Page:History of Woman Suffrage Volume 6.djvu/143

 There was a growing sentiment in favor of it among clergymen of various denominations.

The State convention was held in Atlanta Nov. 15-20, 1915, at the same time as the harvest festival, and the first suffrage parade took place, led by Miss Eleanor Raoul on horseback. Mrs. McLendon followed in the little yellow car which once belonged to Dr. Shaw, driven by Mrs. Loring Raoul. As a protest against taxation without representation Dr. Shaw allowed it to be sold for taxes and it was bought by Miss Sallie Fannie Gleaton of Conyers, who walked behind it in the parade. The suffrage carriages were decorated with yellow, those of the W. C. T. U. with white. Mrs. William R. Woodall, president of the Atlanta association, and Miss Katherine Koch had carried on a suffrage school the first and second Wednesdays from February 24, to December 1. The motion picture suffrage play Your Girl and Mine had been put on in the Grand Opera House. The branch in Rome published an official organ called The Woman's Magazine.

In February, 1916, the State association and its three auxiliaries in Atlanta worked with the Equal Suffrage Party and the Woman Suffrage League to secure 10,000 names to a petition to the city council asking for the Municipal franchise. State Senator Helen Ring Robinson of Colorado and Mesdames Brooks, Kenney and Horine of Washington, D. C., came to their assistance. There were street speaking from automobiles at night and meetings at private residences and they secured over 9,000 names. The city council gave a hearing, the Hon. Claude Peyton making the presentation speech. The members listened apathetically and appeared much relieved when Attorney Robert M. Blackburn assured them they could not give women Municipal suffrage, as the State constitution declared only male citizens could vote. Letters were sent to the delegates to the two national conventions of the dominant political parties, asking them to put a strong suffrage plank in their platforms and Mrs. Woodall and Mrs. Laura Couzzens responded to Mrs. Catt's call for marchers at the Chicago and St. Louis conventions. Governor N. E. Harris refused to include woman suffrage in the call for the special session of the Legislature which made the State "bone dry," but