GEORGIA.[33]
The first suffrage society in Georgia was formed at Columbus in 1890
and the second in Atlanta in 1894. Here the first State convention was
held in 1899 and the State association, auxiliary to the National
American Woman Suffrage Association, never ceased its labors until the
year following the ratification of the Federal Woman Suffrage
Amendment.
Mrs. McLendon became an officer in 1892 and held official position
during the entire twenty-nine years. For thirteen years she was
vice-president or honorary president and for the remainder of the time
president of the association. Mrs. Thomas was second honorary
president for five years before her death in 1906. The following
served as presidents: Miss H. Augusta Howard, 1890-1895; Mrs. Frances
Cater Swift, 1895-1896; Mrs. Mary L. McLendon, 1896-1899; Mrs.
Gertrude C. Thomas, 1899-1901; Miss Katherine Koch, 1901-1904; Mrs.
Rose Y. Colvin, 1904-1906; Mrs. Mary L. McLendon, 1906-1921.[34]
In 1900 the same suffrage measures presented the year before were
again offered to the Legislature with the same barren result. The
Southern Chautauqua invited the association to hold an all day meeting
and also engaged Miss Frances A. Griffin of Alabama to lecture. F.
Henry Richardson, editor of the Atlanta _Journal_, and Lucian Knight,
editor of the Atlanta _Constitution_, brought the "woman's rights
movement" as prominently before the public as they were permitted to
do by the managers of those newspapers.
On Nov. 25, 26, 1901, the State convention was held in the
Universalist Church of Atlanta. Addresses were made by Mrs. Carrie
Chapman Catt, president of the National Association; Mrs. Thomas, Mrs.
Alice Daniels and Mrs. McLendon. The meeting adjourned early in the
afternoon to go to the Atlanta Women's Club room, where Mrs. Catt was
invited to address that body. The night meeting was held in the hall
of the House of Representatives, where Mrs. Catt, Mr. Richardson and
the Hon. Robert R. Hemphill of South Carolina addressed a large and
appreciative audience. The convention decided to employ a State
lecturer and organizer.
With but two exceptions State conventions or conferences were held
every year, always in Atlanta until 1919, in the Congregational and
Universalist churches, in the Grand Building, the hall of the
Federation of Labor, the Carnegie Library, the Hotel Ansley and the
Piedmont Hotel. The membership gradually increased, a series of
literary meetings in the winter of 1902 adding fifty names. This year
a committee was appointed to revise the charter of Atlanta and the
officers of the association appeared before it and asked that it
include Municipal suffrage for women. The sub-committee on franchises
recommended that instead it provide for women on school, hospital,
park and health boards, but the general committee reported adversely.
The Atlanta branch protested to Mayor Livingstone Mims against the
injustice of not allowing women taxpayers to vote on the proposed
$400,000 bond issue. He expressed himself in favor of woman suffrage
and promised to bring the matter before the city council, but there
was no result.
Miss Kate M. Gordon, national corresponding secretary, gave a most
convincing address in the Carnegie Library the next year, 1903, on how
the taxpaying women of Louisiana won the right to vote on questions of
taxation; strong articles were published, but all the women were able
to do was to post large placards at the polls, "Taxpaying women should
be allowed to vote at this bond election." Dr. Anna Howard Shaw,
national vice-president-at-large, came to assist at the State
convention and delivered her famous lecture, "The Fate of Republics."
This year the association distributed 10,000 pages of suffrage
literature at the Interstate Fair. It attempted to bring a bill before
the Legislature for police matrons but not a member would introduce
it.
During these years the suffragists found it very difficult to persuade
a legislator to present a bill for raising the age of consent or
compulsory education in order to take the young children out of the
factories or for the enfranchisement of women. In 1905, at the request
of the National Association that fraternal greetings should be sent to
various organizations, Mrs. McLendon, who had been a member of the
Women's Christian Temperance Union since 1890, carried them to its
convention and made an earnest but unsuccessful effort to have it
adopt a franchise department. Thousands of pieces of suffrage
literature were distributed at the State Fair. In 1906 memorial
services were held for the great leader, Susan B. Anthony, and the
association carried out to its full power all the State work planned
by the National Board, including a petition to the Legislature to pass
a resolution asking Congress to submit a Federal Suffrage Amendment.
The membership of the association was increased in 1907 by the
addition of three prominent W. C. T. U. officials, Mrs. J. J. Ansley,
Mrs. Jennie Hart Sibley and Mrs. L. W. Walker, who were promptly
appointed superintendents of Church Work, Legislation and Petition and
Christian Citizenship. Miss Jean Gordon of New Orleans and Mrs.
Florence Kelley of New York made splendid addresses in favor of woman
suffrage when they came to Atlanta in April to attend the Child Labor
Convention. Dr. Shaw gave a stirring suffrage speech in the hall of
the House of Representatives on May 4.
The evening sessions of the annual convention in 1908 were held in the
Senate Chamber of the Capitol. Miss Laura Clay, Mrs. Sibley, Miss H.
Augusta Howard and W. S. Witham were the speakers, with Mrs. McLendon
presiding. Miss Clay's address, entitled Who Works Against Woman
Suffrage? created a profound impression and she was of much
assistance. Mrs. McLendon was invited to speak before the convention
of the Georgia Agricultural Association, one of the oldest in the
State, on Woman's Education and Woman's Rights. A rising vote of
thanks was accorded her and the address ordered printed in the
minutes. The State Prohibition convention placed a strong woman
suffrage plank in its platform and the delegates to the national
convention were instructed to vote for one if it was offered. Mr.
