THE ERA, TENNESSEE, AND ME

THE ERA, TENNESSEE, AND ME

            My birth state of Tennessee figured prominently in the history of the 19^th Amendment and in the Equal Rights Amendment.  In 1920 the issue of ratifying the 19^th Amendment, which gave women the right to vote, came to the Tennessee legislature.  Thirty-five states had ratified the amendment, and only one more state ratification was needed for it to become law.  The vote looked dim in Tennessee.  It looked like the vote would be a tie, and thus the amendment would fail.  It had sailed through the state Senate but was bogged down in the state House.  On August 18, 1920, the vote was called, and Rep. Harry Burn from east Tennessee, who had worn a red rose on his lapel to indicate his opposition to the amendment, stood up and shocked everyone, likely even himself, by voting “aye” on the amendment. It passed the state House by that one vote and became federal law eight days later.  Why did he change his mind?  The stories have been embellished over the years, but the basic line is that his mother Phoebe Ensminger Burn, known as Miss Febb, had sent him a note urging him to vote in favor of the amendment.  And, he did!

            Tennessee became the 10^th state to ratify the Equal Rights Amendment in 1972, but as many of us know, the ERA failed by 5 states – it still needs 5 more states to ratify it.  Tennessee later rescinded its ratification in 1974, but the legal status of that action is not clear.  The ERA seems dead in the water because no state has ratified it since 1973.  The text of the ERA is pretty simple:  “Equality of rights under the law shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of sex.” 

            Why not revive that campaign again?  It may seem hopeless in this political climate, but think of Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony and Ida Wells, all of whom worked on this amendment in a political and cultural climate much harsher than the present one.  I’m going to begin thinking about this in Georgia and in Congress, and I hope that you will let your imagination take you to a place where you can begin this work again.  I know that Senator Tammy Duckworth has introduced bills in Congress on this, so there are folk working on and thinking about it – let us each find our place in this crucial work.

            I have many inspirations on this, including my partner Caroline Leach (born in Tennessee), daughter Susan (born in Tennessee), son David, mother Mary Stroupe, daughter-in-law Erin, granddaughters Emma and Zoe and many other friends and colleagues.  I will visit some of them in my weekly blogs in this Women’s History Month.  I want to visit one more person in today’s blog.   I met her in 1974 in Tennessee, and her name was Sophie Leach.  She was Caroline’s paternal grandmother, and at that time, she lived in McKenzie in west Tennessee.  She told me that she remembered coming east (not west) from Oklahoma as a girl in a covered wagon to west Tennessee.  She also told me that she did not work for the 19^th Amendment because she did not think that women should have the right to vote, but once they got the vote, she saw it as her duty to vote in every election.  And, vote she did, in every election until the cancer that took her life in 1978 made her too feeble to vote.  She was what was called a “yellow-dog Democrat,” meaning that she would vote for the Democrat in Tennessee, no matter who he or she was.  Since race has recaptured Tennessee and the rest of the South, we would now call them “red-herring Republicans,” who would vote for a person like Donald Trump for president, especially with Hilary Clinton as the opponent.  I’d like to think that Sophie would have marked Hillary’s name on her ballot.  

            One more story about Sophie Leach to emphasize her engagement and her timeliness.  Caroline and I got married in May, 1974, and during that summer we took a tour of family members and friends to introduce ourselves.  On a hot summer August afternoon in McKenzie, we gathered at Sophie’s house in order for her friends to congratulate Caroline and to meet me (to see if congratulations were really in order!)  Just after 3 PM, Sophie (age 92) announced to her friends that the party was over and that it was time now to turn on the TV to see if President Nixon would resign or be impeached – either way, she was hoping that he would go!  Her friends could stay and watch, but now the conversation would turn to the nation’s situation rather than her granddaughter’s.  As we move into the Trump presidency, I don’t know if we will get to a similar point, but his presidency makes me tremble.  All the more reason to remember witnesses like Sophie Leach and Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B Anthony and Ida Wells and so many others.  We’ll need to move into their modes in these days.  Let us all find our places in this cloud of witnesses.