Of Suffrage and Rock ‘n Roll
The dog days of August roared in Tennessee in 1920!
August 18, 1920
Seventy years after the first National Women’s Rights Convention was held in 1850, the 19th Amendment to the United States Constitution is passed, finally giving women the right to vote.
The amendment simply reads:
The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of sex.
Congress shall have power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation.
But these two sentences were hard won despite the fact that 50 years prior, in 1870, Congress had passed the 15th Amendment, giving the right to vote to male citizens of color.
But letting women vote? We’d have to go through Prohibition first!
By the summer of 1920, 35 individual states had granted women the right to vote, Wyoming being the first in 1890. Just one more state was needed to ratify the amendment in order to make it Constitutional law.
Tennessee became that 36th state ¬but it took three roll calls. On the third round of voting, the youngest member of the state legislature, the 22-year old Republican (some accounts say he was 23), Harry Thomas Burn, unexpectedly changed his vote.
Burn had been wearing a red rose in his lapel, signifying that he was against giving women the right to vote. Those “for” the amendment wore yellow roses. When the voting began, red roses outnumbered yellow ones. Then the vote tied at 48 to 48 when Banks Turner changed his vote. Burn was sporting a red rose when he changed his vote in favor of the amendment.
Mayhem burst out. Local legend says that Burn was chased around the Capitol voting chamber by disappointed anti-suffragists. Some describe those chasing Burn as “a mob” which included, ironically, legislators as well as women who were against women having the right to vote!
The story goes that he ended up exiting the building through a window on the third floor, edging himself along the ledge of the Capitol, and finally hiding out in the attic.
What made Burn change his mind between the second and third vote? His mother, Febb Ensminger, had sent him a letter asking him to “do the right thing.”
Tennessee Governor A. H. Roberts signed the bill on August 24, 1920. The amendment formally became law on August 26. Secretary of State Bainbridge Colby read the amendment into law.
Mrs. J. L. Burn’s letter to her son:
Dear Son:
Hurrah, and vote for suffrage! Don’t keep them in doubt. I noticed some of the speeches against. They were bitter. I have been watching to see how you stood, but have not noticed anything yet. Don’t forget to be a good boy and help Mrs. Catt [Carrie Chapman Catt] put the ‘rat’ in ratification.
Signed, Your Mother.
In a later speech to his colleagues, Burn is quoted as saying:
I know that a mother’s advice is safest for her boy to follow and my mother wanted me to vote for ratification. But I appreciate the fact that an opportunity as does seldom come to mortal man to free 17 million from political slavery was mine. I do it not for any personal glory but for the glory of my party. (NYT August 17, 1995)
Carrie Chapman Catt was a former president of the National American Women’s Suffrage Association and one of the party leaders who worked on getting the amendment passed.
Links
www.archives.gov/education/lessons/woman-suffrage/
www.blueshoenashville.com/suffragehistory.html
www.law.umkc.edu/…
In 1997, Beth Ann Hogan became the first coed to matriculate at the Virginia Military Institute.
On a musical note:
In 1969, Woodstock closed with Jimi Hendrix. Hendrix had wanted to be the final performer. Scheduled to begin at midnight at the end of Day 3, he did not take the stage until 9 a.m., kinda on Day 4!
Some of the songs he played during those two hours included:
Foxy Lady, Purple Haze, Hey Joe and, of course, the Star Spangled Banner.
Jefferson Airplane (now Jefferson Starship), Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young, and Sha-Na-Na played on Day 3.
Richie Havens, The Incredible String Band, Ravi Shankar, Arlo Guthrie and Joan Baez played on Day 1.
Day 2 included Santana, Grateful Dead, The Who, and Janis Joplin.
