Bristol: Step Out and Celebrate the Vote

Bristol Rings in the Women’s Suffrage Centennial and Celebrates the Vote

August 21, 2020 (Bristol TN/VA) — On August 26^th, 2020, the U.S. will be celebrating the 100th anniversary of women’s right to vote and the courageous suffragists who secured access to the ballot for millions of American women.

Bristol will join in the anniversary of the 19^th Amendment ratification by encouraging the Bristol community to Step Out and Celebrate the Vote on this historic day. Members of the public are invited to wear white, ring their “justice bell” at noon, and walk downtown Bristol commemorating the centennial anniversary.

Activities will be held at the Bristol Train Station from 10:30 am – 3:00 pm on August 26th. Activities will include information tables from YWCA Northeast Tennessee and Southwest Virginia and Bristol Historical Association, photo opportunities (#bristolcelebratesthevote), suffragists in costume, voter registration, as well as the 19^th Amendment: Women Vote Forever 55₵ commemorative postage stamps available for sale. Masks or face coverings are requested, and social distancing will be practiced. Updates to the event can be found by visiting the YWCA Northeast Tennessee and Southwest Virginia and Believe in Bristol Facebook pages.

The Birthplace of Country Music Museum is marking the centennial of the 19th Amendment in the United States with two poster exhibits –  Votes for Women: A Portrait of Persistence (Smithsonian Institution Traveling Exhibition Service) and To Make Our Voices Heard: Tennessee Women’s Fight for the Vote (Tennessee State Museum) – on display from August 25. Votes for Women explores the complexity of the women’s suffrage movement, including the stories of inclusion in and exclusion from the franchise and of our civic development as a nation. To Make Our Voices Heard also celebrates this story, focusing especially on Tennessee’s dramatic vote to ratify the 19th Amendment in 1920 and the years that followed. Both exhibits are a wonderful way to learn about and celebrate this historic milestone in our nation’s history, and they come with a variety of digital learning resources for families, teachers and students, and interested visitors.

Calling all local and amateur historians! The Birthplace of Country Music Museum is also hoping to create a small display about women’s suffrage in our region. Do you have any photographs, articles, ephemera, etc. related to women’s right to the vote or their exercise of that right – past or present – in Southwest Virginia and Northeast Tennessee? If so, please get in touch with Head Curator Rene Rodgers at rrodgers@birthplaceofcountrymusic.org.

Several downtown business windows will be decorated with posters honoring suffragists from the movement along with a Liberty and Justice Ride down State Street at noon.  “We had plans to honor the anniversary at the July 4^th parade downtown and while that will still happen in 2021, we really wanted to move forward and to be able to do something to safely celebrate this year,” Maggie Elliott with Believe in Bristol.

“We have even more to celebrate in our region as Tennessee played a pivotal role in the passage of the 19^th Amendment as the 36^th state to cast a “yea” vote passing the amendment.  It was still a long struggle for many women especially for women of color and poor women. We are grateful to those who created the path to voting rights for all!” Kathy Waugh with YWCA NETN and SWVA.

This year marks the 100th anniversary of the passage of the 19th Amendment, guaranteeing and protecting women’s constitutional right to vote. For several decades suffragist leaders began their organized fight for women’s equality in 1848 as they lobbied, marched, picketed, and protested for the right to the ballot until the amendment was proposed in 1878. The U.S. House of Representatives finally approved the Susan B. Anthony Amendment, which guaranteed women the right to vote, on May 21, 1919. Two weeks later, the U.S. Senate followed by voting in favor, and the 19th Amendment went to the states, where it had to be ratified by 3/4ths of the-then-48 states to be added to the Constitution. Tennessee became the last state needed to ratify the 19th Amendment on August 18, 1920. The amendment was adopted on August 26, 1920 in the form of a proclamation declaring the 19th Amendment ratified and part of the US Constitution, forever protecting American women’s right to vote.

Today, more than 68 million women vote in elections because of the courageous suffragists who never gave up the fight for equality.

Special thank you to volunteers and staff from YWCA NETN and SWVA, Believe in Bristol, Bristol Historical Association, Birthplace of Country Music Museum, and The Bristol Train Station who helped to make these events happen.

For more information visit:  www.ywcatnva.org/women-suffrage and www.believeinbristol.org/events