Description

A reprint of an article from the New York Age, Negro Newspaper, March 31, 1920, about Mrs. Annie Simms Banks, of Winchester, Kentucky. Banks was the first black woman to serve as a delegate to the Kentucky Republican Convention. The printed material includes a reproduction of her handwritten autobiography. The back page lists what appears to be population numbers for black women in the states that had ratified the suffrage amendment as of March 1920. Near the bottom is a handwritten note: "Shall Tenn. be added to this? God forbid."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. Race featured heavily in the suffrage debate. Much of the argument against women's suffrage centered on the fear of a potential rise in black voters. Some suffrage proponents also exploited this fear by arguing that passage of the 19th amendment would increase the number of white voters overall.

Record Contributed By

Tennesse State Library and Archives

Record Harvested From

Digital Library of Tennessee