Maybe you didn’t hear that today is the 90th anniversary of the Nineteenth Amendment! And did you also know that Georgia didn’t ratify the amendment until 1970?? Georgia was actually the first state to reject the 19th amendment! Yes, we have always been trailblazers here. However, the amendment still became effective in 1920 when Tennessee was the 36th state (only the third Southern state) to ratify, so Georgia women were still able to vote prior to 1970. Still, Georgia law required that a voter be registered six months prior to an election, so women here couldn’t actually vote until the 1922 election. It’s so complicated for my feeble female mind!
The good news, sort of, for Atlanta ladies was that in 1919 they were allowed to vote in municipal primary elections. And what a glorious day it was for upstanding suffragists on that May day in 1919 when they took to the courthouse to register for the very first time.
The Atlanta Constitution, May 27, 1919
Yes, the subtitle here is “Basket of Roses and Daises Brought to the Tax Collector’s Office by One Woman to Give ‘That Feminine Touch’.”
Little did they know that only a little over eight whole decades later City Hall would be permanently touched by feminine roses and eight years of a pleasant tearoom atmosphere.
There were also some cultural changes that would need adjusting to – primarily, that a real lady doesn’t divulge her age, even if the registration form asks for it.
But don’t think the day was all bouquets, suffrage hats, and ageless women gabbing in the municipal halls. There was still some REAL DRAMA.
There’s LOTS more about woman suffrage in the Georgia Encyclopedia, of course.
According to the entry, in 1913 the Atlanta Constitution started a woman suffrage department! Just to show you how attitudes can change, in 1899 the very same paper ran a hilarious, modern little article by Wallace Putnam Reed called “Progressive Women Marching Onward” that included lines like, “How we laughed when we first heard of a woman lawyer,” and, “We might as well throw the doors wide open and like France allow women to wear trousers in consideration of a small annual tax.”
Previously: So much pulchritude in this Gate City
Tags: 19th amendment, woman suffrage
William: “These are certainly some pulchritudinous suffragettes in this Constitution rotogravure. Say, Samuel, isn’t that one your wife? Ha ha!”
Samuel: “Oh, why don’t you start to h—, William.”