Sherry Chandler

“None of the leaders of the woman suffrage movement were present”

A correspondent has pointed out that, in his Writers Almanac today, Garrison Keillor celebrates the 19th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution — the one that give women the vote — without mentioning a single woman by name. This amendment was known as “The Anthony Amendment,” after Susan B. Anthony. But all the actors in this item are men:

It was on this day in 1920 that Bainbridge Colby, the Secretary of State, issued a proclamation announcing the incorporation of the 19th Amendment into the U.S. Constitution. It ended more than seventy years of struggle by woman suffragists. It proclaimed, “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.”

It had passed through the House and Senate, and now fell to the states. Thirty-five had ratified it, but thirty-six were required to complete the two-thirds majority. Finally, on August 18, Tennessee pulled through. Twenty-four-year-old legislator Harry Burn decided to vote for the amendment at the last minute because his mother wanted him to, tying the vote. Tennessee became the thirty-sixth state to approve suffrage for women.

Implication here that the Mama’s boy caved?

The certified record of the Tennessee vote was sent by train to Washington, D.C., and arrived early on August 26. Colby signed the proclamation that morning at 8:00 at his residence, with no ceremony of any kind, and no photographers to film the event. Colby had one and a half cups of coffee and then signed the document with a regular steel pen. Then he said, “I turn to the women of America and say: ‘You may now fire when you are ready. You have been enfranchised.’” None of the leaders of the woman suffrage movement were present.

And still none are present.

Would have interfered with the narrative, I guess. It is a great story.

Though I personally think Mr. Colby could have come up with a better line. Too bad to go down in history uttering such a cliché.

So here folks, from Wikipedia, a list of Suffragists from many countries, including such obscure women as:

Susan B. Anthony
Amelia Bloomer
Alice Paul
Elizabeth Cady Stanton

A nice timeline here.

And from the Library of Congress, “Votes for Women” Suffrage Pictures 1850-1920. This one is of Governor Edwin P. Morrow of Kentucky signing the “Anthony Amendment” on January 6, 1920.

— from the Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division

Just a note for those women of you who, like me, were born with the vote and tend to take it for granted, there are any number of women alive who were not. My mother was not born with the vote and my grandmother was a grown woman and twice a mother herself before the 19th amendment was ratified. My mother always votes. I urge you to do the same.

Update: A reader Joanie DiMartino writes to clarify the role of Harry Burn in passing the Anthony Amendment in Tennessee:

…the fact that Burn changed his mind upon receiving a telegraph from his mother that read “help Mrs. Catt put the Rat in Ratification” is accurate, and now the stuff of legend. He didn’t tie the vote (which would have held ratification up even longer) he was the tie breaker, and as the youngest member of the TN legislature made history (or herstory). I like to think I encourage my son to ‘do the right thing,’ as well. Given that women spent 72 years trying to convince men to ‘do the right thing,’ I don’t view Burn (or his mother Feb’s attempt to influence) too harshly.

Nor do I judge him harshly. In fact, I think he may be a bit of a hero. But that is not exactly how he is portrayed above. Mr. Keillor truncates Burn’s role to the fact that he was twenty-four and changed his vote “because his mother wanted him to.” I think I understand the dramatic choice here to dwell on Colby’s show of disdain — the cup and a half of coffee, the “regular steel pen.” And perhaps a desire to tell the story in a way it hadn’t been told before. Nevertheless—

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