by Elaine Weiss
Suff women burst into applause: “Runaway didn’t Prevent Victory,” Chattanooga News, August 21, 1920.
“You are all heroes”: Nashville Tennessean, August 21, 1920.
“The victory is complete”: “Suffs Elated,” Nashville Tennessean, August 21, 1920.
In the middle of the night: Pearson, “My Story,” Pearson Papers, TSLA; also in Wheeler, Votes for Women!, 239.
Shielded by darkness: “Wearing Red Roses on Coats,” Nashville Banner, August 21, 1920; “Solons Reach Decatur,” Memphis News-Scimitar, August 21, 1920; “Vote in Tennessee to Clinch . . . Despite Big Bolt,” New York Times, August 22, 1920.
The rallies debuted: “How Harry Burns’ Home Feels,” Nashville Banner, August 22, 1920; “Anti Orators to Stump State,” Nashville Banner, August 23, 1920; “McMinn Folks Hot After Burn,” Chattanooga Times, August 23, 1920.
One observer at the scene: Sarah Spence DeBow, The History of the Case, privately printed booklet, Tennessee State Library, Nashville, TN.
dissolve the injunction: Catt and Shuler, 454; “Governor Says He Will Certify,” Nashville Tennessean, August 23, 1920; “Tennessee Unites Court Knot,” New York Evening World, August 24, 1920; “Unprecedented Antis Declare,” Nashville Banner, August 24, 1920.
on Tuesday morning: “Roberts Certifies,” Nashville Banner, August 24, 1920; “Roberts Certifies,” New York Times, August 25, 1920; “Roberts Sends Certificate,” Chattanooga Times, August 25, 1920; “Suffrage Fight Over,” Nashville Tennessean, August 25, 1920; “Roberts Certifies,” Memphis News-Scimitar, August 24, 1920; Photograph of Gov. Roberts’s signing in New York Times, August 26, 1920; “Governor Forwards Suffrage Certificate,” Chattanooga News, August 24, 1920; “Suffrage Notice Mailed,” Christian Science Monitor, August 25, 1920.
During the layover: Milton to Catt, January 13, 1921, Catt Papers, TSLA.
middle of a suffragist feud: Secretary of the Navy Josephus Daniels recorded in his diary on August 25, 1920: “Mrs. Helen Gardener [NAWSA Corresponding Secretary] phoned that she had asked Colby not to have any of the Picketting [sic] crowd of women present.” E. David Cronon, The Cabinet Diaries of Josephus Daniels, 1913–1921 (Ann Arbor, MI: University Microfilms International, 1982), 552, quoted in Beth A. Behn, “Woodrow Wilson’s Conversion Experience: The President and the Federal Woman Suffrage Amendment,” PhD dissertation, University of Massachusetts, Amherst, 2004; “Ratification of Woman Suffrage,” Sausalito News, September 4, 1920.
Not until 1922: Leser v. Garnett (1922), U.S. Supreme Court, No. 553.
“tired and heart-sick”: Pearson, “My Story,” and in Wheeler, Votes for Women!, 241.
to personally thank: Description from Peck, 339; “Suffrage Tribute to President,” Christian Science Monitor, August 27, 1920; Helen Gardener to Catt, August 21, 1920, Carrie Chapman Catt Papers, TSLA.
“Woman’s Suffrage is now a fact”: “W.H.A. Moore,” Baltimore Afro-American, August 27, 1920.
On Friday morning: Peck, 340–2; “Bringing the Victors Home,” The Woman Citizen, September 4, 1920.
Hundreds of parading women: “Suffrage Jubilee in NYC,” Christian Science Monitor, August 28, 1920; “NY Suffrage Leaders Celebrate,” Nashville Banner, August 27, 1920; “Tribute is Paid Suff Leader,” unidentified news clipping; “Governor Greets Mrs. Catt Here,” New York Times, August 28, 1920; Gertrude Brown memoir, 200, Gertrude Brown Papers, Schlesinger Library.
Church bells rang: “Suffragists to Hold Noisy Jubilee,” Baltimore Sun, August 28, 1920; “Harding Defends Rail Legislation,” New York Times, August 28, 1920; “Bells Will Ring at Noon,” Wyoming State Tribune (Cheyenne) August 27, 1920; “Five Minute Din at Noon,” unidentified Macon, GA, newsclipping; “Chicago Asked to Doff Hat,” Chicago Tribune, August 29, 1920.
In Chattanooga, the mayor: “Bass’ Proclamation in Chattanooga,” Nashville Banner, August 28, 1920; “Suff Celebration Strikes Out,” Nashville Banner, August 29, 1920; “No Jubilation in Tullahoma,” news clipping, Pearson Papers, TSLA.
