Sobieski relates women’s right to vote, the price paid
Wanda Sobieski, president/founder of Suffrage Coalition in Knoxville, related how Tennessee was the last state to ratify the 19th Amendment on Aug. 18, 1920, giving women the right to vote, and what it took to get there when she spoke as part of Farragut Museum’s Speaker Series, History Hour at the Museum, in Town Hall Tuesday, Sept. 16.
“Really, it’s a little bit of a misnomer to call it women’s suffrage because while the 19th amendment, when it passed, did give all women who are citizens in the United States the right to vote, it had an impact on everybody — on men, on immigrants, on everybody in society,” Sobieski said. “And I guess that’s the whole point of suffrage, was to have a voice in society.
“Women changed the world once they got the right to vote,” she added.
“We started the speaker series we call, ‘History Hour,’ and we’re so glad to have the Suffrage Coalition here today,” said Kristi Vining, Town Historic Resources coordinator. “The Women’s Suffrage Coalition has worked for decades to locate and preserve incredible stories of men and women in Tennessee who worked to bring voting rights to millions of women.”
Sobieski also is a Knoxville attorney, founder of Sobieski, Messer & Associates and founder and past president of East Tennessee Lawyers Association for Women and Tennessee Lawyers Association for Women.
The right to vote did not happen overnight, as Sobieski related.
She said Tennessee’s ratification was caused by a letter written by East Tennessean Febb Burn, the mother of 24-year-old state Rep.
Harry T. Burn. That letter convinced him to change
his deciding vote, which broke the tie in the legislature. The representative initially planned to vote against the amendment.
“But, there are many more stories about what people did in Tennessee, in Knoxville and in this area, East Tennessee,” Sobieski said.
She read the amendment, “The rights of the citizens of the United States to vote shall not be abridged by the United States or any state on account of sex.”
“Very, very simple 19 words that caused a firestorm for 72 years in the United States,” Sobieski said.
Before the 19th amendment, women had no right to own or inherit property, and they were the property of their fathers or husbands and could be treated any way the father or husband wanted, which included abuse and commitment to a mental hospital.
But, some women saw the injustice, starting in the early 1900s. She related how women stood in picket lines for days, were jailed without charges and beaten through the years, but persevered.
Following the event, attendees were treated to a tour of Farragut Museum and a “Suffrage Tea Party.”
The speaker series will continue with a presentation by Town administrator David Smoak on the history of Farragut; a Veterans Day panel discussion program, Wednesday, Nov. 12; and 7 p.m., Monday, Dec. 1, it will hold its Day of Infamy program with Farragut historian David Galbraith.