Witham, the Rev. James A. Gordon and Mr. Barker, editor of _The
Southern Star_, worked faithfully for this plank.
In 1909, at the request of the National Association, letters were
written to Georgia's Senators and Representatives in Congress, asking
them to vote for a Federal Woman Suffrage Amendment. Polite but
non-committal replies were received from Senators Clay and Bacon and
Representatives Griggs and Lewis. The other eight evidently did not
consider disfranchised women worthy of an answer. The city council of
Atlanta decided that its charter was forty years behind the times and
again a committee of forty-nine men was appointed to draw up a new
one. The Civic League, an Atlanta auxiliary to the State Suffrage
Association, set to work to have this new charter recognize the rights
of the women taxpayers. It was discovered that the women paid taxes on
more than $13,000,000 worth of real and personal property in the city.
Several hundred personal letters were written to leading taxpaying
women asking their opinion of the league's movement; only favorable
replies were received and many friends of the cause developed among
the influential women. Strong articles were published in the city
papers and widely copied throughout the State, but the charter
entirely ignored the claims of women. Many letters were written to
Republican and Democratic delegates asking them to vote for a suffrage
plank in their platforms. The annual convention was not held in Macon,
as intended, because there was so much sentiment against it in that
city. This year women in the Methodist Church South became active to
secure laity rights, which had been granted to women members in the
North, East and West after they had worked years for it, but the
bishops in the South were bitterly opposed to it. Mrs. Mary Harris
Armor, the well-known national organizer and lecturer for the W. C.
T. U., and four years president for Georgia, joined the suffrage
association.
The National Association's petition to Congress had been distributed
throughout the State for signatures and returned to Washington. In
1910 letters were written to President Taft, to the members of
Congress from Georgia and to Governor "Joe" Brown, as requested by Dr.
Shaw, national president. Senator Clay and Representatives W. C.
Brantley, S. A. Roddenberry and W. C. Adamson were the only ones who
could spare time to answer. Atlanta was to have an election for a
three-million dollar bond issue on February 15, Susan B. Anthony's
birthday, and the Mayor and president of the Chamber of Commerce had
appealed to the City Federation of Women's Clubs to "make the men go
to the polls to vote for bonds." The suffragists distributed broadcast
a poster headed by a cartoon by Louis Gregg representing women of all
sorts, armed with brooms, umbrellas, rolling pins, etc., driving the
men to the polls.
Over 6,000 pages of suffrage literature were distributed in the State,
a considerable amount of it to young people engaging in debates or
writing essays. Dr. James W. Lee and Dr. Frank M. Siler, Methodist
ministers of Atlanta, fearlessly expressed themselves in their pulpits
as in favor of the enfranchisement of women, regardless of the fact
that Bishop Warren A. Candler was bitterly opposed to it. Dr. Len G.
Broughton of the Baptist church and Dr. Dean Ellenwood of the
Universalist also declared themselves as favoring equal rights in
Church and State for women. Judge John L. Hopkins, one of Georgia's
foremost lawyers, who codified the laws, proclaimed himself a believer
in equal rights for women in a letter to the _Constitution_. In June
when it was again proposed to revise the charter of Atlanta, a
committee from the Civic League went before the charter committee and
presented a petition asking Municipal suffrage for women. Later at a
meeting of the city council the petition was brought up for
consideration and was treated with ridicule and contempt. On August 8
the association held its convention in the hall of the Federation of
Labor, its true friend. Walter McElreath of Fulton county offered a
resolution that the House of Representatives should be tendered for
the evening session, but Joe Bill Hall, a noted anti-prohibitionist
and anti-suffragist, marshalled the liquor men and they defeated it.
In 1912 the State association conformed to the plan of the National
and appointed a committee of education, who would offer money prizes
for the best essays on woman suffrage by the seniors of the high
schools, with Mrs. Helmer chairman and Miss Koch secretary. It worked
vigorously for the bill to permit women to practice law. Mrs. Rebecca
Latimer Felton became a member and was elected a delegate to the
national suffrage convention in Philadelphia. Attorney Leonard J.
Grossman joined the association and was made general counsel.
In 1913, while Mr. Grossman was attending the convention of the
National American Woman Suffrage Association as a delegate, he was
requested by James Lees Laidlaw, president of the National Men's
League for Woman Suffrage, to undertake the organization of a Georgia
Men's League. He did so immediately on returning home, with the
following officers: President, Mr. Grossman; vice-presidents, the Rev.
Fred A. Line, the Rev. J. Wade Conkling, C. W. McClure, Dr. Frank
Peck, E. L. Martin, ex-president Macon Chamber of Commerce; S. B.
Marks and L. Marquardt, ex-presidents of the State Federation of
Labor. Mr. Grossman toured the State on behalf of woman suffrage under
the joint auspices of the Men's League and the State association. He
drafted, at their request, proposed bills and ratification
resolutions; appeared before the annual conventions of the Federation
of Labor, obtaining their formal endorsement of woman suffrage;
secured also the endorsement of the Civic Educational League,
comprising a great majority of the Jewish citizens of Atlanta;
occupied church pulpits and addressed women's clubs, civic bodies,
city councils and legislative committees. The members of the Men's
League gave whatever assistance was required.
The many State victories in 1912 put new life into the movement in
1913. The Georgia Young People's Suffrage Association was organized
with Miss Ruth Buckholz as president. To represent the association
Mrs. Amelia R. Woodall, corresponding, and Miss Katherine Koch,
recording secretary; Miss Mamie Matthews, treasurer of the young
people's society, Mrs. Landis Sanna, Mrs. Margaret Gardner, editor
Trox Bankston of West Point and J. J. Williams of Chatterton, were
sent to Washington to march in the parade on March 3. They carried the
suffrage flag made for the national convention in Atlanta in 1895,
with two handsome yellow banners prepared especially for the parade.