Even in Nashville: “Plan to Celebrate Informally,” Nashville Tennessean, August 28, 1920.
“The vote is the emblem”: Catt in The Woman Citizen, September 4, 1920; also in Peck, 342.
Chapter 23: Election Day
About ten million women: “One in Three Women Vote,” New York Times, December 19, 1920; The woman’s vote in national elections (1927) Editorial research reports 1927 (vol. II), Washington, D.C.: CQ Press, retrieved from library.cqpress.com/cqresearcher/cqresrre1927053100; Jodie T. Allen, “Reluctant Suffragettes: When Women Questioned Their Right to Vote,” Pew Research Reports, March 18, 2009. Women’s voting participation also varied from state to state, but only Illinois segregated men’s and women’s ballots so most counts are estimates.
obliging policemen held the tots: Baltimore Sun, November 3, 1920.
cast their ballots: Accounts of voting activities found in “Thousands Carry Lunches to Polls,” New York Times, November 3, 1920; “Cox Hears Returns,” Washington Post, November 3, 1920; “Large Vote by Women” and “Better Conditions at Polls are Noted,” Christian Science Monitor, November 3, 1920; “Many Incidents . . . Women at the Polls,” Baltimore Sun, November 3, 1920; “Cox Smiles Gamely Thru Defeat,” New York Times, November 3, 1920; “Ballots of President and Mrs. Wilson Cast,” Baltimore Sun, October 31, 1920.
poll watchers were surprised: Pearson, “My Story,” Pearson Papers, TSLA.
Catt was called upon to explain: “Mrs. Catt on the Election,” New York Times, November 21, 1920; “One in Three Women Vote,” New York Times, December 19, 1920.
The Antis crowed: The Woman Patriot, November 6 and November 13, 1920.
Roberts was punished: “Tennessee Antis Wage Campaign Against Roberts,” The Woman Patriot, October 16, 1920; Gary W. Reichard, “The Defeat of Governor Roberts” Tennessee Historical Quarterly 30, no. 1 (1971): 94–109.
campaigned hard for Roberts: Their efforts are found in their correspondence with Catt in September and October 1920; Catt’s efforts on behalf of Roberts detailed in her letter to him on September 7, 1920; Catt’s condolence to Roberts on his defeat, November 13, 1920. All in Catt Papers, TSLA.
In Boston, first-time: Accounts of these incidents are found in the Papers of the NAACP, Administrative Files (subject file: Politics) October 15–December 31, 1920, Manuscript Collection, LoC, reproduced in the ProQuest History Vault, proprietary database accessed through Schlesinger Library, Harvard University.
town of Lake City: New York Times, October 6, 1920. Also referred to in James Weldon Johnson to U.S. Dept. of Justice, October 7, 1920, and in Mary White Ovington, “Free Black as Well as White Women,” The Suffragist, November 1920.
His request was denied: James Weldon Johnson to U.S. Department of Justice, October 7, 1920, and R. P. Stewart, Assistant Attorney General, U.S. Department of Justice to James Weldon Johnson, NAACP, October 22, 1920, in NAACP Papers, LoC. See also William Pickens, “The Woman Voter Hits the Color Line,” The Nation, October 6, 1920.
The worst violence: “Kill 2 Whites and Six Negroes in Florida Riot,” New York Times, November 4, 1920; Paul Ortiz, “Remembering the Single Bloodiest Day in Modern Political History,” in Facing South, the online magazine of the Institute for Southern Studies, May 14, 2010.
NAACP officers testified before Congress: James Weldon Johnson to Hon. George Tinkham, Rep. from Massachusetts, Washington, D.C., December 6, 1920; “Negro Association to Tell Congress of Voting Frauds,” New York Call, December 24, 1920. Both clippings in NAACP Papers, Politics file, LoC.
“We must not rest”: Mary White Ovington, “Free Black as Well as White Women,” The Suffragist, November 1920. Also, handwritten letter to the editor of The Suffragist from Ella Rush Murray, November 15, 1920, NAACP Papers, LoC.
It is a race issue: Freda Kirchwey, “Alice Paul Pulls the Strings,” The Nation, March 2, 1921; Nancy F. Co
tt, “Feminist Politics in the 1920s: The National Woman’s Party,” The Journal of American History 71, no. 1 (June 1984): 43–68.
She warned that women: See Catt, “Political Parties and Women Voters,” address to first Congress of League of Women Voters, February 1920, quoted in Flexner and Fitzpatrick, 319.
