"Woman`s protest against woman suffrage"

This typed petition, stamped by the Tennessee Anti-Suffrage Association, enumerates the reasons for their opposition to women`s suffrage. Stating their resentment at having "Votes for Women" thrust upon them, they declare that the vote will draw women into the evil of politics and degrade their sex. They believe that women cannot effect any reform without the approval of men, and trust their fathers, brothers and sons to act in their best interest. They also claim that women are better protected in states without woman suffrage, and that giving women the franchise would increase taxation.

The 19th Amendment to the U. S. Constitution granted women the right to vote. When the Tennessee General Assembly passed the ratification resolution on August 18, 1920, it gave the amendment the 36th and final state necessary for ratification. Suffragists and anti-suffragists lobbied furiously to secure votes during that intense summer in Nashville. The ratification resolution passed easily in the Tennessee State Senate on August 13, but the House of Representatives was deadlocked. When young Harry T. Burn of Niota changed his vote to support ratification of the 19th Amendment, he broke a tie in the House of Representatives and made history. Josephine A. Pearson (1868-1944) was an educator from Monteagle who became president of the Tennessee State Association Opposed to Woman Suffrage and the Southern Women's League for the Rejection of the Susan B. Anthony Amendment. She worked tirelessly with various women's groups, religious and political leaders throughout Tennessee in an unsuccessful effort to prevent the passage of women's suffrage.