Page:History of Woman Suffrage Volume 6.djvu/615

TENNESSEE 599 securing woman suffrage planks in both Democratic and Repub- lican national platforms, each association was asked to secure endorsement from its political State conventions. Early in January, 1916, Mrs. Dudley and Mrs. Kenny went before the executive committees of both parties, asking for a plank in the platforms and also that delegates be instructed to vote for a suffrage plank in the national platform this year. In May Mrs. Dudley spoke before the platform committees and the conven- tions of both endorsed woman suffrage. Former Governor Ben Hooper, Mr. and Mrs. James S. Beasley, the Hon. H. Clay Evans and Harry Anderson were of much assistance with the Republicans and Governor Tom C. Rye and U. S. Senator Ken- neth D. McKellar secured the resolution from the Democrats. Tennessee sent seven women to the Republican national con- vention in Chicago, who marched in the famous parade through wind and rain to the convention hall, Mrs. Dudley carrying the State suffrage banner. Eleven women went to the Democratic national convention in St. Louis, where they stood bravely in the "golden lane" through which the delegates marched to the con; vention. Mrs. Dudley was chosen to address the Tennessee delegation and it was a proud moment for the women of the State when they voted solidly for the suffrage plank. In Octo- ber farewell banquets to congressmen on the eve of their depar- ture for Washington, to influence their votes for the Federal Suffrage Amendment, were given in Knoxville, Nashville and Memphis. The State Federation of Women's Clubs endorsed woman suffrage this year by a large majority, under the leader- ship of Mrs. George Fort Milton of Chattanooga and Mrs. D. T. Kimbrough of Nashville. Other endorsements were those of the Southern Federation of Labor (unanimous), obtained through the efforts of Mrs. Walter Jackson of Murfreesboro; the Tennes- see Women's Press and Authors' Club, through Miss Libbic Morrow ; the State conventions of the Beemen, the Nurserymen and the Horticulturists, at the request of Mrs. Kimbrough. Mrs. Dudley soon came to be known nationally. She spoke on the Federal Amendment at the luncheon of four hundred n to the incoming members at the Congress Hotel in Wash- ton; addressed congressional committee hearings, and in De-