S01 E10 Tennessee: The Fight To Become The Perfect 36

In this episode, Paula Casey discusses the stories of the suffrage struggle in Tennessee.

We talk about the activists in the TN campaign:

• Juno Frankie Pierce and Dr. Mattie Coleman aided 2,000 African American women to vote in Nashville after the state partial suffrage law passed in 1919.
• Joseph Hanover–a Polish Jewish immigrant–was key to organizing the final dramatic victory in the legislature. 
• Lide Smith Meriwether wrote an 1895 petition demanding the women's vote and status as independent citizens. 
• Anne Dallas Dudley organized suffrage leagues in the state as well as the largest suffrage parade in Nashville in 1916.
• The “Suffrage Day” baseball game in 1916 in Nashville hosted the suffragist governor and featured players with yellow sashes around their waists. 

ABOUT OUR GUEST

Paula Casey has spent more than 30 years educating the public about Tennessee's role in ratifying the 19th Amendment. She has helped place suffragist public art across Tennessee and published the book, The Perfect 36: Tennessee Delivers Woman Suffrage. She co-founded the Tennessee Woman Suffrage Heritage Trail.

Links to People, Places, Publications

• Tennessee and the 19th Amendment (here)
• TN Woman Suffrage Heritage Trail (here)
• Lide Smith Meriwether Biosketch (here)
• Visit the Equality Trailblazers monument (here)
• Joseph Hanover Biosketch (here)
• Visit the Joseph Hanover marker (here)
• Lizzie Crozier French Biosketch (here)
• Visit the Lizzie Crozier French marker in Knoxville (here)
• Juno Frankie Pierce Biosketch (here)
• Dr. Mattie Coleman Biosketch (here)
• Visit the Dr. Mattie Coleman marker in Nashville (here)
• Anne Dallas Dudley Biosketch (here)
• Visit the TN Woman Suffrage Monument (here)

CM Marihugh is a public history consultant and currently conducting independent research for a book on commemoration of the U.S. women’s suffrage movement. She has an M.A. in Public History from State University of New York, and an M.B.A. from Dartmouth College.

Learn more about:

• National Votes for Women Trail (here)
• National Votes for Women Trail - William G. Pomeroy historical markers (here)
• National Collaborative for Women’s History Sites (here)

Do you have a question, comment, or suggestion? Get in touch! Send an e-mail to NVWTpodcast@ncwhs.org

Transcript

SPEAKERS

Paula Casey, Earth Mama, CM Marihugh

CM Marihugh  00:00

Welcome to Her March to Democracy where we're telling stories along The National Votes For Women Trail. The trail chronicles the fight for voting rights for women. The Suffragists or Suffs, as they were called, were the revolutionaries of their day and they battled the powers that be. These foot soldiers cut across the lines of geography, race, ethnicity, class, and gender, and numbered in the many 1000s over 70 plus years.

Earth Mama  00:36

We are standing on the shoulders 
Of the ones who came before us, 
They are safe, and they are humans. 
They are angels, they are friends. 

We can see beyond the struggles 
And the troubles and the challenge 
When we know that by our efforts 
Things will be better in the end.

CM Marihugh  01:09

Each episode is a tour on the trail to the places of struggle. The cities, the towns, where wins and defeats happened over and over again. Our theme music is Standing On The Shoulders by Joyce Johnson Rouse and recorded by Earth Mama. Join us on our travels to hear the stories along The National Votes For Women Trail. 

We're here today to talk about suffrage stories from Tennessee. It's a state that has 76 sites on The National Votes For Women Trail map. 15 sites at least have historic markers, and seven places have actual statues and monuments. And for a state this is unique as we will learn more as you look across the country. I want to welcome Paula Casey from Memphis. She is The National Votes For Women Trail committee chair and the state coordinator. Paula is a professional speaker who has spent more than 30 years educating the public about Tennessee's role in ratifying the 19th amendment. 

She co founded the Tennessee Woman's Suffrage Heritage Trail to show the monuments, markers, grave sites, buildings and residences of suffrage activists. She has helped place suffrage public art across Tennessee and publish the book titled "The Perfect 36: Tennessee Delivers Woman's Suffrage" also as an ebook and audiobook. She produced the DVD "Generations: American Women Win The Vote", and she made this podcast happen. 

