Tennessee women played a vital role in getting support for the 19th Amendment. Ann Dallas Dudley of Nashville, Abby Crawford Milton of Chattanooga, and Sue Shelton White of Jackson were prominent among those who fought to gain popular and legislative support for women's voting rights.
An important amendment of the constitution states that all men have the rights to vote beyond the discrimination of sex and gender. This instigated women in America to claim their right for enfranchisement. Tennessee was the last state which satisfied the condition of two third states’ majority in order to ratify the women’s suffrage clause as per the laws portrayed in the constitution.
Many women activists fought the struggle to claim their rights. One such women activist was Elizabeth Avery Meriwether. She wrote many newsletters to journals and other publication promoting the support for women suffrage. She also attempted to participate in a state election in Memphis and also rented a theater where she discoursed on why women must be given the right to vote.
She had opened an organization called women suffrage organization in Memphis, Nashville and Maryville. Her resignation was a great blow on the women suffrage movement. It was the single-handed battle of Elizabeth Avery Meriwether which guaranteed the women of America their right to cast in a ballot.
