TENNESSEE. PART II.[1]
Tennessee's pioneer period was from 1885-1911, for during those years the educational and organization work carried on by a few intrepid women was as difficult as was the same work in other parts of the United States thirty or more years before that time. Woman suffrage was in the stage of ridicule and abuse and with a few exceptions the press of the State was opposed and lost no opportunity to disparage it.
The State Equal Suffrage Association was reorganized in Memphis in 1906 and there was increasing activity each year afterwards. In 1907 the suffragists held a convention and reported their membership trebled. They secured a suffrage article in the News Scimitar through the courtesy of Mike Connolly, its editor. In 1908 Dr. Shaw spoke at the Goodwin Hall in Memphis under the auspices of the State association and a return engagement was secured by the Lyceum Course the following winter. The third annual convention was held Dec. 15, 1909, in Memphis at the home of the State president, Mrs. J. D. Allen, and the officers were re-elected. It was reported that a petition had been sent to Congress for a Federal Amendment and more than 400 letters written, one to President Taft asking him to declare for woman suffrage and local work had been done. Mrs. E. S. Conser, assisted by Mrs. Allen and the suffrage club, prevailed upon the Memphis University Law Department to open its doors to women and Mrs. Conser became its first woman student. Mrs. Allen attended the national convention at Seattle, Washington. Mrs. Ittie K. Reno delivered the first woman suffrage address in Nashville, at the Centennial Club, and the first one in Chattanooga was given by Miss Margaret Ervin at the university where she was a student.
In 1910 a league was organized in Knoxville by Mrs. L. Crozier French, who became its president. In the summer a suffrage debate, affirmative taken by Mrs. Ford, was held in the Methodist church at Kingston, the first time the question was discussed in that part of the State and people came from
- ↑ The History is indebted for this chapter to Mrs, Margaret Ervin Ford, president of the State Equal Suffrage Association.