So as always, we are going to be talking about the cities and towns and places where you, where tourists and locals can visit the sites where these events occurred. There are so many stories to choose from. Paula, could you start by talking about the crucial role that Tennessee played in passing the 19th amendment? 

Paula Casey  03:22

Sure, Tennessee is a famous part of the votes for women's story, because it was the 36th and final state needed to ratify the 19th Amendment, so it would be included in the United States Constitution. The battle to win ratification took place in Nashville in August 1920. The struggle was so intense and the suffragists and anti-suffragists had flooded the capital to influence the members of the Tennessee legislature. 

In June 1919, the US Congress passed the 19th Amendment to the Constitution. However, for the amendment to become valid, it needed to be ratified by three quarters of the states. At the time, 36 states were needed to ratify the amendment for it to become part of the constitution. March 1920 35 states had ratified, nine states have rejected it and three refused to consider. Tennessee became the last state that could possibly ratify that's why the fight in Tennessee became so fierce. 

We need to remind our listeners that the US Constitution does not guarantees the right to vote to anyone. The 19th amendment didn't guarantee women the right to vote, it simply removed the restriction. The constitution grants the right however the states implement voting policies and procedures. I want to pay tribute to a leader in preserving the history of the Tennessee suffrage movement. The late great Carol Lynn Yellin of Memphis. She started researching beginning in 1970 and she did it the old fashioned way, by researching at the Tennessee State Library and Archives in Nashville, as well as various libraries across the state. Years of work. 

She became very familiar with Dr. A. Elizabeth Taylor's book "The Women's Suffrage Movement: Tennessee", which was published in 1957. Carol Lynn, who was my friend and mentor wrote "Countdown in Tennessee", which was published in the December 1978 issue of American heritage magazine, because she was adamant that this history must be preserved. In 1989, Carol Lynn told me she wanted to write a book, because the editors at American heritage magazine had cut so much out about Tennessee from her article. 

This resulted in our book "The Perfect 36: Tennessee Delivers Women's Suffrage" being published in May 1998. I raised the money and we donated a copy to every school library college in the state of Tennessee. Dr. Jan Sherman was our co author, she wrote about the long struggle for women to win the vote from the Revolutionary War and beyond. She retired from the University of Memphis as the History Department chair in 2013. Carol Lynn died in March 1999. So I've been on a mission ever since to help preserve this history.

CM Marihugh  06:22

The ratification story of Tennessee is amazing and so dramatic, and it's really inspiring to hear about your mentor. She was doing research at the time where it was hard. You had to go into the archives travel to the libraries, the courthouses, we do a lot today, but it's usually from sitting at our laptops. So that's amazing the amount of work she did. I know we're going to designate our second episode on Tennessee about the statues and monuments that you have in your state and the process for getting them built because so many people were involved in that. That's a great intro to the important role that Tennessee played in this fight.

Paula Casey  07:09

Yes, in my efforts to honor the suffragists I have worked on creating all the monuments in West and Middle Tennessee, and there are others who worked on East Tennessee, and also getting a number of The National Votes For Women Trail historical markers. Many Tennesseans take pride in the role that our state played in the Votes For Women campaign. I want to give a shout out to my good friend Jimmy Ogle, the former Shelby County historian who has been extremely supportive in these efforts. 

CM Marihugh  07:38

So Paula, where are we going to start our tour on stories in Tennessee about the votes for Women campaign.

Paula Casey  07:45

The State of Tennessee is known for three brand divisions east, middle and west. So we're going to start in Memphis in the West because that's where some of the earliest suffrage activity took place. The earliest suffragist in Tennessee was Elizabeth Avery Meriwether and there is a historical marker for her downtown Memphis by the Law School. 

She was an author and toured many states lecturing on women's suffrage and she also was friends with Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony. Another early suffragist was Lide Smith Meriwether she was Elizabeth's sister in law. Lide Parker Smith was born in 1829, grew up in Virginia attended a female seminary. And when she finished, she and her sister traveled to Memphis to become teachers. In 1856, she married Niles Merriweather Elizabeth's brother in law. 

