Sunday, September 15, 2019
Tennessee Women's Suffrage Memorials
Sue Shelton White lived in my hometown, Jackson, Tennessee. After reading the Woman's Hour I looked up any sites I could visit the next time that I am home. A monument to White went up in 2017 outside our city hall. I had no idea! There is also a TN Woman Suffrage Heritage Trail that I did not know about. In middle school, everyone is required to take Tennessee state history, and I do not remember ever talking about women's suffrage.
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I had a similar realization when watching the film "One Woman, One Vote" and reading "The Women's Hour." I had no idea that Utah was the second state to allow women to vote, far before the ratification of the 19th amendment. It is fascinating to read how, in 1871, Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton spoke at the Mormon Tabernacle Choir in Temple Square, which is just minutes from my family's house! After reading a bit about the beginnings of suffrage in Utah, I learned that the suffrage movement was actually closely tied to the Utah Mormon population and their polygamist traditions at the time. Many early advocates for women's suffrage in Utah thought that giving women the vote would effectively curtail the practice of polygamy. This example reminds us of Weiss's message in "The Woman's Hour": that each state brought unique challenges and opportunities for suffragists.
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