Five bills before the Legislature were supported this year as well as
the Federal Amendment. When Presidential suffrage was given to
Illinois women in 1913, the Atlanta _Constitution_ was so impressed
with the "nearness" of woman suffrage that it created a suffrage
department and offered the editorship to Mrs. McLendon. U. S. Senators
Hoke Smith and Augustus O. Bacon had been obliged to present the
petition of Georgia suffragists asking for the Federal Amendment, but
no beautiful speeches were made by them. Senator Smith had been on
record all his life as being "unalterably opposed to woman suffrage"
and voted against it whenever he had opportunity, adding insult to
injury by declaring, "Our best women do not want it." Senator W. S.
West, who succeeded Senator Bacon, was more amenable to reason, but
Senator Thomas W. Hardwick, who followed after Mr. West's death, has
been an implacable opponent. For the second time the Atlanta
Federation tendered the use of its beautiful Temple of Labor for the
day sessions of the State convention which met July 9, 10. The
Legislature was persuaded by John Y. Smith of Fulton county to permit
an evening session in the House of Representatives. Senator Starke
opposed the use of the Senate Chamber "because Christ did not select
women for his Disciples" but saner counsels prevailed and it was
opened for a session.
During 1914 there were 275 meetings in Atlanta, Rome, Athens, Decatur,
Macon and Bainbridge by the auxiliary societies, with five open air
meetings. On March 1 a mass meeting was held in the Atlanta theater to
which members of the Legislature were especially invited. The speakers
were officers of the National Association, including the
vice-president, Miss Jane Addams. To enlarge the scope of the work
there was organized in February the Woman Suffrage Party Incorporated,
as a branch of the State association, with Mrs. McLendon president.
It secured a charter and prepared for an aggressive state-wide
suffrage campaign. A chairman for each of the twelve congressional
districts was appointed and instructed to organize in her district.
This year for the first time a hearing was granted before the House
Committee on Constitutional Amendments. Mrs. Felton and Mrs. Rose
Ashby spoke for the association, Mrs. Cheatham and Mrs. Frances Smith
Whiteside for the Woman Suffrage League. The association distributed
40,000 pages of leaflets, fliers, newspapers, etc.; about a dozen of
the leading newspapers were supplied with local and national suffrage
news and members of the Legislature with suffrage literature. In 1900,
when the first National W. C. T. U. convention was held in Atlanta,
woman suffrage was a forbidden subject at all temperance meetings in
Georgia. In 1914, when the second was held, Mrs. McLendon, president
of the State Suffrage Association, was selected to welcome the White
Ribboners in behalf of the suffragists of the State.[35]
The annual convention of the State association was held July 21, 22,
in the ballroom of the Hotel Ansley, beautifully decorated for the
occasion. Miss Kate M. Gordon aided largely in making it a success.
Mrs. Annie Fletcher of Oldham, England, visited Atlanta this year and
spoke on the suffrage situation there. Mrs. Georgia McIntyre Wheeler,
a practicing attorney of West Virginia, helped greatly in securing the
Woman Lawyer Bill. Atlanta and Waycross suffragists applied to the
city governments to grant women Municipal suffrage. The association
did not parade on May 2, as requested by the National Board, but the
president made a suffrage speech on the steps of the State Capitol and
members sold copies of the _Woman's Journal_. The Rev. A. M. Hewlett,
pastor of St. Marks Methodist Church South, accompanied Mrs. McLendon
and Attorney Grossman to Cox College in March and by invitation of its
president they gave addresses in favor of suffrage for women before
the student body. There was a growing sentiment in favor of it among
clergymen of various denominations.
The State convention was held in Atlanta Nov. 15-20, 1915, at the same
time as the harvest festival, and the first suffrage parade took
place, led by Miss Eleanor Raoul on horseback. Mrs. McLendon followed
in the little yellow car which once belonged to Dr. Shaw, driven by
Mrs. Loring Raoul. As a protest against taxation without
representation Dr. Shaw allowed it to be sold for taxes and it was
bought by Miss Sallie Fannie Gleaton of Conyers, who walked behind it
in the parade. The suffrage carriages were decorated with yellow,
those of the W. C. T. U. with white. Mrs. William R. Woodall,
president of the Atlanta association, and Miss Katherine Koch had
carried on a suffrage school the first and second Wednesdays from
February 24 to December 1. The motion picture suffrage play Your Girl
and Mine had been put on in the Grand Opera House. The branch in Rome
published an official organ called _The Woman's Magazine_.
In February, 1916, the State association and its three auxiliaries in
Atlanta worked with the Equal Suffrage Party and the Woman Suffrage
League to secure 10,000 names to a petition to the city council asking
for the Municipal franchise. State Senator Helen Ring Robinson of
Colorado and Mesdames Brooks, Kenney and Horine of Washington, D. C.,
came to their assistance. There were street speaking from automobiles
at night and meetings at private residences and they secured over
9,000 names. The city council gave a hearing, the Hon. Claude Peyton
making the presentation speech. The members listened apathetically and
appeared much relieved when Attorney Robert M. Blackburn assured them
they could not give women Municipal suffrage, as the State
constitution declared only male citizens could vote. Letters were sent
to the delegates to the two national conventions of the dominant
political parties, asking them to put a strong suffrage plank in their
platforms and Mrs. Woodall and Mrs. Laura Couzzens responded to Mrs.