Both husbands supported their wives efforts, which was not always the case with couples. They were actually very progressive people for that time. And during the 1880s, Lide was very active in reform movements and traveled across the state, establishing Women's Christian Temperance Union chapters. In 1886, she chaired one of the earliest interracial gatherings in Memphis, she gradually started promoting women's suffrage and the WCTU movement, and in 1985, she was asked to create a petition for women's suffrage. 

The petition stated that women objected to being grouped with children, and what society regarded as dependents. And these included as they were called at the time, lunatics, idiots and convicts. In Memphis, the Meriwethers were among the equality trailblazers, and we've got them feature on our incredible monument located at the law school at 1 North Front Street in downtown Memphis. And it's on the terrace at back of the University of Memphis Law School overlooks the Mississippi River.

CM Marihugh  09:23

It's interesting that you brought up in the petition her wording for what women objected to because all over in so many states and areas, women were grouped with those that you mentioned and that were called at the time, lunatics, idiots, convicts and children. So they were particularly early on not only fighting for the vote but to be accepted as full, independent citizens. So where are we going next on the tour?

Paula Casey  10:17

We're still in Memphis at 2519 Broad Avenue. We have a national votes for women trail historical marker in front of the former home of Joseph Hanover, at the location of the Hanover family dry goods store. Joseph Hanover was a Jewish immigrant from Poland who came over with his family as a boy. His parents often stated how grateful they were for democracy and freedoms of America. And Joe absorbed all of that he deeply respected both of his parents. 

And at some point he was bothered by the fact that his mother couldn't vote. He started to ask "why can't mother vote?" And there was no good answer. This was the origin of his support for women's suffrage. He became a lawyer then ran for the legislature. He gave an excellent speech for a Tennessee limited suffrage bill in April mighty 19. And then he played a critical role in the final suffrage battle in 1920, that we'll talk about later. My friend, attorney and author Bill Haltom has written a great book about him called "Why Can't Mother Vote?: Joseph Hanover and the Unfinished Business of Democracy."

CM Marihugh  11:28

And I've read that book and it is an incredible story of a- an immigrant who respected both his parents so much, and that it actually was the origin for his interest and his drive to promote women's suffrage. I know we're going to talk about him more. When we talk about the final battle in the statehouse. He was such a remarkable advocate. So where are we going to travel to next?

Paula Casey  11:57

We're going to East Tennessee to Knoxville and at Market Square. There's the Tennessee Women's Suffrage Memorial which was unveiled in 2006. And it has three women featured; Elizabeth Avery Meriwether of Memphis, Anne Dallas Dudley of Nashville and Lizzie Crozier French of Knoxville. 

Lizzie Crozier French founded The Ossoli Circle, a Women's Club and in 1910, she founded the Knoxville Equal Suffrage League and the Ossoli circle was still around by the way. And she served as president at the Knoxville Equal Suffrage League as well as president at the Tennessee Equal Suffrage Association and she worked organize suffrage leagues throughout the state. 

Lizzie was passionate about women's education and community causes and she founded and participated in a number of women's organizations. She listed her occupation as suffragist. She was the first woman to speak in front of the Tennessee Bar Association and stated, "I wish I could say fellow citizens, but since I'm not accepted as a citizen by the government, I must say citizens and fellow servants." In addition, she was active with the National Woman's Party, which was considered the more radical wing of the women's suffrage movement, serving on its National Committee as Tennessee State Chair in 1917.

CM Marihugh  13:16

I liked that you included that quote, when she was speaking in front of the Tennessee Bar Association. I wonder what kind of reception she got? I would I'd like to read more about that. 

Paula Casey  13:27

Yeah. 

CM Marihugh  13:28

The suffrage movement, as we know was made up of just 10s, maybe hundreds of 1000s of people over 70 plus years. And The National Votes For Women Trail has stories of all groups races, ethnicities, social class, geography, gender, and women of color were fundamental to the movement, even though they were often excluded from white women's groups. Who are some of the black suffragists that worked in Tennessee?

