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VOTES FOR WOMEN

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
Historic Marker

VOTES FOR WOMEN

Inscription

VOTES FOR WOMEN
ON JULY 31, 1914, OVER 75
PEOPLE ATTENDED CLARKSVILLE
EQUAL SUFFRAGE LEAGUE MEETING
ON BARKSDALE HOME LAWN, LED BY
EMMA LUPTON & STELLA MORGAN.
WILLIAM G. POMEROY FOUNDATION 2022

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.