In 1920: Local Viewpoints on Women's Right To Vote

During 2020 the nation is celebrating the centennial of the 19^th Amendment giving women the right to vote.  Both before and after the momentous occasion of August 18, 1920 women were working as agents of change to improve their lives, the lives of those in their community and around the world. 

During the Great War local women organized the Transylvania chapter of the National League of Women’s Services.  They worked on the behalf of mothers and wives of soldiers to ensure that they received benefits due to them by writing countless letters to civilian agencies and various government and military offices to obtain information about their loved ones.  Reading through these offers a picture of life on the home front and the monumental work and effort these women undertook to help others in their community. 

This letter in the March 28, 1919 Brevard News claimed to
support women's right to vote.

Following the war many of these same women led the push for women’s right to vote.  Although there was not a formal suffrage group in Transylvania County, a June 20, 1919 article in the Brevard News stated, “A number of ladies here have taken vital interest in the question and they are now predicting that they will vote for the president in 1920.”

Both women and men expressed viewpoints on the subject of women’s right to vote when a war of opinions broke out in letters to the Brevard News.  It started when a local woman wrote in refuting reasons she had recently overheard a local man express against women’s suffrage.

A man responded in opposition using a fictitious name.  It begins, “Now I believe in suffering all that we can and all that becomes necessary for us to suffer for the good women of this county.  But I don’t believe in their being allowed to vote.  Not because they are not as well qualified as we men, but because it will lower them in our eyes to see our women going out and raking up women from the slums and bringing a dunken galoot up to the poles, and voting him while poor John or Tom rocks the cradle at home.”

His comments led to several responses in support of women’s right to vote.  Rosman druggist R.S. Morgan stated, “A good woman should vote and make the country and world better—should teach her son by example as well as precept—should aid, assist and guide him in the political work for justice, purity, truth, honor and glory…If she is suited to mould the home she is suited also to aid in moulding the nation into a higher and better life.”

This series of articles can be found in the June 20 through August 22, 1919 Brevard News available online at DigitalNC.org.

Next week Picturing the Past will continue the story of women’s first effort to vote in Transylvania County.

Photographs and information for this column are provided by the Rowell Bosse North Carolina Room, Transylvania County Library. Visit the NC Room during regular library hours (Monday-Friday) to learn more about our history and see additional photographs. For more information, comments, or suggestions contact Marcy at marcy.thompson@transylvaniacounty.org or 828-884-1820.