Suffragettes of Tennessee

"Bullets and ballots are not companions, but ballots in the hands of people are supposed to be a substitute for bullets in the hands of hired agents...Thanks be to God that in giving women the crown of motherhood he made her the giver not the taker of life. Woman has no greater claim to the rights of the ballot than she is a producer not a destroyer of life." - Lizzie Crozier French

                                                       Suffrage Poster

       
                                             

Everyone knows of the tireless efforts of women like Susan B. Anthony, Alice Paul, Lucretia Mott, Carrie Chapman Catt and Elizabeth Cady Stanton in their fight for the right for women to vote. Their names have become synonymous with Women's Suffrage. Few people have heard of these remarkable Tennessee women that helped convince the Tennessee Legislature to ratify the Susan B. Anthony bill; known today as the 19th Amendment to the Constitution. 

 In order for an Amendment to pass and become law it has to pass through both houses of Congress and then be ratified by a majority of 36 states. In 1919, the 19th Amendment passed through both houses of Congress. Six states ratified the bill immediately. Twenty nine states soon followed suit while six Southern states rejected it. Florida, North Carolina, Vermont, Connecticut, and Louisiana opposed the Amendment. The last two states to decide were Delaware and Tennessee. When the bill was defeated in Delaware every breath was held and every eye turned to Tennessee. 

                                                  Anti-Suffrage Poster


Tennessee had it's own "War of the Roses" as anti-suffragists campaigned using a red rose to symbolize their stance and suffragists choosing a yellow rose. Nashville was flooded with campaigners and lobbyist. On August 9, 1919 a special session of the Tennessee General Assembly was called; requested by Sue Shelton White. The bill finally passed the Senate on Friday, Aug. 13 by a margin of 25-4 with one senator abstaining. The bill was then handed off the the House where it was debated for three more days. A test vote to table the resolution lost on a 48-48 tie and, knowing another tie vote would defeat the bill  an anti-Suffragist immediately called for another vote to kill the amendment in Tennessee. Rep. Harry Burn, after having just received a letter from his mother urging him to ratify, voted "Aye" to the resolution The bill now had a 49-47 majority in the Tennessee House of Representatives.  On August 18, 1919, Tennessee certified the ratification, becoming the 36th state to do so and making the 19th Amendment to the United States Constitution the law. Women everywhere celebrated their win. They now had the right to vote! 


Tennessee was an important factor in deciding the fate of American Women and so were these ladies that you, dear readers need to know about. There were many women in the state that came together to make their voices known. History has not left us with the names of every Tennessee suffragist but we remember their collective effort to support the cause. Now I would like to introduce you to the following remarkable Tennessee Suffragettes.

                     The Tennesee Woman's Suffrage Memorial depicts Lizzie Crozier French, Anne Dallas Dudley, and Elizabeth Avery Meriwether. The three women represent the three different regions of Tennessee. It is located in Market Square Mall, downtown Knoxville, TN


Anne Dallas Dudley 
"Every reform is started by a minority."
Anne was from a wealthy family in Nashville. Anne Dallas Dudley, daughter of Trevanion Dallas, a wealthy cotton mill owner, and great niece of George Dallas, who was James K. Polk's vice president.  She was a strong believer in the Woman's Suffrage Movement. Anne shocked all of the Nashville elite by organizing the first suffrage parade not only in Nashville, but in the South. Sixty automobiles, decorated with yellow banners, paraded from the Capitol to Centennial Park. To counter the criticism that suffragists ignored their families, Anne Dallas Dudley was joined in the lead car by her husband, Guilford Dudley, co-founder of Life & Casualty Insurance Co., and their children. She helped found the Nashville Equal Suffrage League in 1911 and convinced Susan B. Anthony to hold the national conference for her American Woman Suffrage Association at the Ryman Auditorium in Nashville. In the 1930s Dudley served as president of the Maternal Welfare Organization of Tennessee. This group brought birth control pioneer Margaret Sanger to Nashville in 1938 to increase public awareness of birth control. She is buried at Mt. Olivet Cemetery in Nashville.


