by Henry Piarrot

Created on: November 07, 2008

The Perfect 36

"Beware men of the south; heed not the song of the Suffrage Siren."

The summer of 1920 was already one of the hottest in Nashville's memory. Notwithstanding, the heat of the day never came close to the heat of the debate over a woman's right to vote. By spring of that year, 35 of the 36 states that needed to ratify the 19th Amendment had done so. Suddenly, almost 20 million women found themselves only one state away from their place in the sun.

When Delaware rejected the notion in early June, Anne Dallas Dudley, vice president of the National American Women's Suffrage Association (NAWSA), resolved to make Tennessee the final battle of an arduous campaign, that had begun more than 70 years earlier.

An incredibly beautiful wife and mother, Anne also belonged to a prominent Nashville family. Photographs of her and her children were used to soften the hard image of the suffragists and helped to increase the popularity of the cause. However, the opposition was entrenched, and nothing less than a special session of the state legislature had to be secured.

Then Governor Albert Roberts, a Democrat, did not support giving women the vote. He simply believed they would vote against him. His anti-prohibition stance, combined with a well-known relationship with his highly paid personal secretary would hinder his re-election in the fall. Nonetheless, that did not stop Anne and the NAWSA from taking their best shot at changing the governor's mind.

Anne and her allies organized an enormous crusade to win that special session. Finally, the governor yielded when President Woodrow Wilson applied pressure from Washington. Governor Roberts' announcement that he would convene the General Assembly on August 9th was so controversial that it turned many in his own party against him. These people viewed suffragists as mannish, childless revolutionaries who would damage the American family. They further argued that allowing women this success would certainly inspire blacks to re-assert their political rights.

The senate ratified the "Susan B. Anthony Amendment" in four days. The House, however, was not as amiable. A motion to table the resolution resulted in a tie, which represented a victory for the suffragists, and the vote was scheduled for the 18th. Skilled at handling anti-suffragists, Anne responded to critics that equated male suffrage to military service by pointing out that, "women bear armies."

Republican Harry Burn, from McMinn County, voted with the anti's on the motion to table. No one knew at the time of the ratification vote that Burn had a note in his pocket from his widowed mother urging him to support the women. When his name was called, he voted "yes." Tennessee ratified the 19th Amendment by a margin of 50-49, and achieved "the perfect 36" for every woman in America.

Anne Dallas Dudley died in 1955. Her excellent life greatly contributed to women's transformation from property to participant. Anne's likeness appears in the painting "Pride of Tennessee," which hangs in the Capitol.

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