Catt's call for marchers at the Chicago and St. Louis conventions.
Governor N. E. Harris refused to include woman suffrage in the call
for the special session of the Legislature which made the State "bone
dry," but this year it enacted a number of laws for which the
association had long worked.
On Feb. 12, 13, 1917, officers of the National Association held a
suffrage school in Atlanta. When the Legislature assembled in June all
the members found on their desks a notice that bills granting
Municipal suffrage to women, also full suffrage, and one to raise the
age of consent from 10 years to 18 would be introduced. The State
association sent the national suffrage organ, the _Woman Citizen_, for
a year to the United States Senators and fourteen Representatives in
Congress; to the members of the Legislature and all State officials.
The Atlanta association again conducted a three months' suffrage
school. The State convention in December in the Assembly Hall of the
Piedmont Hotel closed with a luncheon at which many prominent men and
women were present. Representatives John C. White and John Y. Smith at
that time pledged themselves to introduce and work for suffrage bills.
During this and the following year the suffrage associations did their
full share of war work. Mrs. McLendon represented the State
association on the Women's Council of National Defense, and Mrs.
Martin, first vice-president, was chairman of the State
Americanization Committee.
In 1918 the Parent-Teacher Association adopted strong suffrage
resolutions. The Baptist and Methodist churches South granted laity
rights to women. State suffrage headquarters were deluged with
requests for literature by educational institutions for debates. The
State Superintendent of Public Instruction, Professor M. L. Brittain,
had been an advocate of votes for women many years. The Atlanta
_Journal_ gave the State association a column in its Sunday issues,
which Mrs. Martin edited. Raymond E. White wrote a number of fine
suffrage editorials for the _Constitution_. In July the Hearst papers
circulated a petition for a Federal Suffrage Amendment and the Atlanta
association secured 5,000 names and other auxiliaries 1,000.
On May 3, 1919, a progressive city Democratic Central Committee gave
Atlanta women the right to vote in the Municipal primary election to
be held September 3. A Central Committee of Women Citizens was at once
elected at a mass meeting of women to see that they registered and
nearly 4,000 did so, paying one dollar for the privilege.
Mrs. McLendon represented the State Association at the convention of
the National Association in St. Louis in March, 1919. On May 21 she
and her sister, Mrs. Felton, sat in the House of Representatives in
Washington and had the pleasure of hearing W. D. Upshaw, member from
the fifth congressional district of Georgia, vote for the submission
of the Federal Suffrage Amendment, the only Representative from the
State to do so. On June 4 the new U. S. Senator, William J. Harris of
Georgia, voted for the submission of this amendment, giving one of the
long needed two votes. The official board of the State Association
through Mrs. McLendon mailed to each member of the Legislature a
personal letter with copies of letters from Mrs. J. K. Ottley, the
Democratic Executive Committee woman from Georgia, and the eminent
clergyman, Dr. J. B. Gambrell, urging the members to ratify the
Federal Suffrage Amendment. The annual convention of 1919 was held in
the auditorium of the Hotel Piedmont, Atlanta, on December 5.
A League of Women Voters was organized in Atlanta in March, 1920, out
of the Equal Suffrage Party, but the State association decided that
this action was premature, since there were no women voters in
Georgia, and that the old association, organized in 1890, would never
disband until women could vote on the same terms as men.
On June 1, in response to a petition of fifty representative women of
Atlanta, a hearing in charge of Mrs. McLendon was granted by the
chairman of the Democratic Executive Committee, at the request of
Mayor Key. After a number had spoken a motion was made to let the
women vote in the white municipal primary in Atlanta and was carried
with only four negative votes. The Atlanta and the Young People's
Suffrage Associations endorsed the re-election of Mayor Key and worked
for him, and he was returned by a majority of three to one on July 28.
Afterwards several other cities and villages permitted women to vote
in the primaries and on bond issues.
After the Federal Suffrage Amendment was ratified in August 1920, it
was announced that women would not be permitted to register and vote
in the primary on September 8 and the runover primary of October 6 for
the general election because they had not registered for it in April
and May, which they had no right to do. When the Legislature had
assembled June 23, Mrs. McLendon, Mrs. Martin and Mrs. Woodall had
called on Representatives Covington and John Y. Smith and Senators
Elders Dorris and Pittman and begged them to introduce an Enabling Act
to provide for the women to vote in November if the 19th Amendment
should be ratified. They promised faithfully to do this and the
Senators did so, but it was held back. The Representatives never did
introduce it. Mrs. McLendon then appealed to Governor Dorsey, but he
was candidate for U. S. Senator and had no time to attend to it. The
Legislature adjourned and the women were left in the lurch.
Then Mrs. McLendon decided to make a test and see if women could not
vote in the primary on September 8, as the returned soldiers who did
not reach Georgia before May were allowed to vote in all elections
without registering. She wired to Senator Fermor Barrett of Stevens
county, chairman of the sub-committee of the State Democratic
Executive Committee, asking him to call it together and see if it
could provide some way. He called it to meet in Atlanta on September
3, and he and H. H. Dean made speeches and voted to try to arrange it,
but the other five members voted against it. Mrs. McLendon then went
to the chairman of the County Democratic Executive Committee and he
refused to take any action, saying, "Our committee is only the agent
of the State committee and must obey its mandates." Then she and Mrs.
Julia H. Ellington, Mrs. Jane Adkins and Mrs. Nancy Duncan called on
the tax collector and asked to be allowed to pay their State and
county taxes and to register. They were sent to the chairman of the
Registration Committee and he also refused to enroll their names. Then
they went to the polls September 8 and were told, "No women voting
here."
