One hundred years ago this month, women in the United States were guaranteed the right to vote with ratification of the 19th Amendment — secured by a 24-year-old Tennessee legislator’s decisive vote, cast at the bidding of his mother.
Harry T. Burn’s surprise move set the stage for decades of slow but steady advances for American women in electoral politics. Two years ago, a record number of women were elected to Congress. On Tuesday, Democratic former Vice President Joe Biden selected Sen. Kamala Harris as his running mate — making her the first Black woman on a major party’s presidential ticket.
Burn, from the small town of Niota in eastern Tennessee, joined the Legislature in 1918 as its youngest member. The following year, Congress approved the 19th Amendment, touching off the battle to win ratification by the legislatures of 36 of the 48 states.
The process moved quickly at first: By March 1920, 35 states had ratified, while eight states, mostly Southern, had rejected the amendment. Of the states yet to vote, Tennessee was the only one where ratification was considered possible under prevailing political conditions.
So all eyes turned to its Legislature, where lawmakers had the power to grant the women’s suffrage movement a victory it had sought for more than 70 years or deal it a painful setback.
At that time, women in more than half the states could vote in presidential elections. But they had no statewide voting rights throughout the South and several other states.
Thousands of activists on both sides of the debate poured into Nashville ahead of the special session. The posh Hermitage Hotel became a hotbed of lobbying and political gossip.
The amendment was approved 25-4 in the state Senate and sent to the House, where sentiment was divided as its turn to vote came on Aug. 18, 1920.
Anti-suffragists believed they had the votes needed to table the amendment, but that failed in a 48-48 tie. Burn was among those supporting the motion to table.
Next came the decisive vote on whether to ratify. Onlookers expected another tie, which would have doomed the measure.
But when Burn’s turn came, he switched sides. His “aye” was so unexpected that many onlookers were unsure what they’d heard, according to various historical accounts. The amendment passed 49-47.
Some wondered if Burn had been bribed. But the next day, addressing the House, he offered an explanation.
He had received a letter from his mother, urging him to buck the anti-suffragist sentiments of many of his constituents and instead support the amendment.
“Dear Son, Hurrah and vote for suffrage!” she wrote. “Don’t forget to be a good boy and help Mrs. Catt put the ‘rat’ in ratification. Your Mother.”
That was a reference to Carrie Chapman Catt, a leading suffragist who had come to Nashville to campaign for the amendment.