Paula Casey  14:00

Okay, now we're gonna go to Middle Tennessee to Nashville, the state capitol where so many events happened. Two of the most prominent black suffragists lived and worked in Nashville. Juno Frankie Pierce was born in 1864 in Nashville. Her mother was a house slave and her father was a free man. She attended Roger Williams University and taught at a public school for black children. Frankie got involved in the community and became a leader in what was known back then as The Colored Women's Club Movement in the early 1900s. 

And she worked for the betterment of black communities. She became one of Tennessee's most effective and fervent suffragists. The suffrage movement was segregated in most of the South but in Nashville, some white and black clubs had worked together on community issues and they formed an alliance for suffrage. In 1919, when Tennessee passed the partial suffrage bill, the Tennessee women, both white and black became an eligible to vote in presidential and municipal elections. Frankie Pierce and others aided over 2000 Black women to the polls. And in 1920 Frankie was invited by Catherine Talty Kenny, a brilliant suffrage strategist to speak at the first meeting of The Tennessee League of Women Voters, which was held in the house chambers at the state Capitol building. 

She spoke with for several 100 white women, which had never been done before. And in her address, "What Will The Negro Woman Do With The Vote?" She said, "we are interested in the same moral uplift of the community in which we live as you are. We are asking only one thing: a square deal." She's honored in a number of places. There's at Frankie Pierce Park, which is near downtown Nashville, and the Tennessee Women's Suffrage Monument that I put her on and we'll talk about that shortly. Now, the second woman is Dr. Mattie Coleman, who was Frankie Pierce's close friend and we have a national votes for women trail, historical marker for her at the Meharry Medical College 2003 Albion Street, which is the administration building, and we have such a great dedication for her. 

I was really thrilled we got that marker. Because Mattie Coleman was a physician, a dentist and early graduate of Meharry Medical College. She worked closely with Frankie Pierce for many years as a teacher at the Bellevue School, which was a public school for black children. She was an influential leader and was deeply involved in social reform and missionary work for the Christian Methodist Episcopal Church. And she was quoted in The Nashville Tennessean in 1913, that "women's suffrage was often discussed at meetings of black women." And we were able to get that national votes for women trail marker for her because she worked with Frankie Pierce to register over 2000 black women to vote in Nashville in 1919, and that was huge. 

CM Marihugh  16:55

And that story just amazes me able to register 2000 African American women assist them in voting. It's beyond belief that they were able to do this. It just shows the persistence, the courage, the courage that it took to do that. 

Paula Casey  17:14

Absolutely. 

CM Marihugh  17:16

Where are we going to next? 

Paula Casey  17:18

Okay, we're still in Nashville. So let's go to Centennial Park where the Tennessee women's suffrage monument is located. Centennial Park is significant because it was the site of Mayday rallies, which were held annually from 1914 until 1920. Suffragists marched from the state capitol to Centennial Park where 1000s gathered to hear speakers and I've got to tell you if you're in Nashville today and you look at that traffic and you look at the distance I mean, it's just amazing what they did. 

But Anne Dallas Dudley was a prominent suffragist in Nashville, and she heard Susan B. Anthony speak at Centennial Park in 1897, which sparked her interest in the suffrage movement. She was the daughter of a wealthy cotton mill owner she came from an upper class family. She studied at Ward Seminary at Prices College in Nashville, later married Guilford Dudley and they had two children. Her upper class social circles frowned upon the idea of women voting.

 But Anne Dallas Dudley worked tirelessly for the right to vote. She organized suffrage leagues throughout the state and spoke across the country. Under her leadership, suffrage became more acceptable. On May 1st 1916, Dudley staged a parade through the streets of Nashville to demonstrate her support for women's right to vote. As the story goes, at least five dozen automobiles traveled from the Tennessee State Capitol to Centennial Park along with her. 

Businesses displayed banners proclaiming "Votes For Women." And the mayor declared a holiday, those women who could not leave work threw flowers from the windows of their offices onto the cars below. More than 2000 people greeted the caravan led by Dudley, her husband and their two beautiful children. And her son Guilford Dudley, the third is still living in 2024. 