Mrs. McLendon telegraphed to Bainbridge Colby, Secretary of State, who
answered: "The matter to which you refer is not within the province of
this Department and I am not in a position to give you any advice with
regard thereto." She next asked Governor Dorsey to call an extra
session of the Legislature to provide some way for the women to vote
in the general election, but he said he could not. Then she went to a
full meeting of the State Democratic Executive Committee, held
September 16, but no chance to be heard was given her. The next day
she attended a meeting of the Fulton County Commissioners, who
declared their willingness but their inability to do anything. She
then called on Attorney General R. A. Denny, who advised her to go to
the polls and make the effort, saying: "The 19th Amendment is above
the laws of any State." Women in Georgia, however, were not permitted
to vote at the Presidential election two months after they had been
enfranchised by this amendment.
LEGISLATIVE ACTION. The first request for woman suffrage was put
before the Legislature in 1895, the last in 1920, and in the interim
every session had this subject before it, with petitions signed by
thousands of women, but during the quarter of a century it did not
give one scrap of suffrage to the women of the State. From 1895 bills
for the following measures were kept continuously before it: Age of
protection for girls to be raised from 10 years; co-guardianship of
children; prevention of employment of children under 10 or 12 years
old in factories; women on boards of education; opening of the
colleges to women. Year after year these bills were smothered in
committees or reported unfavorably or defeated, usually by large
majorities. In 1912 a bill was passed enabling women to be notaries
public; in 1916 one permitting women to practice law, which the
suffragists had worked for since 1899; in 1918 one raising the age of
consent to 14. The suffrage association had worked for it twenty-three
years and always asked that the age be 18.
* * * * *
In 1912 another association to further the movement for woman suffrage
was formed in Atlanta, the Woman Suffrage League, and Mrs. Frances
Smith Whiteside, who had been from early days a member of the old
association, was elected president. Mrs. Whiteside was for thirty
years principal of the Ivy Street school and during the first ten
years of the existence of the State Association she was the only
teacher who dared avow herself a member, as the very name of suffrage
was so odious to the public. Through her family connections and wide
acquaintance she was able to exercise a strong personal influence in
bringing well-known men and women to a belief in this cause. The
league did active work among teachers and business women and converted
some of the leading legislators. It inaugurated an educational
campaign in the schools and gave business scholarships for the best
essays on woman suffrage. In co-operation with the other associations
it obtained signatures to petitions for the Municipal franchise. The
first street speaking was done under its auspices.
When Leagues of Women Voters were authorized by the National American
Suffrage Association in 1919, the organization disbanded and the
members entered the league formed in Georgia. Mrs. Whiteside had been
continually the president and there had been only two changes in the
board of the following officers: First vice-president, Mrs. Elizabeth
McCarty; second, Miss Laura Barrien; corresponding secretary, Mrs.
Jack Hawkins; recording secretaries, Mrs. William H. Yeandle, Mrs.
Mary Peyton; treasurer, Miss Ethel Merk; auditors, Mrs. A. G. Helmer,
Miss Minnie Bellamy. Mrs. Yeandle died in 1915 and Mrs. Mary Peyton
was elected in her place. This year Mrs. Helmer became president of a
branch league and was succeeded as auditor by Miss Minnie Bellamy.
THE EQUAL SUFFRAGE PARTY OF GEORGIA.[36]
For some time there had seemed a necessity in Georgia for an
organization which would undertake more aggressive work in behalf of
woman suffrage. Early in 1914 the psychological time for it became
apparent and a meeting was held at the home of Mrs. Emily C. McDougald
in Atlanta. A group of influential men and women were present, who
declared themselves in favor of an active campaign and pledged their
support. On motion of Linton C. Hopkins a committee was appointed to
nominate temporary officers, and reported for president Mrs.
McDougald; for vice-president, Mrs. Hopkins, and for secretary, Mrs.
Hugh Lokey. A constitution and by-laws were adopted and a petition
for a State charter was filed under the name of the Equal Suffrage
Party of Georgia.
On July 29 a meeting was called for permanent organization and with
representatives from different parts of the State present the
following were elected: President, Mrs. McDougald; first
vice-president, Mrs. John Dozier Pou of Columbia; second, Miss Mildred
Cunningham of Savannah; secretary, Mrs. Henry Schlesinger; treasurer,
Mrs. Benjamin Elsas; organizer, Mrs. Mary Raoul Millis; auditor, Miss
Genevieve Saunders, all of Atlanta. Members of the Executive Board
were: Mrs. Mary Meade Owens of Augusta; Mrs. Mayhew Cunningham of
Savannah; Miss Anna Griffin of Columbus; Mrs. Charles C. Harrold of
Macon. Affiliated branches were organized with presidents as follows:
In Savannah, Mrs. F. P. McIntire; in Augusta, Mrs. Owens; in Columbus,
Miss Anabel Redd; in Atlanta, Miss Eleanore Raoul; in Macon, Mrs.
Harrold; in Athens, Mrs. W. B. Hill; in Albany, Mrs. D. H. Redfearn.