An early attempt: For a full chronicle see Jan Doolittle Wilson, The Women’s Joint Congressional Committee and the Politics of Maternalism, 1920–1930 (Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 2007).
could not “be joined together”: Quoted in Kirsten Marie Delegard, Battling Miss Bolsheviki (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2012), 7, from Nancy F. Cott, The Grounding of Modern Feminism (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1987), 290.
promise of a “women’s vote”: “The Woman’s Vote in National Elections,” Congressional Quarterly, May 31, 1927, CQ Research Archive online, http://library.cqpress.com/cqresearcher/document.php?id=cqresrre1927053100#H2_2.
women have voted: “Gender Differences in Voter Turnout,” Center for American Women and Politics, Eagle Institute of Politics, Rutgers University Fact Sheet, 2015.
pivoted from fighting: For an excellent account see Delegard, as well as Nick Fischer, Spider Web: The Birth of American Anticommunism (Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 2016).
her League of Women Voters: Delegard, 5.
Even the National Parent-Teacher Association: Delegard, 11.
direct maternal line: Delegard, 17.
“Here lie two”: Van Voris, 219.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Archival Collections
TENNESSEE STATE LIBRARY AND ARCHIVES, NASHVILLE, TN [TSLA]
Carrie Chapman Catt Papers
Josephine A. Pearson Papers
Gov. Albert H. Roberts Papers
Abby Crawford Milton Papers
Vertical Files
Historic Newspaper Collection
Tennessee House and Senate Journals
TENNESSEE STATE MUSEUM, NASHVILLE, TN
Women Suffrage Collection
CALVIN MCCLUNG HISTORICAL COLLECTION, KNOXVILLE PUBLIC LIBRARY, KNOXVILLE, TN
Lizzie Crozier French Scrapbook
Women’s Suffrage Collection
UNIVERSITY OF TENNESSEE KNOXVILLE LIBRARIES, SPECIAL COLLECTIONS
Harry T. Burn Scrapbook
ALBERT GORE RESEARCH CENTER, MIDDLE TENNESSEE UNIVERSITY, MURFREESBORO, TN
MEMPHIS PUBLIC LIBRARY, MEMPHIS TN
MEMPHIS AND SHELBY COUNTY HISTORY ROOM
NASHVILLE PUBLIC LIBRARY, NASHVILLE TN
Special Collections
SCHLESINGER LIBRARY, RADCLIFFE INSTITUTE, HARVARD UNIVERSITY, CAMBRIDGE, MA
Gertrude Brown Papers
Carrie Chapman Catt Papers
Helen H. Gardener Papers
Mary Garrett Hay Papers
Maud Wood Park Papers
Mary Stephenson Roberts Papers
Edna Lamprey Stantial Papers
Betty Gram Swing Papers
Harriet Taylor Upton Papers
Sue Shelton White Papers
Mary Winsor Papers
LIBRARY OF CONGRESS, MANUSCRIPT DIVISION, WASHINGTON, D.C.
Carrie Chapman Catt Papers
National American Woman Suffrage Association (NAWSA) Papers
National Woman’s Party Papers (NWPP)
National Association for the Advancement of Colored People Papers (NAACP)
NEW YORK PUBLIC LIBRARY, MANUSCRIPT DIVISION, NEW YORK, NY
Carrie Catt Papers
Mary Garrett Hay Papers
Everett P. Wheeler Papers
Rossiter and Helen Kendrick Johnson Papers
FIRST LADIES PRESIDENTIAL LIBRARY, CANTON, OH
HISTORICAL SOCIETY OF PENNSYLVANIA, PHILADELPHIA, PA
Caroline Katzenstein Papers
Dora Kelly Lewis Papers
PENNSYLVANIA STATE UNIVERSITY, HARRISBURG, PA
Alice Marshall Women’s History Collection
SOUTH CAROLINIANA LIBRARY, UNIVERSITY OF SOUTH CAROLINA, COLUMBIA, SC
Anita Pollitzer Papers
SOUTH CAROLINA HISTORICAL SOCIETY/COLLEGE OF CHARLESTON LIBRARIES, CHARLESTON, SC
Anita Pollitzer and Pollitzer Family Papers
SOUTHERN ORAL HISTORY PROGRAM COLLECTION, UNIVERSITY OF NORTH CAROLINA, CHAPEL HILL, NC
Interview with Mabel Pollitzer
REGIONAL ORAL HISTORY OFFICE, BANCROFT LIBRARY, UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, BERKELEY, CA
Reminiscences of Alice Paul, 1973
WOODROW WILSON PRESIDENTIAL LIBRARY, STAUNTON, VA
Journals of Dr. Cary Grayson
Newspapers and Periodicals
Baltimore Sun
Brooklyn Daily Eagle
Charleston Magazine
Charleston Post and Courier
Charlotte (N.C.) News
Charlotte (N.C.) Observer
Chattanooga News
Chattanooga Times
Chicago Tribune
Christian Science Monitor
Cincinnati Enquirer
Harrisburg (PA) Evening News
Jackson (TN) Daily Democrat
Kingsport (TN) Times
Knoxville Journal
Los Angeles Times
Louisville Courier-Journal
Memphis Commercial Appeal
Memphis News-Scimitar
Nashville Banner
Nashville Tennessean
New York Evening World
New York Herald
New York Times
New York Tribune
Pittsburgh Press
The Crisis (Journal of the NAACP)
The Suffragist
The Woman Citizen
The Woman Patriot
The Woman’s Journal
The Woman’s Remonstrance
Washington (D.C.) Herald
Washington Post
Wilmington News-Journal
Books
Anthony, Carl Sferrazza. Florence Harding: The First Lady, the Jazz Age, and the Death of America’s Most Scandalous President. New York: William Morrow & Co., 1998.