They arrived at the Parthenon to greet the crowds and it became known as the largest women's suffrage rally in Nashville. Anne Dallas Dudley also crossed the color line in terms of enlisting black women into the movement. When anti-suffragists said "only men should vote because only men bear arms." She responded brilliantly with "Yes, but women bare armies."

CM Marihugh  19:37

It is amazing to hear about her journey from hearing Susan B. Anthony and then what she proceeded to do. I love that you included those details about the parade the march because we so often hear parade, march, we knew that they did that but it just helps us picture it. Women throwing flowers from their offices to the cars below five dozen automobiles. That's an amazing picture and these were the highly visible methods that suffragist used to get the word out. They were trying to reach women and men across the board. 

Paula Casey  20:18

Right. 

CM Marihugh  20:19

Where are we going to next? 

Paula Casey  20:21

Well we're still in Nashville and we are going to where the baseball games were played. At the baseball park located at 19 Junior Gilliam Way. We have a historical marker that honors the Suffrage Day held there in August of 1916. The Sulphur Dell Park as it was commonly known at the time was held to the Nashville Volunteers Minor League Baseball Team. Suffragists were very creative in putting together events to reach a wide variety of audiences, largely due to the brilliance of Catherine Talty Kenny. 

And Nashville suffragists who put the event together with fellow leaders of the Tennessee Equal suffrage league to reach the crowds that wouldn't necessarily go hear a lecture or a speech. The park grandstand was decorated in the suffrage colors of yellow and white. The Nashville Tennessean newspaper reported that a banner was suspended in the grandstand that said, “For the safety of the nation, to the woman give the vote, for the hand that rocks the cradle will never rock the boat.” 

And the suffragists were fortunate that the guy who owned the team was an ardent supporter of suffrage. The ballplayers supported it, they wore yellow sashes pinned to their waist, again under the direction of Catherine Talty Kenny. And the Tennessee Governor Thomas Clark Rob was in attendance at the game, and he supported women's right to vote. The sports writer Bob Pigue wrote about the successful suffrage day at Sulphur Dell, and he said "Suffrage cause was given a decided boost for if the ladies can manage the nation as successfully as they did Suffrage Day yesterday, here's one who is ready right now to slip a ballot into the box for them and give them the big opportunity." The site still operates as a ballpark now known as First Horizon Park, and it's on The National Votes For Women Trail.

CM Marihugh  22:12

What I love is hearing about the ballplayers who were willing to wear yellow sashes- 

Paula Casey  22:19

Right! 

CM Marihugh  22:19

-Because the suffragists were so brave because they always had really ugly rhetoric or just demeaning rhetoric that they had to put up with. But it was also the men who supported them that had to put up with being ridiculed, being made fun of so the fact that ballplayers were willing to do that just shows they were willing to take it also. Let's move on to talk about the final battle in the Tennessee House. So where will we start?

Paula Casey  22:53

The Hermitage Hotel in downtown Nashville on Sixth Avenue played a huge role in the events that transpired. The Hermitage Hotel, which is still there and I encourage everyone to visit Hermitage Hotel, served as the headquarters for both the pro-suffragists and anti-suffragists. 

Pro suffragists wearing the yellow roses, anti-suffragists wearing their red roses. And suffragists from state and national organizations made up the army to persuade those legislators. Carrie Chapman Catt came to supervise the strategy, but she stayed in her room on the third floor because she knew she was a divisive figure for the opposition. 

The anti-suffragists were just as numerous and active, Anne Davis who's an attorney in Nashville of the former first lady of Nashville, whose husband Karl Dean served as mayor told me the story of her grandmother, Frances Bond Davis, who was born in 1893 in Brownsville, Tennessee that's in West Tennessee, who marched for suffrage while her father Frank P. Bod. 

A prominent lawyer went around Middle Tennessee speaking against it. He even spoke at a big event at the Ryman Auditorium, which became the home of Grand Ole Opry. Tom Vicstrom, who's the financial advisor and Hermitage Hotel historian has done a magnificent job of keeping the suffrage story visible at the hotel. They have events honoring the suffragist every year and they even have suffragist cocktails. We need to go there CM and have a suffragist cocktail.