From these centers a great deal of work was done for suffrage in the
adjacent smaller towns. The city organizations opened offices and
committees of local women were put in charge of the work of raising
money and distributing suffrage propaganda. Tens of thousands of
letters, leaflets, books and speeches were distributed throughout the
State. All of the women's clubs were urged to endorse suffrage;
schools were asked to debate the subject and prizes offered for the
best arguments in debate and in written composition. Suffrage parades
on foot and in automobiles were had in all the cities, suffrage plays
put into the theaters, suffrage slides into the movies and every means
of educating the public was used. The best national speakers were
brought into the State and immense audiences worked up for them. The
beloved Dr. Anna Howard Shaw spoke in Atlanta to one of 6,000. The
National American Woman Suffrage Association, of which the Equal
Suffrage Party was an affiliated branch, gave hearty co-operation in
securing these speakers. The party held annual conventions, where new
officers were generally elected as a matter of democratic policy. The
second took place in Atlanta Nov. 17, 1915, where Mrs. McDougald was
re-elected president and the other officers selected were Mrs. J. D.
Pou of Columbus, first vice-president; Mrs. Cunningham, second; Miss
Schlesinger, secretary; Miss Aurelia Roach, treasurer; Mrs. Millis,
organizer. The party already had branches in 13 counties, including
the largest cities.
The annual convention on Oct. 28, 1916, was held in Atlanta and Mrs.
L. S. Arrington of Augusta was elected president; Mrs. S. B. C. Morgan
of Savannah, first vice-president; Mrs. Harrold, second; Miss Julia
Flisch, secretary, and Miss Annie G. Wright, treasurer, both of
Augusta. The effort in Atlanta to secure a petition for Municipal
suffrage for women had resulted in obtaining the signatures of 6,000
women and 3,000 men. All the delegates to three national Presidential
conventions had been circularized in behalf of a plank for Federal
woman suffrage, and all the members of the Legislature asking for the
submission of a State amendment. The next annual convention was held
in Augusta Nov. 24, 1917, and Mrs. Frank P. McIntire of Savannah was
selected for president. The convention was omitted in 1918, as the
women were occupied with war work.
At the convention held in Savannah Jan. 15, 1919, Mrs. McDougald was
again elected president. The splendidly efficient service of women in
all the departments of war work proved that without them it would have
been most difficult to succeed in the Liberty Bond sales, the Red
Cross and all the "drives" for raising money. The officers of the
Equal Suffrage Party and those of its affiliated societies were
selected as leaders in the work of the Woman's Council of Defense,
National and State.
From every part of the State hundreds of letters were sent to the U.
S. Senators Smith and Hardwick, asking them to vote for the Federal
Suffrage Amendment, but to no avail. The year had been a fruitful one,
even though the Legislature had failed to ratify the Federal
Amendment, which was submitted by Congress in June. An adverse
influence, which it was very hard to combat, was that of the State
Federation of Women's Clubs. Its president, Mrs. Z. L. Fitzpatrick of
Madison and other officials were violently opposed. A large majority
of the women in the city clubs were suffragists and not influenced by
the attitude of the federation officers but this was not true of the
rural women, who were constantly warned that woman suffrage was a
great evil not to be even mentioned in their clubs. This
anti-suffrage influence reacted upon the rural legislator and gave him
ground for the oft-repeated argument, "The women of my district do not
want the vote, they won't even discuss it in their clubs." There had
long been a strong desire to have woman suffrage endorsed by the State
Federation, the largest organization of women in the State, with
30,000 members, and every year the Equal Suffrage Party had sent to
all the club presidents an earnest letter urging them to give their
members an opportunity to vote on the question and pointing out the
greater achievements of the clubs in States where women had the
franchise. At every annual meeting, however, when a resolution would
be offered from the floor, the president of the federation would
declare it out of order and prevent action on it. In 1917, at its
convention in Augusta, a resolution was offered to send a
congratulatory telegram to the women of New York on their newly
acquired enfranchisement, whereupon a storm of protest arose, the
president ruled it out of order and it was tabled.
In 1919 every club was again circularized and the answers showed that
the women throughout the State wanted favorable action by the State
Federation. At its convention in Columbus in November, 1919, two
resolutions were prepared, one or the other to be presented, as seemed
most expedient at the time. One was a simple endorsement of woman
suffrage; the other, submitted by Mrs. Morgan, asked for an
endorsement of the Federal Amendment and its ratification by the
Legislature. At the last moment, the suffragists decided to take a
bold step and send the latter to the Resolutions Committee, which was
done, and this committee recommended its adoption. The president, Mrs.
James E. Hayes of Montezuma, ruled it out of order. Mrs. Rogers Winter
of Atlanta appealed from the decision of the chair; Mrs. Alonzo
Richardson of Atlanta seconded the appeal and was sustained and the
resolution was brought before the convention. It was carried by a vote
of 85 to 40.[37]
When the report of this action was received in Macon, an indignant
protest went up from the anti-suffragists. Mrs. Bruce Carr Jones,
secretary of the State Federation, sent in her resignation. Mrs.
Walter D. Lamar and Mrs. Thomas Moore went before the women's clubs of
the city and urged that they withdraw from the federation. The Macon
_Telegraph_ devoted much space to denouncing it as a most dishonest
trick and approved heartily the efforts of these women to dismember
the federation. Through their influence six clubs resigned. Sixty-nine
new clubs joined the federation in the twelve months following its
endorsement of the Federal Amendment.[38]
The white women of Atlanta were given the vote in the city Primaries
in May, 1919. For several years all the suffrage forces in the city
had been working to secure this privilege from the Democratic
Executive Committee, but without success. In 1919, however, the
personnel of the committee had changed to such an extent that it was
decided to make another effort. The chairman, E. C. Buchanan, was a
good friend and with his help Mrs. A. G. Helmer, Mrs. Charles Goodman
and Mrs. McDougald had the opportunity of making a personal canvass of
each of its forty-four members. When the chairman called a meeting for
May 3, to consider, he said, the request of the Equal Suffrage Party,
there was every reason to believe they would make a favorable report.
