Women -- Suffrage -- History; Women -- Suffrage -- United States -- History; Women's rights -- History; Women's rights -- United States -- History
Then Mrs. McLendon decided to make a test and see if women could not
vote in the primary on September 8, as the returned soldiers who did
not reach Georgia before May were allowed to vote in all elections
without registering. She wired to Senator Fermor Barrett of Stevens
county, chairman of the sub-committee of the State Democratic
Executive Committee, asking him to call it together and see if it
could provide some way. He called it to meet in Atlanta on September
3, and he and H. H. Dean made speeches and voted to try to arrange it,
but the other five members voted against it. Mrs. McLendon then went
to the chairman of the County Democratic Executive Committee and he
refused to take any action, saying, "Our committee is only the agent
of the State committee and must obey its mandates." Then she and Mrs.
Julia H. Ellington, Mrs. Jane Adkins and Mrs. Nancy Duncan called on
the tax collector and asked to be allowed to pay their State and
county taxes and to register. They were sent to the chairman of the
Registration Committee and he also refused to enroll their names. Then
they went to the polls September 8 and were told, "No women voting
here."
Mrs. McLendon telegraphed to Bainbridge Colby, Secretary of State, who
answered: "The matter to which you refer is not within the province of
this Department and I am not in a position to give you any advice with
regard thereto." She next asked Governor Dorsey to call an extra
session of the Legislature to provide some way for the women to vote
in the general election, but he said he could not. Then she went to a
full meeting of the State Democratic Executive Committee, held
September 16, but no chance to be heard was given her. The next day
she attended a meeting of the Fulton County Commissioners, who
declared their willingness but their inability to do anything. She
then called on Attorney General R. A. Denny, who advised her to go to
the polls and make the effort, saying: "The 19th Amendment is above
the laws of any State." Women in Georgia, however, were not permitted
to vote at the Presidential election two months after they had been
enfranchised by this amendment.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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