Description

The Southern Women's League for the Rejection of the Susan B. Anthony Amendment issued this declaration of principles. Principle No. 4 has obvious racial overtones as it asserts the continuation of Anglo-Saxon (white) supremacy.The anti-suffragists feared that African American women might want to vote if the Amendment became law.The 19th Amendment to the U. S. Constitution granted women the right to vote. When the Tennessee General Assembly passed the ratification resolution on August 18, 1920, it gave the amendment the 36th and final state necessary for ratification. Suffragists and anti-suffragists lobbied furiously to secure votes during that intense summer in Nashville. The ratification resolution passed easily in the Tennessee State Senate on August 13, but the House of Representatives was deadlocked. When young Harry T. Burn of Niota changed his vote to support ratification of the 19th Amendment, he broke a tie in the House of Representatives and made history. Josephine A. Pearson (1868-1944) was an educator from Monteagle who became president of the Tennessee State Association Opposed to Woman Suffrage and the Southern Women's League for the Rejection of the Susan B. Anthony Amendment. She worked tirelessly with various women's groups, religious and political leaders throughout Tennessee in an unsuccess

Record Contributed By

Tennesse State Library and Archives

Record Harvested From

Digital Library of Tennessee