Program

National Votes for Women Trail

Subject

Event, People

Location

19 Jr Gilliam Wy, Nashville, TN 37219, USA

Lat/Long

36.1734525, -86.785261

Grant Recipient

National Collaborative for Women's History Sites

In August 1916, Suffrage Day was held during a baseball game at Sulphur Dell, a baseball park in Nashville, Tennessee that was home to the Nashville Volunteers Minor League Baseball team. The Suffrage Day festivities were organized by Tennessee suffragist Catherine T. Kenny, serving as general chair of arrangements, and fellow leaders of the Tennessee Equal Suffrage League.

For Suffrage Day, the Sulphur Dell grandstand was decorated in the suffrage colors of yellow and white. The August 22, 1916 edition of the Nashville Tennessean reported that a banner was suspended in the grandstand that said:

“For the safety of the nation, to the woman give the vote, for the hand that rocks the cradle will never rock the boat.”

To show their support, the ballplayers wore yellow sashes pinned to their waists. Cakes baked by the suffragists were given away as prizes to some of the players and to Tennessee Governor Thomas Clarke Rye, who was in attendance at the game. When presented with the cake, Governor Rye was praised by Catherine T. Kenny for his support of women’s right to vote.

In the August 22, 1916 edition of the Nashville Banner, sportswriter Bob Pigue described the successful Suffrage Day at Sulphur Dell:

“With the historic baseball battleground overrunning with beautiful advocates of the votes-for-women movement, with gaily decorated stands, and, lastly, gorgeous cakes and cash prizes, the suffrage cause was given a decided boost, for if the ladies can manage the nation as successfully as they did suffrage day yesterday, here’s one who is ready right now to slip a ballot into the box for them and give them the big opportunity.”

As of 2022, the site of Nashville’s Sulphur Dell continues as a ballpark, now known as First Horizon Park.