LWV Article for The Bottom Line News and Views February 2020

/
 
 
Harry T. Burn in 1918 during his first campaign for State Representative in McMinn County.

Harry T. Burn in 1918 during his first campaign for State Representative in McMinn County.

Febb Burn at her Niota farm.

Febb Burn at her Niota farm.

 

WOMEN WIN THE RIGHT TO VOTE

By Linda Jorgenson, Board Member, League of Women Voters of Ashland and Bayfield Counties

It was a particularly hot day on August 18, 1920 in Nashville.  If Tennessee voted to ratify the 19th Amendment to the US Constitution, women of the United States would finally be granted the right to vote.  Ratification looked dim.   First term legislator, Harry Burns, from the eastern mountains — an anti-suffrage district — had been a reliable anti-suffrage voter throughout the two months of intense lobbying around ratification.  That day he headed to the floor to vote, then opened up a letter just received from his mother.  It was brief.  It just said, “Dear Son: Hurrah and vote for suffrage and don’t keep them in doubt…. Don’t forget to be a good boy and help Mrs. Catt… with lots of love, Mama”.  He switched his vote to favor the franchise for women.

And so it was, by only one vote, that Tennessee became the 38th state to ratify women’s suffrage.  On August 26, 1920, after 72 years of perseverance by three generations of suffragists, the 19th Amendment was formally entered into the US Constitution.  Of course, it would take many more decades for the vote to be exercised by women of color.  Native Americans were not even granted US citizenship until 1925.  African American women were effectively barred from voting by voter suppression in both the north and the south.  

To help women become informed voters, Carrie Chapman Catt (born in Ripon, WI, but raised in Iowa), President of the National American Woman Suffrage Association, founded the League of Women Voters (LWV) on February 14, 1920.  Its mission to this day is non-partisan voter education and issue advocacy.  To take a stand on any issue the League must have studied the issue and taken a consensus vote.  It now possesses a rich catalogue of positions on a wide variety of issues.  If the League takes an advocacy position on any local issue it is because of this due diligence. 

In honor of their foremothers, the League of Women Voters of Ashland and Bayfield Counties is hosting a number of community celebrations in 2020 to mark the 100th anniversary of women’s right to vote and the 100th birthday of the League of Women Voters.  Join the LWV/ABC for these events.  All are welcome.

  • BOOK DISCUSSIONS.  Throughout the spring, in partnership with local libraries, the League is hosting discussions of Elaine Weiss’s The Woman’s Hour. See lwvabcwi.org for the date and time at YOUR LOCAL LIBRARY.

  • MOVIE.  In partnership with the Bay Area Film Society, the LWV/ABC is bringing Iron Jawed Angels to the NGLVC on 2/23/2020, 2 PM.  It captures the intense final struggle to win the vote, which included jail and forced feeding for the women who protested in front of the White House.

  • GALA 100TH ANNIVERSARY CELEBRATION, 3/8/2020, 5:30-8:30 PM at the Harborview Event Center, Washburn.  Food, Music and Silent Auction to launch the 2nd century of efforts to “make democracy work!”  Tickets:  $20/$25 at the door.  Available: Salmagundi, Ashland; Chequamegon Book & Coffee Company, Washburn; Apostle Islands Booksellers, Bayfield.