Pearson, Josephine A

Description

Josephine A. Pearson, the president of the Tennessee State Association Opposed to Woman Suffrage, wrote to Governor Roberts on behalf of the "majority silent: of Tennessee women who oppose women's suffrage." She thanked him for his dignified position as a southern statesman. She expressed hope that they could read between the lines about his position on the suffrage amendment,"an outgrowth of abolition." The note is upon organization letterhead and marked personal. It accompanied an official letter related to the Dixie Highway Association (not included here), for which she was the president of an auxiliary chapter.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. Albert H. Roberts (1868-1946), served as a single term governor of Tennessee from 1919-1921. Roberts hesitated to call a special session of the General Assembly to consider the ratification of the 19th Amendment, in part because many legislators maintained that voting on the resolution in special session would violate their oath to the Tennessee...

Record Contributed By

Tennesse State Library and Archives

Record Harvested From

Digital Library of Tennessee