All American women vote today thanks to Tennessee.
Tennessee was the last state of the then-48 states that could possibly ratify the 19th Amendment which granted all American women the right to vote in 1920. Editorial cartoonists called the state “The Perfect 36” since three-quarters of the states were necessary for ratification.
After Gov. A.H. Roberts signed and sent Tennessee’s ratification papers to Washington, D.C., Secretary of State Bainbridge Colby issued his proclamation on Aug. 26, which became known as “Women’s Equality Day.” Votes for women became the law of the land.
Ninety six years later, a monument to the suffragists’ victory, commissioned by Tennessee Woman Suffrage Monument Inc., was unveiled in Nashville’s Centennial Park last week. There is nothing outside the state capitol building that depicts this historic event. By having this monument in Centennial Park, which has a historic connection to the suffrage movement, it will be seen by thousands of visitors.
This privately funded $900,000 monument is sculpted by renowned Nashville artist Alan LeQuire, who created the 19th Amendment bas relief sculpture that hangs inside the Tennessee State Capitol and Athena Parthenos inside The Parthenon at Centennial Park.