Sue Shelton White
"We should be ashamed to stand on ground won by women in the past without making any effort to honor them by winning a higher and wider field for the future."
"Miss Sue" as she was called, was born in 1887 and grew up and lived in Henderson, a suburb of Nashville. Unlike most suffragettes, her parents were both teachers and they lived very modestly. Left an orphan at the age of 14, Sue vowed to pursue an education so she would not become anyone's financial responsability. She moved in with her aunt and enrolled in George Robertson Christian College and then went on to study at West Tennessee Business College. In 1907, Sue became one of 
the first female court reporter in Tennessee. In 1912, while living in Jackson, TN, Sue became a founding member of the Jackson League of the Tennessee Equal Suffrage Association (TESA) and was elected recording secretary the following year. She wavered back and forth between the two different Suffrage organizations; the NAWSA (The National American Woman's Association) and the NWP(National Woman's Party). She was elected chairwoman of the Tennessee chapter of the NWP after breaking ties with the NAWSA for good. In 1919, she was elected as editor of the NWP;s newspaper Suffragist. After the radification of the 19th Amendment which finally gave women the right to vote, Sue moved to Washington. D.C. to pursue a law degree. In 1923 she recieved her degree and was admitted to the Bar. She continued to fight for women's equality and helped draft the Equal Rights Amendment. In 1926, Sue moved to Jackson TN and became the city's first female lawyer. Sue is the only known female Tennessean who was jailed for her participation in the suffrage cause. She was a member of the NWP protest party that burned an effigy of President Wilson in front of the White House. She died in 1943 from cancer.

Lizzie Crozier French 

Lizzie Crozier was born in Knoxville on May 7, 1851 to Congressman and local attorney John H. Crozier. While little information is known about her mother, Lizzie was one of three girls born into the family. Lizzie was educated at the Convent of Visitation at Georgetown in Washington, D.C. and at a private Episcopal School in Columbia, TN. Lizzie married William French at age 21 and together they had a son. William died after only two years of marriage and Lizzie took a teaching position at the Knoxville Female Academy. In 1885, Lizzie French, along with her sisters Lucy and Mary founded a school for "young ladies and children" at the Knoxville Female Academy, where the sisters developed an educational curriculum that taught children more than just the basics of reading and writing. They did so well that the school became known throughout the city and was one of the most popular among parents and students for its approach to education. 
On Nov. 20 of that same year, French invited 12 women to the Knoxville Academy to organize a literary group like the one she had visited while traveling in New York. The 12 women who chartered the organization that night chose the name the Ossoli Circle. In 1896, French founded the Women’s Educational and Industrial Union and used her position in the organization to become the first 
woman to address the Knoxville City Council appealing for the appointment of a Police Matron– a female police officer for women offenders who would assist in the care and treatment of the females arrested by police. She convinced the City Council of the need for one and filled the position herself for several months until the city could hire someone permanetely. She then became the first woman to address the Tennessee General Assembly, lobbying on behalf of efforts to establish a separate prison for women and children in the state of Tennessee, which led to the establishment of both institutions. In 1912, Lizzie was elected president of the Tennessee Suffrage Association. She also became the first woman to address the Tennessee Bar Association. French continued her work in Knoxville founding and serving as president of the Knoxville Equal Suffrage Society and becoming a leading member of the National Women’s Party(NWP). On Aug. 9, 1919, the special session of the Tennessee General Assembly was called to order. Lizzie, then 68 years old, was there using her voice. Lizzie remained an active member of the Knoxville community and made a bid for City Council in 1923, but was defeated. Three years later, at the age of  75, she traveled to Washington, D.C. to help the National Women’s Party furnish a room in honor of the Tennessee suffragists and also secure introduction of a bill in Congress to benefit working women in America. On May 14, 1926, while still in D.C., the Tennessean quietly passed away. Her body was returned to her hometown in Knoxville where she was laid to rest in the city’s Old Gray Cemetery.



Elizabeth Avery Meriwether
 “But when will women have the right to vote?  I have been taught to believe that taxation without representation is tyranny.”

