The History of Woman Suffrage Volume IV Part 76

GEORGIA.[220]

The first woman suffrage a.s.sociation of Georgia was organized in July, 1890, by Miss H. Augusta Howard and her sister, Miss Claudia Hope Howard (Maxwell). For some time the membership was composed only of these two, their mother, Mrs. Anne Jane Lindsay Howard, and other relatives, all residents of Columbus. Mr. and Mrs. D. M. Allen of Douglasville were the first outside the Howard family to encourage and support the infant organization. In 1892 Mrs. Kate Mallette Hardwick and Mrs. Mary L. McLendon became members, and served for several years as auditor and vice-president.

The Atlanta a.s.sociation was organized in the Marietta Street M. E.

Church, March 21, 1894, by Mrs. McLendon and Mrs. Margaret Chandler; perfected in the Unitarian Church on March 28, and begun with a membership of forty men and women.

In the latter part of 1895, Miss Howard and Mrs. Maxwell, who had served continuously as president, secretary and treasurer of the State a.s.sociation, resigned their offices; and Mrs. Frances Cater Swift was elected president; Mrs. U. O. Robertson, secretary; Miss Adelaide Wilson, treasurer.

In 1896 Mrs. McLendon was made president; Mrs. S. L. Ober Allen and Mrs. Ala Holmes Cheney, vice-presidents; Dr. L. D. Morse, corresponding secretary; Mrs. Gertrude C. Thomas, recording secretary; Miss Sarah A. Gresham, treasurer.

The annual convention of the National a.s.sociation, which was held in the opera house in Atlanta the first week of February, 1895, gave a new impetus to the movement in Georgia.[221] Men and women throughout the State felt its widespreading influence. Many ancient Southern prejudices received a death-blow when those who harbored them saw what manner of women had espoused this. .h.i.therto unpopular cause.[222]

All the Atlanta papers extended a cordial greeting to the convention and devoted columns of s.p.a.ce to biographical sketches, reports of meetings, etc., but the _Sunny South_, edited by Col. Henry Clay Fairman, was the only one which editorially indorsed the suffrage movement. The business manager of the Atlanta _Const.i.tution_, William A. Hemphill, and his wife, tendered a large reception to the members of the convention.

F. H. Richardson, editor of the Atlanta _Journal_, the largest evening paper in the State, was converted to a belief in woman suffrage at this time, and is now an honorary member of the organization. As a part of his work, he has made an earnest and long-continued effort to have women placed on the school board.[223]

The Woman's Board of the Cotton States and International Exposition, soon to be held in Atlanta, were so impressed by the _personnel_ of this convention that an official invitation was extended for them to hold a Suffrage Day on Oct. 17, 1895, in the Woman's Congress a.s.sembly Hall. This was accepted by Miss Anthony on behalf of the National a.s.sociation, and under the guiding hand of Mrs. Rachel Foster Avery, its corresponding secretary, Suffrage Day was one of the very best of the many days celebrated during the Woman's Congress. The State a.s.sociation also fitted up a booth in the Liberal Arts Building and large quant.i.ties of literature were distributed by Mrs. H. M. Tripp, who kindly took charge.

The first State convention was held in Atlanta, Nov. 28, 29, 1899. The following resolution, offered in the Legislature by Representative Martin V. Calvin, was adopted: "The use of the Hall of the House of Representatives is hereby granted to Mrs. Virginia D. Young of South Carolina, Miss Frances A. Griffin of Alabama, and Mrs. Isabella Webb Parks of Georgia, on the 28th inst., for the purpose of delivering lectures on the scope of the elective franchise."[224]

The first evening session was held in the State capitol. Mrs.

McLendon, the president, called the meeting to order. The address of welcome for Georgia was made by Mrs. Thomas; for Atlanta, by its president, Mrs. Swift; Miss Gresham responded to both. Mrs. Young, Miss Griffin, Mrs. Maxwell and Mrs. Parks delivered addresses to a large and interested audience.[225]

LEGISLATIVE ACTION AND LAWS: In 1888 the Hon. Augustus Dupont applied to the Legislature for a city charter for the town of Dupont, and sought to secure suffrage to all persons, male or female, owning property in the corporation, but failed.

In 1895 the Atlanta a.s.sociation presented two bills to the Legislature--one to raise the "age of protection" for girls from 10 to 18 years; the other, drawn by Charles A. Reid, a member of the society and an able lawyer, to take the necessary measures for granting equal legal and political rights to women. Neither was reported from the committees.

