Jan Bossing
Jul 23, 2017 · 2 min read

HER HERO

Carrie Chapman Catt led the suffrage movement; Harry Burn swung TN!

Carrie Chapman Catt was chosen by Susan B. Anthony to lead the national women’s suffrage movement. Carrie Chapman Catt developed the plan to win votes for women through a constitutional amendment, and saw to every detail of the initiative — from Congress and through the legislatures of each of the states. By the summer of 1920, 35 states had voted to ratify.

In Tennessee, the votes in the state legislature were tied. A young representative from McMinn County in east Tennessee, 24-year-old Harry T. Burn, had expressed his intention to vote against ratification — until he got a letter from his mother, Phoebe Ensminger Burn.

“Dear Son: . . . . Hurrah and vote for suffrage. Don’t keep them in doubt. . . . I have been watching to see how you stood, but have not noticed anything yet.” She ended with a rousing endorsement of the great suffrage leader Carrie Chapman Catt, imploring her son to “be a good boy and help Mrs. Catt put the ‘rat’ in ratification. . . With lots of love, Mama”

Harry Burn did what his Mama suggested; he voted for ratification. He responded to attacks on his integrity and honor by inserting a personal statement into the House of Representatives Journal, explaining his decision to cast the vote because “I knew that a mother’s advice is always safest for a boy to follow and my mother wanted me to vote for ratification.”

Tennessee became the 36th state to ratify, thereby extending voting rights to women. There’s a lot more to the story, but that’s the beginning.

Thanks to the Library of Congress for including Carrie Chapman Catt in the series, Women Who Dared. I think they should include Phoebe Ensminger Burn, too! And Harry? He had to hide out in the attic of the state capitol. He was pretty daring, too!