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Tennessee continues to commemorate women’s suffrage with this sixth suffrage memorial, honoring women and men from Memphis and Shelby County who fought for American women’s right to vote. The state has a special place in the journey of women’s suffrage as the 36th and last state to ratify the 19th Amendment giving American women the legal right to vote on August 18th, 1920. Memphis Suffrage Monument features six busts and a 70-foot-long series of 9-foot-tall wall panels representing women marching. Twelve etched glass panels present portraits and biographies of 12 women who played a significant role in the women’s suffrage movement and others whose careers were influenced by the suffragists’ victory. The famous Tennessee sculptor Alan LeQuire created the six busts for the memorial, the fifth suffrage memorial in the state he had created. The memorial stands behind the University of Memphis Law School overlooking the Mississippi River. It was dedicated on March 27th, 2022, after five years of work led by the Memphis Suffrage Monument Committee Chair, Paula F. Casey (also the co-founder of TN Woman Suffrage Heritage Trail). The busts depict: Ida B. Wells (1862-1931) was a journalist, anti-lynching campaigner, civil rights leader, and suffragist. She started her activism work and Journalism career in Memphis. On July 2021, a standing statue of her was unveiled in the Ida B Wells Plaza in Memphis. Mary Church Terrell (1863-1954): was born and raised in Memphis and became a prominent suffrage leader and an advocate for racial and gender equality. Marion Griffin (1879-1957) was the first woman licensed to practice law in Tennessee (1907) and worked for years as a lawyer in Memphis. She was the first woman elected to the Tennessee General Assembly (1923). Joseph Hanover (1888-1984) was a Memphis attorney, civic leader, suffragist, and humanitarian. He served as the Tennessee House of Representatives floor leader between 1919 and 1921 and worked tirelessly with the suffrage group for the ratification of the 19th Amendment. Charl Ormond Williams (1885-1969) was a nationally known educator and a prominent equal educator advocate. She led the state ratification efforts and stood by Gov. Roberts when he signed ratification papers on August 24th, 1920. Lois DeBerry (1945-2013) served in the Tennessee General Assembly from 1972 till she died in 2013, the longest-serving member of the house. She was the first female Speaker Pro Tempore in the Tennessee legislature and the second African-American woman who got elected to the house. The six women who are honored with etched portraits and bios in Glass are: Lide Smith Meriwether (1829-1913) was a Woman’s Christian Temperance Union activist, the co-founder and president of the Memphis Equal Rights Association, and the organizer of women suffrage clubs in Tennessee. Lulu Colyar Reese (1858-1926) was a socially prominent community leader, a suffragist, and a Memphis politician who advocated for better education, free textbooks, and child labor laws. She was among the first two women elected to the Memphis City Board of Education. Alma H. Law (1875-1947) was the first woman to serve on Shelby County Quarterly Court in 1929, serving until her death in 1947. Maxine Atkins Smith (1929-2013) was a civil rights legend known as the “Mother of the Civil Rights Movement in Memphis.” She was NAACP Executive Director (1962-1995), leading and organizing activities for desegregation. She also registered large numbers of women to vote. Minerva J. Johnican (1938-2013) was the first black female elected to Shelby County Quarterly Court and later to the Memphis City Council. She ran for city mayor and to congress and worked tirelessly to cross racial lines. Frances Grant Loring (1923-2009) was the sixth generation in Memphis. She became a lawyer, community leader, women’s and civil rights activist, and the Association for Women Attorneys’ co-founder. Dorothy “Happy” Snowden Jones (1937-2017) was a leader for equality and social justice for over 50 years and a philanthropist. The first donor to this Memphis Suffrage Monument and was the primary financial supporter of the state-published memorial The Perfect 36: Tennessee delivers Woman Suffrage. Below is the list of suffrage memorials in Tennessee: Tennessee Woman Suffrage Memorial in Knoxville Tennessee Woman Suffrage Monument in Nashville Tennessee Triumph Women’s Suffrage Monument in Clarksville Sue Shelton White Statue in Jackson Burn Memorial in Knoxville Read more...

