Read on for answers.
The 19th Amendment cleared Congress in June 1919, 41 years after it was introduced. This image of Justice embracing “American Womanhood” -- captioned “At Last” -- ran on the cover of The Suffragist magazine that month.
State ratifications poured in. Illinois, Michigan & Wisconsin competed to be First to Ratify. (Wisconsin won.) But a year later, with a Presidential election months away, women were one state shy of 36.
Seven states had already voted no: Maryland, Virginia, South Carolina, Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana and Mississippi. North Carolina & Florida were unreachable. (Southern states don’t want everybody to vote.) That left 4 states in play: Vermont, Connecticut, Delaware & Tennessee. But one by one they fell away:
*Vermont. The legislature voted to ratify--but the Governor > vetoed it. Then he blocked an override of his veto by refusing to call a special session. “Nothing can give us that state except the death of the governor,” said Carrie Chapman Catt. “And we haven’t come to murder yet.”
*Connecticut. Same story: legislators were in favor, but the Governor refused to call them into session, insisting it wasn’t an “emergency.” (Months later, when Conn.’s approval was superfluous, he realized women were actually going to vote. He called an emergency session to ratify.)
*Delaware. A particularly painful loss because suffragists expected to win. Local activists, especially poet Alice Dunbar-Nelson leading 9,000 Black women, lobbied and demonstrated all spring. Delaware’s Senate voted in favor, but the House refused to bring the bill to the floor.
So it all came down to Tennessee. Tennessee? Women lost in Delaware, were stonewalled in Vermont and Connecticut, and their political fate hung on Tennessee? If you’d been around then, you wouldn’t have put money on it.
Elaine Weiss’ book The Woman’s Hour recounts suffragists’ relentless effort in the face of bribery, double-crossing, and most of all, racism. I recommend it highly. She also makes a persuasive case for observing the anniversary on Aug 26, not the 18th.
On Aug 18th, the Tenn. legislature voted for suffrage by a 1-vote margin. Anti-suffragists went to court to block it and nearly succeeded. A 3-day window for reconsideration also imperiled the win. Rallies around the state, backed by the KKK, called for the vote to be rescinded.
It was dicey, but local leaders and the army of national suffragists who had spent August in Nashville remained vigilant. Not until August 24 did the Governor of Tennessee sign the ratification certificate. >> The document reached Washington two days later.
Bottom line? It ain’t over till it’s over. The Tennessee win on August 18 was tenuous, and the days that followed were fraught. Not until August 26 was the 19th Amendment added to the Constitution. That’s why it’s #WomensEqualityDay and the amendment’s birthday.
#Suffrage101
]]>When exactly is the 19th Amendment anniversary? Was it ratified on August 18 or August 26? What’s the difference? Which should we observe?
Read on for answers.
The 19th Amendment cleared Congress in June 1919, 41 years after it was introduced. This image of Justice embracing “American Womanhood” -- captioned “At Last” -- ran on the cover of The Suffragist magazine that month.
State ratifications poured in. Illinois, Michigan & Wisconsin competed to be First to Ratify. (Wisconsin won.) But a year later, with a Presidential election months away, women were one state shy of 36.
Seven states had already voted no: Maryland, Virginia, South Carolina, Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana and Mississippi. North Carolina & Florida were unreachable. (Southern states don’t want everybody to vote.) That left 4 states in play: Vermont, Connecticut, Delaware & Tennessee. But one by one they fell away:
*Vermont. The legislature voted to ratify--but the Governor > vetoed it. Then he blocked an override of his veto by refusing to call a special session. “Nothing can give us that state except the death of the governor,” said Carrie Chapman Catt. “And we haven’t come to murder yet.”
*Connecticut. Same story: legislators were in favor, but the Governor refused to call them into session, insisting it wasn’t an “emergency.” (Months later, when Conn.’s approval was superfluous, he realized women were actually going to vote. He called an emergency session to ratify.)
*Delaware. A particularly painful loss because suffragists expected to win. Local activists, especially poet Alice Dunbar-Nelson leading 9,000 Black women, lobbied and demonstrated all spring. Delaware’s Senate voted in favor, but the House refused to bring the bill to the floor.
So it all came down to Tennessee. Tennessee? Women lost in Delaware, were stonewalled in Vermont and Connecticut, and their political fate hung on Tennessee? If you’d been around then, you wouldn’t have put money on it.
Elaine Weiss’ book The Woman’s Hour recounts suffragists’ relentless effort in the face of bribery, double-crossing, and most of all, racism. I recommend it highly. She also makes a persuasive case for observing the anniversary on Aug 26, not the 18th.
On Aug 18th, the Tenn. legislature voted for suffrage by a 1-vote margin. Anti-suffragists went to court to block it and nearly succeeded. A 3-day window for reconsideration also imperiled the win. Rallies around the state, backed by the KKK, called for the vote to be rescinded.
It was dicey, but local leaders and the army of national suffragists who had spent August in Nashville remained vigilant. Not until August 24 did the Governor of Tennessee sign the ratification certificate. >> The document reached Washington two days later.
Bottom line? It ain’t over till it’s over. The Tennessee win on August 18 was tenuous, and the days that followed were fraught. Not until August 26 was the 19th Amendment added to the Constitution. That’s why it’s #WomensEqualityDay and the amendment’s birthday.
