Martin, Tenn.–The Jackson Purchase Historical Society and the Weakley County Historical Society will co-sponsor a program on Saturday May 18 in the Genealogy Room of the Martin Public Library at 419 South Lindell Street in Martin, Tennessee beginning at 9:30 am. Please note the starting time is a change from BOTH Society’s usual practice.
The program will be presented by Dr. Renee LaFleur who will discuss her extensive research on the Women’s Suffrage Movement in Tennessee. She is associate professor of history and director of the Verna B. Coleman Center for Women and Gender Equality at the University of Tennessee-Martin. She has her PhD from Ohio University and teaches and does research on women’s history.
If you are unable to attend and what to join us via Zoom go to the URL to register and once you do that you will get an email to join.
https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZwkcOigrD0qGNJ2MnQeETbzz7yWUcmlaTH-
The issue of women’s suffrage was part of American politics for many years and was controversial. Between January 1918 and June 1919, the House and Senate voted on the federal amendment five times. Each vote was extremely close. Finally in early June the proposed Amendment passed the Senate and was sent to the states. Tennessee played an important role in the ratification of the Nineteenth Amendment, which gave women the right to vote. Dr. LaFleur’s presentation will explore this important and interesting episode in our history. “We are pleased that Dr. LaFleur is sharing her extensive research on this important topic with us today at a joint meeting with the Weakley County Historical Society. Through our meetings and our Journal, we share research about important aspects of our region’s history with the larger community. When we can do this is cooperation with a local historical society that is a bonus,” according to JPHS President Bill Mulligan.
The Weakley County Historical & Genealogical Society (WCHGS) was organized in 1978 at the Welden Library in Martin Tennessee by fourteen historical-minded citizens. These fourteen charter members have grown to almost a thousand current and past members scattered all over the United States. The Mission of the WCHGS is to bring together those people interested in the history of Weakley County for the purpose of collecting, preserving, and sharing all things relating to Weakley County. The Society started a quarterly newsletter in 1982, The Forget Me Not. Currently the Society meets at the new Martin Public Library where we house microfilm, cemetery records, genealogic family files, and many reference books. Membership is open to all who are interested in Weakley County history.
In 1958, a group of historians met in Murray, Kentucky led by faculty from Murray State University and University of Tennessee-Martin and formed the Jackson Purchase Historical Society to promote interest, study, and preservation of the regional history of the territory encompassed in the Treaty of Tuscaloosa, known as the Jackson Purchase. The society holds several meetings each year with a speaker on Jackson Purchase history and publishes an award-winning journal on regional history. Members include a wide range of people who simply share a love of history and a love of the Jackson Purchase area.
Articles are welcome for the 2024 JPHS Journal and can be sent to the editor at billmulligan@muray-ky.net The editor also welcomes inquiries about topics for articles, books for review, or offers to review a book. Copies of the Journal are available from the Jackson Purchase Historical Society, PO Box 531, Murray, KY 42071. The cost is $15.90 including postage and sales tax. Anyone interested in Jackson Purchase history is welcome to join the JPHS. Information about membership and future programs is available on the society’s website: http://jacksonpurchasehistoricalsociety.org/. Free electronic access to back issues of the Journal through 2021 is also available through the Society’s website.
Photo: W.J. Jameson, head of the National Finance Committee of the Democratic Party and suffragist Anita Pollitzer of the National Woman’s Party check the latest tally of vote pledges in favor of the 19th Amendment.
Library of Congress, Records of the National Woman’s Party Collection.