Commemorating the Centennial of Woman Suffrage
Tennessee will kick off its woman suffrage centennial commemoration this weekend with the program “The Road to Suffrage: Knoxville.” On Saturday, March 17, from 9:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. at the East Tennessee History Center, Teaching with Primary Sources—MTSU
and the East Tennessee Historical Society
will join together to hold a teacher workshop on woman suffrage. Dr. Carole Bucy, who has written extensively about Tennessee’s suffrage leaders and teaches at Volunteer State Community College, will be the guest speaker. Workshop participants will learn about resources for teaching the history of suffrage to K-12 students and share classroom strategies.
On March 18, a public program focusing on the suffrage movement in Tennessee will take place at the East Tennessee History Center from 1:00 p.m. to 4:00 p.m. Dr. Marjorie Spruill, one of the nation’s leading scholars of the woman suffrage movement, will speak on “Rediscovering the Woman Suffrage Movement in America.” This is a wonderful opportunity for Tennesseans to learn from Dr. Spruill, who is especially well known for her work on woman suffrage in the American South. Dr. Bucy will then speak about the suffrage movement in Tennessee in particular, highlighting the women who worked for ratification of the Nineteenth Amendment in the Volunteer State. Finally, Knoxville lawyer and community activist Wanda Sobieski will look at Knoxville’s role in the woman suffrage movement. Sobieski played a key part in the drive to place a woman suffrage memorial on Market Square in Knoxville.
Both programs are supported by the Tennessee Woman Suffrage Centennial Collaborative.