A statue of the legendary country music singer and songwriter Loretta Lynn stands on Ryman’s Icon Walk alongside the country music icons Bill Monroe and Little Jimmy Dickens at the entrance to the Ryman Auditorium. It was dedicated in her honor on October 20th, 2020, celebrating the 60th anniversary of her first performance at the Grand Ole Opry. The artist Ben Watts designed and sculpted it, depicting Lynn wearing a big smile, fringe Western garb, and boots, her guitar leans by her side. Lynn wasn’t able to attend the ceremony but sent a statement “I will never forget the morning Dolittle, and I pulled in and parked in front of the Ryman Auditorium…For many years I’ve stood on the stage of the Ryman and there’s no place like it.” Loretta Lynn (1932-2022) was born and raised in a small log cabin with seven siblings in a coal mining town in rural Kentucky. Singing and music have been part of her life since she was little. At 15, Loretta married Oliver “Doolittle” Lynn (“Doo”), and they moved to Custer, Washington. While she was occupied with the housework and raising their six children, she found comfort in music. Doo encouraged her to pursue her musical talent and bought her a guitar in 1953. She taught herself to play, wrote songs, and started performing in nightclubs in the area. In the late 1950s, she got discovered by Zero Records Executives, recorded her first album, and released it in 1960. While touring the country, she came to Nashville to perform at the Grand Ole Opry, and it became her second home. 1960 was the beginning of a 6-decades professional music career. Lynn wrote 160 songs, released 60 albums, toured and performed all over the world, and won many awards, including ten No. 1 albums and sixteen No. 1 singles on the country charts, three Grammy Awards, seven American Music Awards, eight Broadcast Music Incorporated awards, thirteen Academy of Country Music, eight Country Music Association, twenty-six fan-voted Music City News awards, and the Presidential Medal of Freedom (2013). Read more...

On July 16, 2021, her 159th birthday and 129 years after leaving Memphis, TN, fearing for her life, Ida B Wells is finally back and getting the recognition she deserves with a statue in her honor. Ida B. Wells (1862-1931) was an investigative journalist, civil rights leader, and activist who fought against racial discrimination, segregation, lynching and advocated for equal rights. Wells was born to an enslaved parents in Mississippi, who were freed by the Emancipation Proclamation. Both her parents and young brother died when she was 16 years old. To support her family, she became a teacher and co-owned and wrote for the Memphis Free Speech and Headlight newspaper in Memphis, Tennessee. She traveled all over the US and reported in several newspapers about racial discrimination, lynching, and other crimes that happened to black people. Revealing the truth put her life in danger, and after her newspaper got burnt, she relocated to Chicago. There, she got married, raised her six kids, and continued her journalism, activism, anti-lynching campaign, and suffrage work. The bronze statue stands in the new Ida B Wells Plaza on Beale and Fourth streets, adjacent to the original office of Wells’ The Free Speech and Headlight newspaper. Created by Andrea and Larry Lugar of Lugar Bronze Foundry in Eads and was funded by the public. It is the only statue of Wells in the US, depicts her standing, wearing a dress, she looks forward, determined, her left arm is holding her speech. Near the statue, there are three pavilions with her roles in Memphis inscribed on their top: educator, journalist – activism, suffragist, and entrepreneur. Among the speakers and her descendants who attended the dedication ceremony was her great-granddaughter, Michelle Duster, who is also the President of the Ida B. Wells Foundation of Chicago who led the efforts to honor Wells with a street and a monument in Chicago. She also wrote her biography: Ida B. the Queen: The Extraordinary Life and Legacy of Ida B. Wells. Read more...

On August 18th, 1920, Tennessee was the 36th state to ratify the 19th amendment and was the last one needed to make it into law. To celebrate this event and to honor the women’s fight for the vote, and specifically Clarksville women, the Tennessee Triumph Steering Committee raised more than $100,000 from private donations to erect this statue. “Tennessee Triumph,” AKA Tennie, was dedicated on August 15th, 2020, in Clarksville public square near City Hall in a march and unveiling celebration. The 7-foot-tall bronze statue is depicting a woman at the moment she is voting. On her right hand, she is about to put her ballot into the ballot box, while, on her left hand, she is holding a scroll which says – “WOMEN! USE YOUR VOTE.” A smaller model of “Tennessee Triumph” is on display at the Clarksville Customs House Museum. The sculptor Roy Butler used 1920 Clarksville artifacts from the Customs House Museum in his design. The statue is one of the stops on the Tennessee Woman Suffrage Heritage Trail. Read more...

A magnificent bronze statue created by the Nashville artist Alan LeQuire in 2003. It is the largest bronze figure group in the US featuring 40-feet-tall nine figures who are celebrating in a circle the joy and happiness of music. The statue is located in a wide roundabout at the entrance to Music Row and is considered as one of the symbols of Nashville. On May 31st, 2019, it was renamed to Boudleaux and Felice Bryant Fountains of Musica, honoring Felice and Boudleaux Bryant, the first professional songwriters of Nashville, representing all the songwriters who made Nashville a musical Mecca. Felice Bryant was born as Matilda Scaduto to an Italian family in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. She had a passion for writing poetry from a young age. When she was 19 years old, she met her soul mate, Boudleaux, a violin player, who arrived to perform in the hotel Felice worked as an elevator operator. They became a couple in their personal and professional life, writing songs together. The beginning was hard, but they managed to build themselves with several hits till they moved to Nashville and became the city’s first professional songwriters. Over the years, the Bryants wrote more than 6,000 songs, 1,500 of which were recorded, earned 59 BMI country, pop, and R&B music awards, and raised 2 sons. The statue will be upgraded in 2020 to have water fountains around it. Read more...

