On August 18, 1920 state lawmakers in Tennessee filed into the statehouse to cast their ballots on the ratification of the 19th Amendment. Carrie Chapman Catt had lobbied hard for the rights of women to vote. The 19th Amendment had already been ratified by 35 of the required 36 states. With other states refusing to call special ratification sessions, Tennessee remained the suffragists’ last chance to vote in 1920.
The debate in Nashville raged for days, in the chamber, in committee rooms, and spilling out into restaurants and hotels. By midday on August 18, the outcome was still too close to call. Then, young legislator Harry Burn switched his vote to “yes’” The Amendment passed by his single vote.
Most of his constituents opposed women voting, but the constituent who mattered most to him was his mother. That morning she had sent a note urging him to “be a good boy and help Mrs. Catt.”
