tried to cause defections on the opposing side. Unfortunately, these efforts created confusion on the political battlefield. Multiple legislators had at different times pledged support for either side, and no one could be sure how firm those pledges were until actual votes occurred. As many battle hardened suffragists knew all too well, once the amendment went up for a vote, surprises could happen.
In fact, that was what Seth Walker counted on, hoping to bring the suffrage amendment to a vote at a moment when support was weakest, so he could kill it. As Speaker of the House and leader of the anti-suffrage faction, he could essentially force a vote on the issue. This made it even more important for the suffragists to maintain a majority, and to do their best to bluff when they couldn’t. Unfortunately, a week into the session, five of seven members from Davidson County that had pledged to ratify went over to the antis. By the suffragists own count, they were two votes short of a majority.
![](https://www.memphislibrary.org/wp-content/uploads/03637_a.jpg)
Sensing weakness, Walker pounced. Calling for a vote on ratification, he hoped to bring the issue to a final head. With the Davidson County defections, the antis held the majority, or at least, they appeared to. As the vote unfolded, it became clear that efforts to convert supporters had not just affected the suffragists. Two legislators broke ranks with the antis, and it became obvious that Walker and the anti-suffragists had miscalculated.
Tennessee ratified the amendment on August 18, 1920. Almost immediately, congratulatory messages flooded in, as suffragists across the country, some of whom had fought for decades, celebrated.
At the same time, anti-suffrage forces launched last ditch efforts to overturn ratification. In the press, they alleged that Joe Hanover, leader of the suffrage forces, had bribed Harry Burn, an East Tennessee legislator who switched sides at the last minute. They also initiated court challenges, hoping to stall.
None of it mattered. Despite the antis protests, Governor Roberts signed the state’s certificate of ratification with Memphis suffragist Charl Williams standing by his side. Within two days, United States Secretary of State Bainbridge Colby signed the documents finally putting the Nineteenth Amendment into effect on August 26, 1920.
With a stroke, the amendment enfranchised millions of women across the country. Since the Civil War, nothing had granted such freedom to so many with such speed. For many, it was the culmination of countless personal sacrifices and politically bloody battles waged for the better part of a century by women across generations.
ITEMS FROM THE COLLECTION
![Western Union telegram from political boss E. H. Crump to Thomas Riddick of the Tennessee House of Representatives asking if members of the state legislature from Shelby County had made it to Nashville to vote to ratify the Nineteenth Amendment.](https://www.memphislibrary.org/wp-content/uploads/cache/img-Suffrage-Nashville_SKDM0002/3461241524.jpg)
![Telegram from U.S. Senator Kenneth McKellar to George White, Democratic party chair, and Gov. James Cox, the Democratic presidential nominee, urging them to use their influence to get certain men in Tennessee to lobby their friends in the state legislature on behalf of the pro-suffrage movement.](https://www.memphislibrary.org/wp-content/uploads/cache/img-Suffrage-Nashville_SKDM0003/3533563270.jpg)
![Correspondence from Senator McKellar to President Woodrow Wilson complaining that the Collector of Internal Revenue has offered positions within his agency to a number of Tennessee state representatives in exchange for votes against the Nineteenth Amendment.](https://www.memphislibrary.org/wp-content/uploads/cache/img-Suffrage-Nashville_SKDM0004/2225592344.jpg)
![An incomplete list of members of the TN House of Representative, divided between pro-suffrage and anti-suffrage legislators, tallying how many votes each side had.](https://www.memphislibrary.org/wp-content/uploads/cache/img-Suffrage-Nashville_SKDM0053/344730594.jpg)
![Letter to Senator Kenneth McKellar of Tennessee as he was on his way to Nashville to lobby state legislators to ratify the Nineteenth Amendment granting women the right to vote.](https://www.memphislibrary.org/wp-content/uploads/cache/img-Suffrage-Nashville_SKDM0005/865051039.jpg)
![Letter sent by suffragist Kate Hale from Hawkins County urging Senator McKellar to contact a state representative and lobby him to vote for the amendment.](https://www.memphislibrary.org/wp-content/uploads/cache/img-Suffrage-Nashville_SKDM0007/2714966350.jpg)
