Program

National Votes for Women Trail

Subject

Event, People

Location

1128 Madison St, Clarksville, TN 37040, USA

Lat/Long

36.52507, -87.34356

Grant Recipient

National Collaborative for Women's History Sites

On July 31, 1914, the Clarksville Equal Suffrage League held a meeting on the lawn of the home belonging to W.W. Barksdale, located on Madison Street in Clarksville, Tennessee. Over 75 people attended the meeting, which was led by Clarksville Equal Suffrage League Vice President Emma (Mrs. Henry M.) Lupton and President Stella (Mrs. Alfred C.) Morgan. Contemporary accounts of the event published in the Clarksville Leaf-Chronicle referred to the suffrage meeting as the “first open meeting” of the Clarksville Equal Suffrage League.

After decades of suffrage activism, the United States Congress passed the Nineteenth Amendment to the Constitution which states that the right to vote cannot be denied on account of sex. The amendment then moved on to the states for ratification. The efforts of Tennessee suffragists paid off when Tennessee became the 36th state to ratify the Nineteenth Amendment on August 18, 1920, securing the right to vote for women across the United States.