A resolution written by Mrs. McDougald was adopted by a vote of 24 to
1. On the roll call each man stood up and in a few gracious words
expressed his pleasure in being able to show his confidence in the
helpful co-operation of women in city government by granting them this
suffrage. A mass meeting of women was called at once to name a central
committee to take charge of the task of getting the women registered
immediately as a city election was near at hand. Miss Eleanore Raoul
was made chairman, and with her able co-workers in every ward
accomplished a wonderful work. Public meetings addressed by prominent
men and women were held daily; $1,200 were raised and 4,000 women were
registered in a few weeks. The Executive Committee in 1920 again
included women in the electorate and to this body of men is due the
honor of being the first in Georgia to recognize the value of women in
civic affairs.
In 1919 all the district school superintendents inaugurated a series
of competitive debates on the question, Shall Georgia Grant Suffrage
to the Women of the State? This created intense interest in every
county and the Equal Suffrage Party found it difficult to supply the
demand for literature from the hundreds of schools. The Atlanta
Chamber of Commerce elected five women as members in recognition of
their public service. In addressing the Landowners' Convention at
Savannah in November Governor Hugh M. Dorsey said: "I hope that as
Governor of Georgia I may be given the privilege of signing a bill
giving women equal rights in this great commonwealth."
LEGISLATIVE ACTION. In June, 1915, the Equal Suffrage Party made its
first effort to sponsor a suffrage bill in the Legislature. It opened
a booth in one of the corridors between the House and Senate chambers,
supplied it with the best suffrage literature and put it in charge of
a committee of women who worked faithfully to convert some of that
wilful and reactionary group of politicians. It was a hopeless task.
The first bill was introduced in the House by Mr. Wohlwender of
Muscogee county and in the Senate by Senators Dobbs and Buchanan and
referred to the Judiciary Committee, which granted a hearing.
Representatives from all the suffrage associations were present and
made speeches. Mrs. Walter D. Lamar and Miss Mildred Rutherford, head
of the Lucy Cobb Institute of Athens, represented the Anti-Suffrage
Association. Mrs. Lamar's arguments were based upon the theory that
women did not have sufficient integrity to be trusted with the ballot;
that long years ago when those of New Jersey had it it had to be taken
from them because they were so dishonest in their use of it. She also
said that women were universally the hardest taskmasters, requiring
more work and paying less for it than men. Miss Rutherford begged the
legislators to disregard the request of the few women desiring the
ballot, as they did not represent the true type of the southern woman,
who had always rejoiced in being upon a high pedestal where men had
placed her and worshipped her and that women were more than satisfied
with that which men had so lavishly and chivalrously given--their love
and their money. These speeches were received with howls of
appreciation from the legislators, who dwelt upon the type that
appealed to them, "the woman who was the mother of children and
realized that her place was at home with her hand on the cradle." The
committee made an unfavorable report.
In 1916 this experience was repeated. In 1917 and 1918 the leaders of
the Equal Suffrage Party were absorbed in war work and had no time to
waste in so helpless and disagreeable a task. They realized that they
would soon be enfranchised by a Federal Amendment, the only hope of
the women of Georgia.
RATIFICATION. In 1919 came the great struggle over ratification. The
best the suffragists hoped for was that no action would be taken.
During the first days of the session, however, the resolution to
ratify was introduced in the House by Representative J. B. Jackson of
Jones county and in the Senate by Senator T. H. Parker of Colquitt
county, both of whom explained that their action was taken in order to
kill it. The resolution was referred in both Houses to the Committees
on Constitutional Amendments and a joint hearing was set for an early
date.
The suffragists had more friends and stronger ones on the House
Committee than the "antis" and more than they had realized. All they
asked was that the resolution be tabled, not reported favorably, for
they knew that defeat on the floor of the House was certain. One of
their strongest supporters, Judge W. A. Covington of Colquitt county,
was detained at home by illness in his family and telegraphed the
chairman of the House Committee, John W. Bale of Floyd county, asking
that the hearing be postponed a few days so that he might be present.
This courtesy, commonly extended without question, was refused by Mr.
Bale. Immediately on the opening of the hearing Mr. Jackson asked to
substitute for his original resolution one which explicitly rejected
ratification. By permission of the chairman this substitute was
accepted. After the hearing, at which Miss Rutherford alone appeared
in opposition while seven women spoke for it, the committee went into
executive session. On a motion to postpone action the vote was 13 to
13, and the chairman cast his vote against it. During the executive
session Robert T. DuBose of Clarke county became ill and asked if he
might cast his vote ahead of time and leave. Permission was granted
him and he wrote on a slip of paper a vote for postponing action. When
the final vote was taken Mr. Bale ruled that Mr. DuBose's vote could
not be counted. If it had been the suffragists would have carried
their point by a vote of 14 to 13. After the motion to postpone was
lost the Jackson resolution to reject was reported favorably.
The Senate Committee acted in open session. After prolonged debate the
Parker resolution to ratify was reported unfavorably by a vote of 10
to 3, and the next day it came before the Senate. The opponents
believed they could make short work of it or they would not have
permitted it to come up. By a vote of 37 to 12 the Senate refused to
disagree to the committee report. In order to dispose of the
resolution, however, it was necessary to agree to the report and when
this motion was made the suffrage supporters started a "filibuster"
which they continued for several days. Finally the anti-suffrage
Senators promised that if the suffragists would call off their
"filibuster" they would vote to recommit the resolution to the
committee with the understanding that it would stay there the
remainder of the session. But on the same day that this agreement was
made Senator Parker introduced another resolution, which, like the
Jones substitute, called for rejection of ratification. It was
reported favorably by the committee and after several days' debate,
Senators Claude Pittman, W. H. Dorris, H. H. Elders and George G.
