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"The truth about the Negro problem"

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@ Tennesse State Library and Archives

Southern Women's League for the Rejection of the Susan B. Anthony Amendment

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This broadside, published by anti-suffrage forces in Nashville during the struggle for the ratification of the 19th Amendment, details racial reasons for their opposition to women`s suffrage. It claims that women`s suffrage must be defeated for the sake of Southern civilization, womanhood, and both the white and black races. It lauds the racial harmony of the South, and warns that giving women the right to vote will only spark political competition between the sexes and between the races. There is a detailed accounting of the population of Southern states, broken down by race and sex, showing a white majority in all states except South Carolina and Mississippi. An enumerated list of facts purports that the 19th Amendment will create a "Negro majority" in South Carolina and Mississippi, where no such "real majority" exists now. The amendment will also create a "Negro majority" in over 200 counties in the South.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....
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Text
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Broadsides
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Tennesse State Library and Archives

Record Harvested From

Digital Library of Tennessee