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"By One Vote" charts Tennessee's deciding vote for the 19th Amendment.
In August 1920 in Nashville, Tennessee legislators cast the deciding vote to ratify the 19th Amendment, thus giving women in the United States the right to vote. Narrated by Rosanne Cash, "By One Vote: Woman Suffrage in the South" chronicles events leading up to that turbulent, nail-biting showdown.
In August 1920 in Nashville, Tennessee legislators cast the deciding vote to ratify the 19th Amendment, thus giving women in the United States the right to vote. Narrated by Rosanne Cash, "By One Vote: Woman Suffrage in the South" chronicles events leading up to that turbulent, nail-biting showdown.
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Photos from By One Vote: Woman Suffrage in the South
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On the steps of the Tennessee State Capitol after the legislature voted to ratify the Nineteenth Amendment.
National Woman’s Party
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Forget Me Not, an African American women’s club.
Chick History
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One of the many postcards sent by the anti-suffrage movement.
Ken Florey Woman Suffrage Collection
About the Film
When Tennessee legislator Harry T. Burn followed his mother’s advice and cast his fateful vote to ratify the 19th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, he ensured the state would forever be associated with bestowing the right to vote, a fundamental civil right, on U.S. women. But the short story of this vote belies the irony of this state and region’s late and reluctant participation in the suffrage effort.
The full story of Burn’s vote and the Southern suffrage movement is one of compromises, abandoned ideals and promises broken; as well as deep racial and gender divisions in the struggle for political power. Tennessee’s suffrage journey is part of the long aftermath of the Civil War in which women were no longer satisfied to be spectators in political processes nor to be relegated to second-class citizenship.
"By One Vote: Woman Suffrage in the South" examines the tactics and attitudes of Tennessee and Southern suffragists, exploring how the shadow of the Confederacy and values of the “Lost Cause” shaped the fight for full female enfranchisement. Narrated by Rosanne Cash, NPT’s original documentary chronicles the events leading up to the turbulent, nail-biting showdown of August 1920.
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