During the last two decades of the 19th century and the first two decades of the 20th, dedicated Tennessee women campaigned relentlessly for woman suffrage, carrying the message of "Votes for Woman" across the state and paving the way for victory in Nashville on August 18, 1920. The earliest suffragist in Tennessee was Elizabeth Avery Meriwether of Memphis, and her sister-in-law Lide Smith Meriwether founded the state's first woman suffrage organization in Memphis in 1889. After years of strategizing, organizing, and overcoming defeats, Tennessee's all-male, all-White legislature met in special session for three weeks and ratified the so-called Susan B. Anthony Amendment by a single vote, effectively enfranchising one-half the adult population of the United States. Tennessee was then proclaimed "The Perfect 36" because it became the pivotal 36th state needed to complete ratification by three-quarters of the 48 states, bringing to a climax seventy-two years of ceaseless campaigning by three generations of American women activists. A united Shelby County delegation introduced the 19th Amendment into the legislature, declaring that the right of citizens to vote could not be denied or abridged by the United States or any state on account of sex. State Representative Joe Hanover became the House floor leader for ratification, joined by Shelby County Representatives Ernest Bell, George A. Canale, Carl Larson, C.E. McCalman, John Morgan, and T.K. Riddick, as well as State Senators Lambert E. Gwinn and Frank J. Rice in voting for ratification. The victory was seen as a triumph of democracy and made it possible for generations of women who followed to succeed in their endeavors, embodying the suffragists' goal of citizens participating in their government.