Glenn, speaking for ratification, the rejection resolution was carried
on July 24 by 39 to 10. The Senate then voted down a proposition to
submit to the voters a woman suffrage amendment to the State
constitution. On the same day the Jackson resolution to reject was
presented in the House and after a spirited debate led by Judge
Covington and A. S. Anderson for ratification the resolution was
carried by 132 to 34.
This contest had occupied about two-thirds of the time since the
Legislature convened and yet the opponents, after all their efforts,
failed to have the Legislature go on record as rejecting the Federal
Amendment, for the House resolution was never concurred in by the
Senate and the Senate resolution was never concurred in by the House
and the session adjourned without completing formal action. President
Wilson had sent a telegram urging ratification for party expediency
and U. S. Senator Harris went to Atlanta to lobby for either
ratification or no action, but he was denounced by the legislators and
the President was called a "meddler." Members of the Democratic
National Committee and Clark Howell, editor of the Atlanta
_Constitution_, and James Hallanan, its political editor, strongly
supported ratification, as did Governor Dorsey. The suffrage
associations made no effort in 1920, knowing the hopelessness of it.
The National Woman's Party endeavored to secure an Enabling Act, so
that women might vote under the Federal Amendment although the time
for registration had passed, but were not successful.
The last meeting of the Equal Suffrage Party was held in Atlanta
during the regional conference of the National League of Woman Voters.
Thirty-five States had ratified the Federal Amendment, and feeling
assured that ratification would soon be fully accomplished, Mrs.
McDougald had gained the consent of all the branches to take this
occasion to merge it into a State League. This was done April 3, 1920.
Miss Annie G. Wright of Augusta was elected chairman and Mrs.
McDougald and Mrs. S. B. C. Morgan honorary presidents for life.[39]
FOOTNOTES:
[33] The History is indebted for this chapter to Mrs. Mary Latimer
McLendon, a resident of Atlanta over 60 years, who also wrote the
Georgia chapter for Volume IV. Before the absolutely necessary
condensation of the present chapter it included 22,000 words and was a
most remarkable production for a woman in her 81st year. It will be
preserved intact in another place.
[34] During the years from 1901 the following held office in the State
association: honorary vice-president, Miss Madeline J. S. Wylie;
vice-presidents, Mrs. P. H. Moore, Miss S. A. Gresham, Miss Rebecca
Vaughn, Miss H. Augusta Howard, Mrs. Emma T. Martin, Mrs. J.
Dejournette, Mrs. W. Y. Atkinson; corresponding secretaries, Mrs.
Mamie Folsom Wynne, Miss Katherine Koch, Mrs. DeLacy Eastman, Mrs.
Amelia R. Woodall; recording secretaries, Miss Willette Allen, Mrs.
Alice C. Daniels; treasurers, Mrs. E. O. Archer, Mrs. Mary Osborne,
Mrs. M. K. Mathews, Mrs. E. C. Cresse; auditor, Mrs. W. H. Felton.
[35] In October, 1919, when Mrs. McLendon attended the W. C. T. U.
convention, she was called to the platform on the opening night,
presented as a "brave pioneer" and highly eulogized by the present and
former State presidents. The audience gave her the Chautauqua salute
and the White Ribbon cheer and in return she gave them a woman
suffrage speech, which was enthusiastically received. Nevertheless the
State society never endorsed votes for women, although local societies
did so.
[36] The History is indebted for this part of the chapter to Mrs.
Emily C. McDougald, president of the Equal Suffrage Party of Georgia.
[37] The resolution was voted on in the last hours of the convention
and a number of the suffragists had taken trains for home. Mrs. Hayes
desired to have the resolution pass but as the convention the
preceding year had sustained the ruling of the president that it was
out of order she felt obliged to make a similar one.
[38] The only organized antagonism to woman suffrage came from a very
small but very vindictive association in Macon, vigorously abetted and
encouraged by the _Telegraph_, the only paper in the State which
fought suffrage and suffragists. Every week a column or more, edited
by James P. Callaway, was filled with abuse of suffrage leaders and
every slanderous statement in regard to them which could be found.
Miss Caroline Patterson of Macon was always president of this
association and Mrs. Lamar, Mrs. Jones, Mrs. Moore and a few other
women, all of Macon, were ardent co-workers and leaders and frequent
contributors to Mr. Callaway's column. The association still holds
together and the members are pledged not to vote but to give their
time and money to any effort made in the courts to invalidate
ratification of the Federal Amendment (1920).
[39] In 1921 the League prepared a bill "to remove the civil
disabilities of women," which provided that women should be eligible
to vote in all elections, primary and general, in municipalities,
counties and the State, and should be eligible to hold public office.
The only objection made to the bill was to women on juries. The women
objected to this exemption but had to yield. In the Senate the vote on
July 22 stood 36 for, 3 against; in the House almost unanimous on
August 10. These legislators were so courteous and obliging the women
could scarcely believe it was a Georgia Legislature. They gave
everything asked for and inquired, "Is there anything else we can do
for you?"
The State organizer of the League of Women Voters is Mrs. Z. L.
Fitzpatrick, former president of the State Federation of Women's
Clubs. She is most enthusiastic over the new order of affairs and is
touring the State organizing leagues and urging women to get out and
vote and to nominate women for the offices!