CM Marihugh  24:30

I love that idea. Suffragist cocktails, that's a first for our podcast so far. I'm thinking about what went on in the Hermitage Hotel and it really is eye opening. The antis from my research in the south centered their message on how women's suffrage was an attack on the Southern way of life, and said as many antis did "the sanctity of the woman's place is in the home." 

And of course they could be very dramatic. I read one quote from anti suffragists who warned that women with the right to vote would result in, "The people lapsing into indolence, langer, licentiousness, and death." So there was quite a bit of prophesying on the collapse of society. Paula, where are we going to go next on the tour?

Paula Casey  25:24

Okay, let's talk about how Tennessee became the perfect 36 The site in the Tennessee State Capitol, which is a national historic landmark. And I want to mention that the very first piece of suffragist public art is inside State Capitol, and it's a bas-relief sculpted by Alan LeQuire of Nashville, and we unveiled it in February of 1998, when Carolyn Yellen was still living, she got to see it. 

The fight took place in August of 1920, with hundreds of suffragists and anti-suffragists storming Nashville to lobby the representatives of the house because the state Senate had already passed it overwhelmingly. So there are three Tennessee suffrage heroes from that fight. First Joseph Hanover from Memphis. During the special session in August of 1920, he became the floor leader for suffrage. Because the national suffrage leader Carrie Chapman Catt, had seen how devoted he was to the cause, and she asked him to take on that role. 

He fought to keep the pro suffrage votes together, because some members were changing their votes and someone had to keep track of the numbers and make sure there were enough votes to pass. He knew the wicker, railroad and manufacturing industries were fighting hard against suffrage. He worked so hard he lost 20 pounds he became the target of anti suffragist squads. He was attacked, and he was accused of taking bribes and the governor appointed him a bodyguard because of the threats. In his final speech to support the amendment on August 18 1920. 

Representative Hanover said "the entire world today has cast its eyes on Tennessee. The question is not one that one state or two states are interested in. I'm here voting for this amendment, because it is a moral question." And I actually met Mr. Hanover in 1983. Shortly before he died in April of 1984, which shows you how recent this history really is. And the second one was representative Banks P Turner. He was from Gibson County in West Tennessee, a farmer, a lawyer educated at Vanderbilt University, who was thought to be an anti and he surprisingly voted twice against the motion to table which kept the ratification process alive in the State House. 

The anti suffragist legislators tried to use procedural rules to avoid voting for the 19th Amendment in the special session. They claimed it should be done in regular session, which would not start to following January, conveniently after the national election in 1920. And they thought if they could just kick it down the road, they wouldn't have to deal with it again. You know, they were just great examples of cowardice. But the opponents figured out that by then it would be brought up so this played a critical role, with Representative Turner keeping the ratification process alive, and he died in 1953, which is probably why there wasn't much written about him. So thanks to Nashville Attorney John P. Williams. 

He led the effort to get a Tennessee Historical Commission marker in Yorkville in Gibson County. For representative Banks Turner, which is in West Tennessee north of Jackson and I'm so thrilled that we got to be there at the unveiling backmarker in June of 2021. The third hero was Harry Burn, B U R N, no S, who was from Etowah in East Tennessee and he was also thought to be an anti. He voted twice to table the motion and as I said this would have stopped the ratification. 

When the final vote for ratification occurred however, Representative Burn surprised everyone by voting for ratification. He had received a letter from his mother Febb Ensminger Burn urging him to be a good boy and help Mrs. Cat. She was an educated woman and a widow who owned property and she wanted to vote. She saw that her hired hands could vote but she couldn't. So much to everyone's surprise, he voted for ratification. It passed by one vote. The suffragists were cheering in the half gallery when they realized it had actually passed.

CM Marihugh  29:34

Hearing about that final moment of success is really amazing. Carrie Chapman Catt, in talking about her time in Tennessee said, "In the short time, five weeks perhaps I spent in Tennessee's capitol, I have been called more names, been more maligned, more lied about than in the 30 previous years I worked for suffrage, I was flooded with anonymous letters, vulgar, ignorant, insane." She goes on to say that lots of men, lobbyists from railroad steel, aluminum and manufacturing were out in strength. My point in bringing this up is to again point out that the suffrage movement was ugly. It was a war that was made up of 1000s of battles. This wasn't only in Tennessee, but in every state. And I think you've mentioned the intensity in Tennessee was because of the high stakes- 

Paula Casey  30:32

Right. 