Anthony, Susan B. An Account of the Proceedings on the Trial of Susan B. Anthony on the Charge of Illegal Voting. Rochester, NY: Daily Democrat and Chronicle Book, 1874.
Baker, Jean H. Sisters: The Lives of America’s Suffragists. New York: Hill and Wang, 2005.
Baker, Jean H., ed. Votes for Women: The Struggle for Suffrage Revisited. Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press, 2002.
Bartley, Paula. Emmeline Pankhurst. Oxford and New York: Routledge, 2012.
Benjamin, Anne Myra Goodman. Women Against Equality: A History of the Anti Suffrage Movement in the United States from 1895 to 1920. Lewiston, NY: Edwin Mellen Press, 1991.
Berg, A. Scott, Wilson. New York: G. P. Putnam’s Sons, 2013.
Birmingham, Stephen. The Grandees: The Story of America’s Sephardic Elite. New York: Syracuse University Press, 1997.
Blair, Emily Newell, and Virginia Jeans Laas. Bridging Two Eras: The Autobiography of Emily Newell Blair, 1877–1951. Columbia: University of Missouri Press, 1999.
Blight, David W. Frederick Douglass’ Civil War: Keeping Faith in Jubilee. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1989.
Bobo, Jacqueline, Cynthia Hudley, and Claudine Michel, eds. The Black Studies Reader. New York: Routledge, 2004.
Bosch, Mineke, ed. Politics and Friendship: Letters from the International Woman Suffrage Alliance, 1902–1942. Columbus: Ohio State University Press, 1990.
Britton, Nan. The President’s Daughter. Bronx, NY: Ishi Press, 2008. Originally published by Elizabeth Britton, Ann Guild, Inc., 1931.
Brown, Ni
kki. Private Politics and Public Voices: Black Women’s Activism from World War I to the New Deal. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2006.
Buhle, Paul, and Mari Jo Buhle. The Concise History of Woman Suffrage: Selections from History of Woman Suffrage, Champagne-Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 2005.
Camhi, Jane Jerome. Women Against Women: American Anti-Suffragism, 1880–1920. Brooklyn, NY: Carlson Publishing, 1994.
Catt, Carrie Chapman, and Nettie Shuler. Woman Suffrage and Politics: The Inner Story of the Suffrage Movement. New York: C. Scribner’s Sons, 1926.
Cook, Blanche Wiesen. Eleanor Roosevelt, Volume 1: 1884–1933. New York: Penguin, 1993.
Cooper, John Milton, Jr. Woodrow Wilson: A Biography. New York: Vintage Books, 2011.
———. Reconsidering Woodrow Wilson: Progressivism, Internationalism, War, and Peace. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2008.
Cott, Nancy F. The Grounding of Modern Feminism. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1987.
Cox, James M. Journey through My Years. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1946.
Davis, Angela Y. Women, Race, and Class. New York: Vintage Books, 1983.
Dean, John W. Warren G. Harding: The American Presidents Series. New York: Times Books, Henry Holt and Co., 2004.
DeBow, Sarah Spence. The History of the Case. Booklet. Tennessee: n.p., 1920.
Delegard, Kirsten Marie. Battling Miss Bolsheviki: The Origins of Female Conservatism in the United States. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, Inc., 2012.
Dickinson, W. Calvin, and Eloise R. Hitchcock. A Bibliography of Tennessee History, 1973–1996. Knoxville: University of Tennessee Press, 1999.
Douglass, Helen. In Memoriam: Frederick Douglass. Philadelphia: J.C. Yorston & Co, 1897.
Dowdy, G. Wayne. Mayor Crump Don’t Like It: Machine Politics in Memphis. Jackson: University Press of Mississippi, 2008.
Doyle, Don H. Nashville in the New South 1880–1930. Knoxville: University of Tennessee Press, 1985.
DuBois, Ellen Carol. Feminism and Suffrage: The Emergence of an Independent Women’s Movement in America, 1848–1869. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 1999.
———. Harriot Stanton Blatch and the Winning of Woman Suffrage. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1999.