Blount Mansion Association is proud to present University of Tennessee student Keeley Wade! She will speak on Josephine Pearson and the Unexpected Failure of the Tennessee Anti-Suffrage Movement on Friday, April 11th at 5pm.

Tennessee’s ratification of the Nineteenth Amendment in the summer of 1920 came as a shock to many; suffragist Carrie Chapman Catt confided that she did not believe there was even “a ghost of a chance” that Tennessee would become the thirty-sixth and final state needed to ratify the amendment. Given this seemingly unlikely turn of events, the failure of Tennessee’s anti-suffrage movement is a topic ripe for investigation. Keeley’s presentation will focus on Josephine Pearson, the formal leader of the anti-suffrage movement in Tennessee. Pearson serves as a fascinating case study of the circumstances that created anti-suffragists, the rhetoric and strategies they employed, and their ultimate failure at stopping the ratification of the Nineteenth Amendment.

Keeley Wade is a senior at the University of Tennessee, studying Legal and Social History under the direction of Drs. Ernest Freeberg, William Mercer, and Kirsten Widner.

The special speaking event will be at Blount Mansion Visitors Center, 200 West Hill Avenue, Knoxville TN 37902.
Limited free parking onsite.
$5 Donation suggested at the door. Cash and card accepted.