CM Marihugh  30:32

-The antis were scared to death, that the amendment would be ratified, and they were doing anything they could to stop it. Paula, can you tell us about what it was like in Tennessee after the 19th amendment passed? 

Paula Casey  30:48

Yes, but first, I just want to remind everyone that Tennessee did pass a partial suffrage bill in 1919 so that women could vote in municipal and presidential elections. So this story is about the first woman to ever cast her vote legally in Tennessee, which happened after the 1919 bill was passed. In Camden, which is in West Tennessee, a woman named Mary Cordelia Beasley-Hudson, who is affectionately referred to as Aunt Cord, had read about the bill passing in the newspaper, and she was determined to be the first woman in line to vote. 

And former Benton County Mayor Brent Lashley has been instrumental in preserving Aunt Cord's legacy. And from the book, "Tennessee County History series", the author Jonathan K. T. Smith wrote "the first one to ever cast her vote legally in any political election in Tennessee was Mary Cordelia Beasley-Hudson known as Aunt Cord. She voted in the Camden municipal election on Tuesday, April 22 1919, and reported that she had voted for the winner in the race for mayor Allie V. Bowles and for the slate of Aldermen that ran with him. 

Aunt Cord was a strong willed Camden matron, wife and mother who firmly espoused the cause for women's rights. She pressed her interest by making sure that she was the first woman in line on that spring day to vote in Camden." And there's a historical marker for her on East Main Street in Camden. The suffrage organizations held citizenship schools where they spoke about political issues and described the process of voting. And we talked earlier about how Frankie Pierce and Dr. Mattie Coleman registered over 2000 black woman and helped them vote in Nashville. So there was a lot of activity. 

CM Marihugh  32:34

I know in many areas, the suffrage organizations quickly pivoted to becoming educational sources to hold these citizenship schools to teach women about registering and voting because it was all new for women, and they weren't used to planning for it. In looking at some of the Tennessee newspapers at the time, there would be ads informing women that they needed to register by a certain date if they planned to vote. 

One newspaper article was trying to get women to register in Clarksville. The county clerk had noted that the first two women to register were African American, they were 51 and 55. So certainly so many women, but not all yet, we're so anxious to get out there and vote. Tennessee was a southern state, it did have barriers to keep people of color away from registering. They could be threatened, and black men were still continuing to fight for their own voting. What this all says is it was a great victory. But of course the fight was not over and we know that it still isn't today. Paula, how would you close out our episode on Tennessee?

Paula Casey  33:52

Well, the same practices that were used to keep black men from voting were also used for black women, the poll taxes, literacy, test, intimidation, counting the number of bubbles on a soap bar. I mean, it was ridiculous. But let's remind our listeners again that the constitution grants the right to vote and removes the restrictions. However the state's implement the policies and procedures. That's where voter suppression comes from and it continues today. The suffragists believed democracy was not a spectator sport. They wanted to be involved in their government and they showed us what democracy is all about.

CM Marihugh  34:30

Thank you so much for being with us today, Paula and telling us these wonderful and dramatic stories along The National Votes For Women Trail. Thank you for joining us this week. We hope you'll contact us with comments or questions. The National Votes For Women Trail Project is a work in progress. Please click on the support the project link to contribute to our ongoing work. The trail is a project of The National Collaborative for Women's History Sites, a nonprofit organization dedicated to putting women's history on the map. Our theme is Standing On The Shoulders by Joyce Johnson Rouse and recorded by Earth Mama. Be sure to join us next time.

Earth Mama  35:17

I'm standing on the shoulders 
Of the ones who came before me. 
I am honored by their passion 
For our liberty. 

I will stand a little taller. 
I will work a little longer. 
And my shoulders will be there to hold 
The ones who follow me. 

My shoulders will be there to hold 
The ones who follow me!