Page:History of Woman Suffrage Volume 6.djvu/341

 Edward Sloan and Dr. Delia Randall. By invitation Dr. William La Prade of the First Methodist Church opened the meeting with prayer, after which he retired leaving these four women to reorganize the State Suffrage Association. Mrs. Nellie Nugent Somerville of Greenville was in touch with the conference by telegraph and Mrs. Lily Wilkinson Thompson of Jackson, physically unable to attend, received reports from the meeting at her telephone. In this historic hour the breath of a new life was blown into the expiring association and from that time it grew and thrived. The officers elected were Miss Kearney, president; Mrs. Somerville, vice-president; Mrs. Thompson, treasurer.

During the following spring Miss Kearney, lecturing in the State on sociological subjects, spoke unfailingly for suffrage and wherever possible organized clubs. Press work was taken up earnestly by the newly elected superintendent of that department, Mrs. Thompson. All of the over two hundred editors in the State were interviewed by letter in regard to their attitude towards woman suffrage and space was requested for suffrage items. Twenty-one agreed to publish them, only two openly declining. Among the friendly editors were L. Pink Smith of the Greenville Democrat, J. R. Oliphant of the Poplarville Free Press, Frank R. Birdsall of the Yazoo Sentinel, C. E. Glassco of the Cleveland Enterprise, Joseph Norwood of the Magnolia Gazette, James Faulk of the Greene County Herald.

Adverse articles were carefully answered and private letters were sent, the enemy quietly reasoned with and in most cases converted. News bulletins furnished by the national press department were used but most of the matter sent out was prepared at home in the belief that an ounce of Mississippi was worth a pound of Massachusetts. Articles published in leaflet form and distributed broadcast were written by Mrs. Somerville, Miss Kearney, Mrs. Thompson, the Rev. Thomas K. Mellen and the Rev. H. Walter Featherstun, Methodist ministers. One of the most valuable contributions was The Legal Status of Mississippi Women, by Robert Campbell, an attorney of Greenville.

In November, 1907, a conference lasting five days was held at Jackson in the home of Charles H. Thompson, a devoted suffragist, and his wife, Lily Wilkinson Thompson. Among those