#Suffrage101
I’m not talking about Harry Burn.
Harry Burn has gotten way more ink than he’s due. He was a young member of the Tenn. Assembly who was noncommittal about suffrage. At the last minute he cast a pivotal vote in favor of ratification, crediting a letter from his mother that said “be a good boy and help Mrs. Catt.”
Changing your mind when you realize you are on the wrong side of history is a marvelous thing -- that’s the value of telling Harry Burn’s story. But if you are looking for a male hero of the Tennessee ratification fight, meet “suffragent” Joe Hanover.
Men who supported women’s voting rights were known playfully as suffragents. This sounded clever when men were called “gents.” Today it reads as though they were women’s agents -- which of course they were, as no women could vote on suffrage bills.
During Tennessee’s month-long battle to become the state to ratify the 19th Amendment, Joe Hanover was the second-youngest member of the state’s General Assembly. (Harry Burn was youngest.)
He was one of two Jews in the all-white, all-male legislature, and an immigrant.
Joe was about 11 when his family immigrated from Poland. The story goes that when learning about American democracy with his parents, he asked: “Why can’t Mother vote?” He became a talented lawyer, and won a seat in the Assembly representing Memphis.
When suffragists needed a capable floor whip for the ratification fight, Hanover stepped up. There were plenty of rotten men in the House, including the Speaker, who had double-crossed suffragists at the last minute. The vote was going to be very, very close.
Hanover spent weeks corralling reluctant legislators, calling in favors, and fighting off entrapment and bribery. He got death threats and antisemitic slurs, and the governor assigned him a state trooper as a bodyguard.
When a pro-suffrage legislator left Nashville because his wife was ill, Hanover found a wealthy supporter to charter a return train. But to no avail - going into the final vote, on August 18, 1920, Hanover knew they were two votes short.
Every member of the General Assembly knew that the ratification of the 19th Amendment hung in the balance. Everyone in Tennessee and around the nation knew it.
Two men changed their votes that day: first Harry Burn, and then - with the vote tied 48 to 48 - a member from western Tennessee named Banks Turner spoke up at the very last moment to vote “aye.” Suffrage had passed.
Elaine Weiss @efweiss5 describes the scene: “The chamber shook with screams and cries, with thumping and whooping...There was weeping among both men and women. Joe Hanover was mobbed like the winning pitcher of a ball game.”
The story of Harry Burn’s last minute change of heart has been celebrated ad nauseum. @gailcollins is particularly fond of him. Making Burn the hero of ratification obscures the work of the women in TN and elsewhere whose accomplishment it really was.
But if you’re looking for a gent who worked hard and truly delivered for women, try Joe Hanover.
Have you heard the story of the young legislator who was the hero of Tennessee’s ratification of the 19th Amendment?
I’m not talking about Harry Burn.
Harry Burn has gotten way more ink than he’s due. He was a young member of the Tenn. Assembly who was noncommittal about suffrage. At the last minute he cast a pivotal vote in favor of ratification, crediting a letter from his mother that said “be a good boy and help Mrs. Catt.”
Changing your mind when you realize you are on the wrong side of history is a marvelous thing -- that’s the value of telling Harry Burn’s story. But if you are looking for a male hero of the Tennessee ratification fight, meet “suffragent” Joe Hanover.
Men who supported women’s voting rights were known playfully as suffragents. This sounded clever when men were called “gents.” Today it reads as though they were women’s agents -- which of course they were, as no women could vote on suffrage bills.
During Tennessee’s month-long battle to become the state to ratify the 19th Amendment, Joe Hanover was the second-youngest member of the state’s General Assembly. (Harry Burn was youngest.)
He was one of two Jews in the all-white, all-male legislature, and an immigrant.
Joe was about 11 when his family immigrated from Poland. The story goes that when learning about American democracy with his parents, he asked: “Why can’t Mother vote?” He became a talented lawyer, and won a seat in the Assembly representing Memphis.
When suffragists needed a capable floor whip for the ratification fight, Hanover stepped up. There were plenty of rotten men in the House, including the Speaker, who had double-crossed suffragists at the last minute. The vote was going to be very, very close.
Hanover spent weeks corralling reluctant legislators, calling in favors, and fighting off entrapment and bribery. He got death threats and antisemitic slurs, and the governor assigned him a state trooper as a bodyguard.
When a pro-suffrage legislator left Nashville because his wife was ill, Hanover found a wealthy supporter to charter a return train. But to no avail - going into the final vote, on August 18, 1920, Hanover knew they were two votes short.
Every member of the General Assembly knew that the ratification of the 19th Amendment hung in the balance. Everyone in Tennessee and around the nation knew it.
Two men changed their votes that day: first Harry Burn, and then - with the vote tied 48 to 48 - a member from western Tennessee named Banks Turner spoke up at the very last moment to vote “aye.” Suffrage had passed.
Elaine Weiss @efweiss5 describes the scene: “The chamber shook with screams and cries, with thumping and whooping...There was weeping among both men and women. Joe Hanover was mobbed like the winning pitcher of a ball game.”
The story of Harry Burn’s last minute change of heart has been celebrated ad nauseum. @gailcollins is particularly fond of him. Making Burn the hero of ratification obscures the work of the women in TN and elsewhere whose accomplishment it really was.
But if you’re looking for a gent who worked hard and truly delivered for women, try Joe Hanover.