Tennessee Woman Suffrage Memorial facts for kids
Quick facts for kids Tennessee Woman Suffrage Memorial |
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Left to right: Elizabeth Avery Meriwether, Lizzie Crozier French, and Anne Dallas Dudley
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| Artist | Alan LeQuire |
| Year | 2006 |
| Type | Bronze |
| Location | Knoxville, Tennessee |
| 35°57′53″N 83°55′10″W / 35.96476°N 83.91937°W | |
The Tennessee Woman Suffrage Memorial is a special statue in Market Square in Knoxville, Tennessee. It celebrates the brave women who worked hard to get women the right to vote.
Tennessee played a super important part in this history. It was the very last state needed to approve the Nineteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution. This amendment made it legal for women across the United States to vote. The vote happened on August 18, 1920.
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What is the Memorial?
The memorial is a bronze sculpture. It was created by an artist named Alan LeQuire. A group called the Suffrage Coalition asked him to make it.
The statue was shown to the public for the first time on August 26, 2006. This day was a big celebration! People even re-enacted, or acted out, a suffrage march. Women dressed in old-fashioned clothes and carried banners, just like the women did long ago.
Who Spoke at the Unveiling?
Martha Craig Daughtrey was the main speaker when the memorial was first shown. She was a very important person in Tennessee law.
She was the first woman to be a judge on a Tennessee court of appeals. She was also the first woman to serve on the Tennessee Supreme Court.
Who Are the Women in the Statue?
The bronze statue shows three amazing women. They were leaders in the fight for women's right to vote, also called women's suffrage.
- Elizabeth Avery Meriwether was from Memphis.
- Lizzie Crozier French was from Knoxville.
- Anne Dallas Dudley was from Nashville.
Important Words on the Memorial
The bottom part of the sculpture has words about the campaign. It also includes quotes from the women who fought for voting rights.
One famous quote is from Harriot Eaton Stanton Blatch. She said:
"All honor to women, the first disenfranchised class in history who unaided by any political party, won enfranchisement by its own effort alone, and achieved the victory without the shedding of a drop of human blood."
This means that women were the first group in history who didn't have the right to vote (disenfranchised). They won this right (enfranchisement) all by themselves, without help from political parties. And they did it peacefully, without any fighting or violence.