A sculpture of Harry Burn and his mother, Febb, honoring their crucial roles in the ratification of the 19th amendment, granting women the right to vote. On August 18th, 1920, 24-year-old Burn, a representative in Tennessee State House, made a momentous decision as the last one to vote for the approval of the 19th amendment, making Tennessee the 36th and final state needed to sign the amendment to apply as constitutional law. Burn’s vote was not an obvious one, he was pressured to oppose women’s suffrage, but his mother, Febb, wrote him a letter in which she convinced him to vote in favor. By listening to his mother, Burns ended the 72 years fighting for a fundamental democratic right. “Dear Son: … Hurrah and vote for Suffrage and don’t keep them in doubt. I noticed Chandlers’ speech, it was very bitter. I’ve been watching to see how you stood but have not seen anything yet … Don’t forget to be a good boy and help Mrs. ‘Thomas Catt’ with her “Rats.” Is she the one that put rat in ratification, Ha! No more from mama this time. … With lots of love, Mama” The bronze statue was created by the Tennessee artist Alan LeQuire and unveiled on June 9th, 2018. It depicts Harry Burn sitting on his congressional chair, while Febb is standing a step behind him with her hand on his shoulder. The engraving on the pedestal below describes the story of this important time in history. Alan LeQuire created other important monuments commemorating Tennessee suffrage movement leaders. Among them are Tennessee Woman Suffrage Monument in Nashville, and Tennessee Woman Suffrage Memorial in Knoxville, TN.   Read more...

Standing at Jackson City Hall Plaza is a monument commemorating Sue Shelton White – a prominent figure in the Tennessee women’s rights movement, who was the editor of the feminist newspaper, a suffragist, and the president of Jackson Business and Professional Women. On February 19th, 1919, White, who was an active member of the National Woman’s Party as well as the Silent Sentinels, was arrested and thrown into jail for burning an image of President Woodrow Wilson during a demonstration against the president, who reneged on his promise to ratify the 19th amendment and giving American women the right to vote. After the 19th amendment passed, Shelton White, who was a lawyer, continued to promote women’s rights. She wrote Tennessee’s widow’s pension act and the married women’s property act, as well as helped Eleanor Roosevelt in writing of the Social Security Act. The bronze bust, made by sculptress Wanda Stanfill and dedicated on May 25th, 2017, depicts Sue Shelton White looking to the east – symbolizing the direction she had to go for a change. The engraving on the granite says, “A West Tennessee woman who changed America.” The sculpture is part of the Tennessee Woman Suffrage Heritage Trail. Read more...

Located in Centennial Park, not far from Nashville’s iconic building, the Parthenon. The monument was unveiled on August 26th, 2016, which is Women’s Equality Day, and commissioned by Tennessee Woman Suffrage Monument Inc. It features the five important suffragists in Nashville, who contributed to the battle of the ratification of the 19th amendment: Anne Dallas Dudley, who founded the Nashville Equal Suffrage League; Abby Crawford Milton, who was the last president of the Tennessee Equal Suffrage Association; Frankie Pierce, the founder of the City Federation of Colored Women’s Clubs in Nashville (there is also a park next to Tennessee State Capitol honoring her); Sue Shelton White, a feminist leader and one of the national suffrage movement leaders (there is also a monument commemorating her at Jackson City Hall); And Carrie Chapman Catt, a national suffrage leader who traveled to Nashville to guide the suffragists during the last crucial battle. The monument was created by Nashville-based sculptor Alan LeQuire who also designed the Tennessee Woman Suffrage Memorial located in Knoxville, as well as the Suffrage Bas Relief sculpture hanging in the State Capitol between the House and Senate chambers. Every year on Women’s Equality Day, an event commemorating this day is held at the Tennessee Woman Suffrage Monument. Read more...

The Tennessee Woman Suffrage Memorial is commemorating the women who campaigned for women’s right to vote in Tennessee, the last state to ratify the 19th Amendment. The life-size bronze statue, made by the sculptor Alan LeQuire, depicts three pioneers of the women’s suffrage movement in Tennessee: Elizabeth Avery Meriwether, Lizzie Crozier French, and Anne Dallas Dudley. Each of them represents one of Tennessee’s three grand divisions: East Tennessee, Middle Tennessee, and West Tennessee. The quotations of the suffrage movement campaigners are engraved on the base of the sculpture to inspire the visitors. The memorial was unveiled on August 26th, 2006, at Market Square Mall. After 11 years of effort led by the Suffrage Coalition, whose mission is “to preserve the important history of Tennessee’s role in the woman suffrage victory.” Among the coalition’s achievements are the Burn Memorial, dedicated to Harry Burn (who was the last to sign pro the 19th amendment ratification), and his mother, Febb Burn, who pushed him for signing the approval, as well as leading the efforts to declare Febb Burn Day on August 18th. Read more...