Elizabeth was born in Bolivar, TN in 1824. Her father was a Quaker physician and her mother was the daughter of a Virginia planter who had moved to Tennessee. Elizabeth's parents died when she was 22. She and her siblings lived in poverty until her brother Tom finally received his law degree. In January 1850, Elizabeth married Minor Meriwether, a civil engineer. He later joined the Confederate Army to fight for the South in the War Between the States. Elizabeth found her name on a list of outspoken Confederate officer's wives who were to be removed from their homes near Memphis or face arrest and incarceration. Elizabeth had two small children and was pregnant with her third. She attempted to follow her husband's unit, and delivered her third child in a stranger's house on Christmas night in 1862. She resorted to stealing corn for food for her children, selling clothing and even sneaking back into Memphis on a dangerous mission to pay taxes so her property would not be sold at auction. She eventually ended up in Tuscaloosa, Alabama. During this time she began writing stories and selling them to newspapers. After the war Minor Meriwether purchased a modest Memphis home for his family on the current site of the Peabody Hotel. Elizabeth petitioned occupation forces under Union General Stephen A. Hurlburt, in an effort to regain title to her girlhood home which had been confiscated by the Union during the war, and was finally successful. Thus recognized as a property owner and tax payer, she obtained a voter registration in 1872. In 1876 she went to the polls and attempted to vote in the presidential election of that year. (At this time I have not verified whether she was actually allowed to vote. It was rumored that they dropped the ballot in the box to keep her happy and then destroyed her ballot later. ) She was one of the first women in the state to publicly push for women's suffrage in the early 1870s. She wrote letters to newspapers and published a pamphlet about women's rights. For a year, she published a small newspaper, The Tablet, which showcased her views on women's issues, divorce law and equal pay for women teachers. In 1876 she made one of the first public suffragist speeches in Memphis. She was active in the Women's Christian Temperance Union and belonged to the National Woman Suffrage Association, and presented unsuccessful women's suffrage petitions at both the Democratic and Republican national conventions in 1880. In 1881, Meriwether joined Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony on a speaking tour. She also continued to write, publishing several books. In the late 1800s, the Meriwethers moved to Saint Louis, Missouri where they built Meriwether Mansion. Just before her death on November 4, 1916, Elizabeth wrote her memoirs entitled Recollections of 92 years. She did not live to see the 19th Amendment become law. She is buried in  Bellefontaine Cemetery in St. Louis.

                                                                 Suffrage Parade

Mary Cordelia Beasley Hudson
Mary was the first woman to legally vote in Tennessee. Mary was born in Benton, Co. TN on August 1, 1851. She was the daughter of Reuben Beasley and Elizabeth Brown.  On January 9, 1872, she married O. B. C. Hudson in Benton County.  She and her husband had six children and operated a grocery store near their home in Camden, TN. On April 5, 1919, the Tennessee General Assembly passed a limited suffrage act. Governor Albert H. Roberts signed the suffrage bill into law on April 17, 1919.  A few days following this, on Tuesday, April 22, a municipal election was held in Camden.  Mrs. Hudson, who had joined the suffrage movement in 1918, cast her vote and was quick to point out that she voted for the winner of the election, A. V. Bowls. I have not been able to find out much more than this but I will continue to research.


Further Reading:
The Woman Suffrage Movement in Tennessee - Antoinette E. Taylor
More than Petticoats: Remarkable Tennessee Women - Susan Sawyer
The Perfect 36: Tennessee Delivers Woman Suffrage - Carol Lynn Yellin and Janann Sherman
Recollections of 92 Years - Elizabeth Avery Meriwether
One Woman, One Vote; Rediscovering the Woman Suffrage Movement - ed. Marjorie Spruill Wheeler. Troutdale, OR: NewSage Press 1995
Votes for Women!:The Woman Suffrage Movement in Tennessee, the South, and the Nation - Knoxville, TN: University of Tennessee Press 1995
http://tennessee.gov/tsla/exhibits/suffrage/beginning.htm
National Women's History Museum