Bolivar-Born Suffragette

Posted Date: 08/18/2019

99 years ago today on August 18, 1920, the 19th Amendment to the Constitution, guaranteeing all American women’s right to vote, was ratified as Tennessee became the 36th state to approve it. Elizabeth Avery Meriwether, who was born in Bolivar in 1824, was an author and a prominent activist in the women’s suffrage movement. She travelled with Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton. In post-war Memphis, she became involved with the Women's Christian Temperance Union who shared the cause. Despite it being illegal, she both registered and voted in the 1872 presidential election. She presented suffrage petitions at both the Democratic and Republican national conventions in 1880, though they were unsuccessful. (Info and photos from Wikipedia.)