Woman's Suffrage

The eyes of the nation were focused on Nashville in the scorching, hot summer of 1920 as the constitutional amendment to grant women the right to vote hung in the balance. Would the state cast the decisive vote to ratify the Nineteenth Amendment? With a 3/4th state ratification required—it all came down to Tennessee. It was a war of words. It was also a war of roses. Walking along the city streets that August, men and women wore roses to signal their support or opposition: Yellow for those who wanted to ratify the federal amendment; and red, for those who disapproved. For the suffragists, voting was a righteous cause about justice, the protection of family, and civic duty. For opponents, known as “the Anti’s,” it was about the need to preserve a Southern way of life, which was based in large part on strict racial segregation. This fight became known as Tennessee’s “War of the Roses.”

During this tour, you will walk in the footsteps of the women and men who made history and see the crucial sites associated with the story of woman’s suffrage. Along the way, you will hear more about Tennessee’s “War of the Roses” and meet some of the women who made this improbable victory possible a century ago. It was a summer that would forever change the lives of women in Tennessee and across the United States.

I’m Carole Bucy. I serve as the Davidson County Historian and am a professor of history at Volunteer State Community College. I will be your guide on this tour as we walk back through the steps of those courageous men and women who fought for women to have the right to vote. Let the journey begin. To begin the Woman’s Suffrage Tour, walk west on Broadway, away from the Cumberland River until you reach Union Station just past the Frist Art Museum on Tenth Avenue South.