The bill was introduced by Senator C. W. Rooks, who with Senator John C. Houk led the fight for it. It was lost on February 3 by 21 noes, 12 ayes. A motion to reconsider by Senator A. E. Hill carried it over until the Legislature reconvened on March 7. The generosity of Mrs. Scott, vice-chairman of the Campaign Committee, who gave $500, enabled the State association to employ four organizers and the National Association paid the salaries of three more. New organizations were formed and remote towns, which had scarcely ever heard of suffrage, were visited. A telegram from President Wilson urging the Senate to pass the bill was received at the March session but was not read in that body until the day after it was defeated.[167] The motion for reconsideration was laid on the table the first day by 18 ayes, 10 noes.
Incessant work in behalf of the bill was carried on in the districts of hostile or doubtful Senators from September until January, 1919, when the Legislature met and the bill for Presidential and Municipal suffrage was again introduced. It was a hard fight for many weeks made by Mrs. Warner and her committee, with daily, continuous work at the Capitol and "back log" work through the State, where she had the constant help of her board. Mrs. A. G. Buckner, as legislative chairman, worked unceasingly, as did Mrs. Margaret Ervin Ford, Mrs. Reno and Miss Matilda Porter, the lobby committee, assisted by Miss Josephine Miller, a national organizer. Mrs. Dudley came after the national suffrage convention in March.
Attorney L. D. Miller of Chattanooga introduced the bill in the House and conducted the fight for it. It passed the third and final reading April 3 by 52 ayes, 32 noes. Speaker Seth M. Walker of Wilson county became a convert and eloquent advocate, leaving his desk to plead for it. [See Ratification.]
After the bill had been cleverly put to sleep by the President of the Senate, Andrew Todd, by referring it to the hostile Judiciary Committee, Senator E. N. Haston, who was its sponsor, secured enough votes to overrule his action and put it in the Committee on Privileges and Elections, which reported in favor. The enemies were led by Senator J. Parks Worley. The hardest fight that ever took place in the Senate was waged, and the outcome was not certain until Judge Douglas Wikle of Williamson county cast the deciding vote in favor, making the result on April 16, ayes, 17; noes, 14, a bare majority. At 10:30 the following morning Governor Roberts affixed his signature to the Act conferring upon women the right to vote for electors of President and Vice-President of the United States and in the Municipal elections throughout the State. More than half a million women were thus far enfranchised.
Conspicuous and persistent among the enemies of the bill outside of the Legislature were U. S. Senator John K. Shields and Judge Vertrees. The latter, claiming to represent "others" filed a writ of injunction in the Chancery Court to test the validity of the law. Attorney General Frank M. Thompson and other able lawyers defended this suit[168], which was hotly contested, and this court, by Chancellor James B. Newman, in June declared the law unconstitutional. The case was appealed to the State Supreme Court, which in July, 1919, reversed this decision and declared the law valid.
When the Supreme Court rendered this decision the regular biennial registration was only ten days off and it was at the hottest period of the summer, when many women and most of the suffrage officials were out of town, but the registration was large in all the cities. In Nashville about 7,500 registered; in Knoxville about 7,000, and the type of those who presented themselves everywhere was of the highest and best. Contrary to all predictions the negro women did not flock to the polls. They voted but in comparatively few numbers and the records show that only the better educated were interested. Their vote proved to be anything but the "bugaboo" politicians had tried to show that it would be and in some instances it was a contributing factor to good government. In Nashville they registered about 2,500 and voted almost their full quota. They organized under the direction of the suffrage association, had their own city and ward chairmen and worked with an intelligence, loyalty and dignity that made new friends for their race and for woman suffrage. There was not a single adverse criticism of them from any ward. They kept faith with the white women even when some of their men sold out the night before election to a notorious political rounder. They proved that they were trying to keep step with the march of progress and with a little patience, trust and vision the universal tie of motherhood and sisterhood can and will overcome the prejudice against them as voters.
An immense amount of work was done by Tennessee women for the Federal Suffrage Amendment. After interviewing their members of Congress and using every possible influence on them in their home districts, hundreds of letters and telegrams were sent to them in Washington whenever they were to vote on it from 1915 to 1919. Mrs. Dudley, as a member of the national board, spent months in Washington and was sent to various southern States where skilled work was necessary. There was a gradually increasing vote in favor by Tennessee members until when the last one was taken in June, 1919, only three Representatives, Moon, Hull and Garrett, voted against it. Senator Shields voted in opposition and Senator McKellar in favor.
[With this chapter was sent a complete history of the woman suffrage movement in Memphis, Nashville, Knoxville, Chattanooga and smaller cities, which accounts for the phenomenally rapid advance in Tennessee. Unfortunately these chapters can give space only to the general work of the State associations.]