A Timeline

May 1914
N
May 1914

Anne Dallas Dudley leads the first Parade for Women’s Voting in the South and is the first woman in Tennessee to make an open-air speech. She leads a march of 2,000 women from downtown Nashville to Centennial Park.

November 1914
N
November 1914

Anne Dallas Dudley brings the national convention of the National American Women’s Association to Nashville. The heated debate ends with a resolution to support the Susan B. Anthony Amendment by “every means within its power.”

1915
N
1915

Anne Dallas Dudley is elected to head the Tennessee Equal Suffrage Association and helps to introduce and lobby for a suffrage amendment to the state constitution. Over 80 local suffrage chapters are organized in the state.

May 1915
N
May 1915
The Tennessee General Assembly takes the first step in the amendment process by adopting a joint resolution favoring it. The resolution would have to pass again in 1917 and then be approved by a majority of voters before it could become law.
1916
N
1916

May Day Marches for women’s suffrage in Nashville are held annually from 1914 to 1920 from the Capitol to Centennial Park.

1916
N
1916

Woodrow Wilson promises that the Democratic Party Platform will endorse women’s suffrage.

1917
N
1917
Anne Dallas Dudley is elected vice president of the National American Women’s Association. She works closely with President Carrie Chapman Catt in planning the master strategies of the campaign that finally succeeded in 1920.
1917
N
1917
The Tennessee House of Representative passes a limited suffrage bill that would have granted women the right to vote in local elections and for U.S. president. The Senate votes it down.
1918
N
1918
The U.S. House of Representatives passes with a 2/3 vote to enfranchise women, but loses by two votes in the Senate.
1919
N
1919

For a third time, the U.S. House of Representatives votes to enfranchise women. The Senate finally passes the Nineteenth Amendment, and suffragists begin their ratification campaign.

April 5, 1919
N
April 5, 1919
Tennessee General Assembly passes a limited suffrage act to give women the right to vote in presidential and municipal elections.
April 22, 1919
N
April 22, 1919

Mary Cordelia Beasley Hudson of Camden, TN is the first woman in Tennessee to vote.

June 4, 1919
N
June 4, 1919
The 66th U.S. Congress passes the 19th amendment. It then needs ¾ of the state legislatures to ratify in order to become law.
February 14, 1920
N
February 14, 1920
The League of Women Voters formed.
August 9, 1920
N
August 9, 1920
Tennessee Governor A.H. Roberts convenes a special legislative session.
August 18, 1920
N
August 18, 1920

The Tennessee legislature becomes the 36th and final state to ratify the 19th amendment. The 19th Amendment becomes law.

Anne Dallas Dudley

Revitalized in 1948

After the passage of the 19th Amendment in 1920, the League of Women Voters in Nashville lost momentum and remained dormant until the remarkable Molly Todd arrived in the 1940s and revived the organization in 1948. Under her leadership, the LWVN mobilized support for a host of public policy issues, ranging from birth control and the formation of a family service agency to racial integration. The League published the city’s first brochure on voter education, worked to abolish the poll tax, and promoted the consolidation of city and county government services.

Re-energized by a new generation of women leaders, the organization continues to address the pressing public policy issues faced by each generation.

Current LWVN Presidents

Ophelia Doe 2024-Current

Kathryn Anderon 2025-Current

Past LWVN Presidents

2022-2024 | Lara Webb

2020-2022 | Madeline Garr 

2018-2020| Barbara Gay

2012-2018 | Debby Gould

2010-2012 | Jo Singer

2008-2010 | Lucy Chism

2007-2008 | Margie Parsley

2006-2007 | Karen Edwards & Margie Parsley

2005-2006 | Karen Edwards

2003-2005 | Deana Claiborne & Karen Edwards

2002-2003 | Luvenia Butler

2000-2002 | Marian Ott

1998-2000 | Margie Parsley

1996-1998 | Brenda Wynn

1994-1996 | Suzie Tolmie

1992-1994 | Mary Frances Lyle

1990-1992 | Peggy Maguire

1988-1990 | Carol Bucy

1986-1988 | Susan Gutow

1984-1986 | Gayle Ray

1983-1984 | Barbara Mann

1982-1983 | Juli Mosley

1979-1982 | Roz McGee

1978-1979 | Silvine Hudson

1978 | Margaret Manning

1975-1978 | Jane Entrekin

1974-1975 | Barbara Housewright

1971-1974 | Mary Wade

1970-1971 | Gale Markus

1968-1970 | Miriam Cowden

1966-1968 | Sally Levine

1966 | Geralyn Clewe

1965-1966 | Betsy Zukoski

1962-1965 | Barbara Kuhn

1958-1962 | Sebby Billig

1958 | Helen Dingley

1957-1958 | Mary Hobbs

1956-1957 | Georgia Benjamin

1954-1956 | Coletta Tesch

1952-1954 | Jean Schwartz

1950-1952 | Martha Wigginton

1948-1950 | Molly Todd