Page:History of Woman Suffrage Volume 6.djvu/622

 606 HISTORY OF WOMAN SUFFRAGE themselves everywhere was of the highest and best. Contrary to all predictions the negro women did not flock to the polls. They voted but in comparatively few numbers and the records show that only the better educated were interested. Their vote proved to be anything but the "bugaboo" politicians had tried to show that it would be and in some instances it was a con- tributing factor to good government. In Nashville they regis- tered about 2,500 and voted almost their full quota. They organized under the direction of the suffrage association, had their own city and ward chairmen and worked with an intelli- gence, loyalty and dignity that made new friends for their race and for woman suffrage. There was not a single adverse criti- cism of them from any ward. They kept faith with the white women even when some of their men sold out the night before election to a notorious political rounder. They proved that they were trying to keep step with the march of progress and with a little patience, trust and vision the universal tie of motherhood and sisterhood can and will overcome the prejudice against them as voters. An immense amount of work was done by Tennessee women for the Federal Suffrage Amendment. After interviewing their members of Congress and using every possible influence on them in their home districts, hundreds of letters and telegrams were sent to them in Washington whenever they were to vote on it from 1915 to 1919. Mrs. Dudley, as a member of the national board, spent months in Washington and was sent to various southern States where skilled work was necessary. There was a gradually increasing vote in favor by Tennessee members until when the last one was taken in June, 1919, only three Repre- resentatives, Moon, Hull and Garrett, voted against it. Senator Shields voted in opposition and Senator McKellar in favor. [With this chapter was sent a complete history of the woman suffrage movement in Memphis, Nashville, Knoxville, Chat- tanooga and smaller cities, which accounts for the phenomenally rapid advance in Tennessee. Unfortunately these chapters can give space only to the general work of the State associations.]