![Handwritten letter to Senator McKellar complaining that his stance in favor of women's suffrage does not represent the attitude of the majority of people in the South.](https://www.memphislibrary.org/wp-content/uploads/cache/img-Suffrage-Nashville_SKDM0008/292871488.jpg)
![Typed note sent to Senator McKellar about efforts to corral state representative Hunt Phelan on the vote for ratification. Thomas Riddick, mentioned here, was a state representative from Memphis. He originally led the pro-suffrage forces until concerns about him being seen as arrogant by rural state legislators led Carrie Chapman Catt to ask Joseph Hanover of Shelby County to lead the drive instead.](https://www.memphislibrary.org/wp-content/uploads/cache/img-Suffrage-Nashville_SKDM0009/229073522.jpg)
![Letter from B. R. Sams to State Rep. William H. Light of Hawkins and Sullivan Counties, urging him to vote against the suffrage bill. Sams also mentions including a signed petition.](https://www.memphislibrary.org/wp-content/uploads/cache/img-Suffrage-Nashville_SKDM0043c/137425053.jpg)
![Invitation to join the Men's Ratification Committee, a group created by the TN League of Women Voters and headed by former Governor Thomas Rye. Other members included E. H. Crump, Commercial Appeal editor C P J Mooney, and former Governor Ben Hooper.](https://www.memphislibrary.org/wp-content/uploads/cache/img-Suffrage-Nashville_SKDM0049/3129165607.jpg)
![A list of all the members of the Men's Ratification Committee, which consisted of prominent well-connected men throughout the state. Included are Memphians Mayor Rowlett Paine, Congressman Hubert Fisher, E. H. Crump, C.P.J. Mooney, and Clarence Saunders.](https://www.memphislibrary.org/wp-content/uploads/cache/img-Suffrage-Nashville_SKDM0060b/2649896514.jpg)
![Partial tally of the vote in the House Committee on Constitutional Amendments. McKellar had been invited by suffrage supporters to address the committee. The tally however is incomplete. Only seventeen members out of the actual eighteen are listed, and at least one member listed in the pro-ratification column is incorrect.](https://www.memphislibrary.org/wp-content/uploads/cache/img-Suffrage-Nashville_SKDM0059b/97955174.jpg)
![Western Union telegram to Senator McKellar of Tennessee congratulating him on his state's ratification of the 19th Amendment giving women the right to vote.](https://www.memphislibrary.org/wp-content/uploads/cache/img-Suffrage-Nashville_SKDM0045/3394314230.jpg)
![Telegram from the Managing Director of the Farmers National Council to Senator McKellar of Tennessee congratulating him on his home state's ratification of the 19th Amendment giving women the right to vote.](https://www.memphislibrary.org/wp-content/uploads/cache/img-Suffrage-Nashville_SKDM0046/2494015417.jpg)
![Letter sent at the behest of Miss Alice Paul from the National Woman's Party to Senator McKellar of Tennessee thanking him for efforts in the fight to get his state to ratify the 19th Amendment.](https://www.memphislibrary.org/wp-content/uploads/cache/img-Suffrage-Nashville_SKDM0052/2892856245.jpg)
![Western Union telegram to state representative Thomas Riddick of Memphis congratulating him on his efforts to get the vote in favor of the Nineteenth Amendment. The telegram also mentions Gov. James Cox of Ohio, the 1920 Democratic nominee.](https://www.memphislibrary.org/wp-content/uploads/cache/img-Suffrage-Nashville_SKDM0011/2943849206.jpg)
![Telegram from Thomas K. Riddick to Senator McKellar concerning an attempt to withdraw the state's ratification. Riddick warns that Speaker Seth M. Walker is attempting to get U.S. Secretary of State Bainbridge Colby to issue a proclamation stating that Tennessee has withdrawn it's ratification.](https://www.memphislibrary.org/wp-content/uploads/cache/img-Suffrage-Nashville_SKDM0050/1471550918.jpg)
![Handwritten draft of a response to allegations that the leader of the pro-suffrage forces in the Tennessee House of Representatives Joe Hanover bribed Harry Burn. Burn was the state representative who cast the deciding vote ratifying the Nineteenth Amendment.](https://www.memphislibrary.org/wp-content/uploads/cache/img-Suffrage-Nashville_SKDM0001a/3956565217.jpg)
![Telegram from U.S. Secretary of State Bainbridge Colby to Senator McKellar acknowledging that Tennessee had ratified the 19th Amendment giving women the right to vote. He also says that he will immediately issue a proclamation stating that the amendment has been ratified by the necessary 36 states for it to become part of the U.S. Constitution.](https://www.memphislibrary.org/wp-content/uploads/cache/img-Suffrage-Nashville_SKDM0056/1101046765.jpg)