An Instrument to Help Humanity

Abstract

This chapter follows Kentucky suffragists as they waited to see if the Nineteenth Amendment would win ratification. They were optimistic, hosting “citizenship schools” throughout the summer of 1920 to prepare women to use their new rights. Both political parties were courting the new voters and white suffragists and African American women played key roles at both party conventions that summer. Tennessee's ratification of the amendment meant that women across the country would go to the polls that fall and vote on issues important to women, including the League of Nations.