HERO’S OF SUFFERAGE
‘Be a good boy’ and
VOTE for SUFFRAGE How one note changed history
I
By Monica Kast USA TODAY Network
n downtown Knoxville, Tennessee, at the corner of Clinch Avenue and Market Street, stands a formal-looking statue of Harry Burn and his mother, Febb Ensminger Burn. The statue doesn’t tell much at a glance. But it commemorates a simple act between family members that changed the course of American history. In 1920, Harry Burn, a young state representative from McMinn County, Tennessee, cast the deciding vote to ratify the 19th Amendment in the state. The Volunteer State became the 36th to ratify — making the 19th Amendment law and giving women the right to vote nationwide. Before the vote, the freshman representative was undecided. But when it came time for the roll call, Burn voted in favor of suffrage. What helped convince him? A handwritten letter from his mother, now a piece of history preserved in a museum just one block away from the statue.
Febb Ensminger Burn’s letter to her son Harry Burn photographed at the McClung Collection in downtown Knoxville Feb. 3, 2020.
‘Vote for Suffrage’ The seven-page letter is written in pencil on lined paper. The outer envelope is addressed in pen to Hon. H. T. Burn at the State Capitol building in Nashville, with a red 2 cent postage stamp in the top right corner. “Dear Son,” the letter starts. “I wish you were home too. We have had nothing but rain since you left.” Febb, 47 at the time the letter was written, goes on to talk about recent visitors, and ask if Harry, 24, will be home for Labor Day. The letter reminded Harry to “be a good boy.” Between updates about their neighbors and Harry’s siblings, she urged him to vote for suffrage. “Hurray and vote for Suffrage and don’t keep them in doubt,” she wrote. Febb “was just a fearless person,” said Tyler L. Boyd, her greatgreat-grandson. In 2019 Boyd published “Tennessee Statesman Harry T. Burn: Woman Suffrage, Free Elections and a Life of Service.”
27