In 1897 Representative Martin V. Calvin introduced a bill to make a woman eligible to serve on the staff of physicians at the State insane asylum, but it failed to pa.s.s.

In 1898 an effort was made to secure a bill providing police matrons in every city of 10,000 or more inhabitants, and one to exempt the property of women from taxation until they should be permitted to vote. Both failed.

Miss Frances A. Griffin appeared for the Georgia W. S. A. at the convention of the State Federation of Labor, held in Augusta in April, 1900, and in response to her address it called on its members to demand a change in the United States Const.i.tution which should secure the legal and political equality of women. A strong suffrage plank was added to the platform of the federation, and Miss Griffin was invited by it to address the Legislature in the interest of the Child Labor Bill, which it had championed so unsuccessfully for a number of years.

One result of the State suffrage convention held in Atlanta in 1899, was that the following pet.i.tions were ordered to be circulated and returned for presentation to the legislative committees in the fall of 1900:

1. That the University of Georgia be opened to women.

2. That women be members of the boards of education.

3. That women physicians be placed on the staff of the State insane asylum.

4. That women be made eligible to the office of president of the State Normal and Industrial College for Girls.

5. That the "age of protection" for girls be raised from 10 to 18 years.

6. That girls of eighteen be permitted to enter the textile department of the State Technological School.

Four bills were considered by the Legislature of 1900 in which the women of the State were deeply interested. All failed, and many of them now see that Legislatures, like juries, should be composed of an equal number of men and women to secure exact justice for both.

The Child Labor Bills, introduced by Representative Seaborn Wright and C. C. Houston, to prevent the employment in factories of children under ten and under twelve years of age were defeated by a vote of more than three to one.

The Textile Bill was read twice in the House but failed to secure a third reading. Lyman Hall, president of the school, was in favor of the bill.

The Age of Protection Bill, introduced by Representative C. S. Reid, was very quietly handled. Only one paper (the Atlanta _Daily News_) informed the public that it would be made the special order for November 15. It was defeated by 71 ayes, 77 noes. At the request of women Mr. Reid moved that it be reconsidered November 16, which resulted in its being voted down by a larger majority than the day before. Mr. Reid thought it well that his bill was defeated, since it only asked that the "age of protection" be raised from 10 to 12 years.

The suffragists asked that it be raised from 10 to 18, and the Woman's Christian Temperance Union from 10 to 21. Many pet.i.tions had been sent to previous Legislatures by both these organizations, but this was the first time a bill had been presented and carried to a vote.

The bill to admit women to the State University was not considered by the Legislature of 1900.[226]

The State W. C. T. U. has been laboring to secure the pa.s.sage of a law for scientific temperance instruction in the public schools since 1890, when Mrs. Mary H. Hunt of Ma.s.sachusetts, who was the first woman to speak in the capitol building, addressed the Legislature. The bill pa.s.sed both Houses in 1894, but was vetoed by Gov. William J. Northen because no provision had been made to require teachers to stand an examination on the subject.[227]

Since 1857, when the law which gave a husband the right to whip his wife was amended, there have been some favorable changes. In 1866 a law was enacted allowing a married woman to own property, but not including any wages she might earn.

In 1891, when a married woman was suing for personal injury in a railroad accident, Chief Justice Logan E. Bleckley decided that the amount of a wife's recovery for physical damages "is not to be measured by pecuniary earnings, for such earnings as a general rule belong to the husband and the right of action for this loss is in him." In 1892 Judge Thomas J. Simmons rendered practically the same decision, and in 1893 ruled again: "Inasmuch as the earnings of the wife belong to her husband, her individual and personal damages can be measured only by the consciences of an impartial jury."

In November, 1895, when William H. Flemming (now a member of Congress) was Speaker of the House of Representatives, he offered a bill which, as he said, "was to complete the good work begun with the Married Woman's Property Act of 1866, by making a wife's labor as well as her acquired property her own." It pa.s.sed the House by 98 ayes, 29 noes, but was killed in the Senate.

As the law now stands a married woman in Georgia can control her earnings only if a sole trader with her husband's consent by notice published in the papers for one month, or if living separate from him.

Dower obtains but not curtesy. If a husband die intestate, leaving a wife and issue, the wife may elect to take dower--a life interest in one-third of the real estate--or she may take a child's share of the whole estate absolutely, unless the shares exceed five in number, when she may have one-fifth.

The father is legally ent.i.tled to the custody and control of the children, and at his death may appoint a guardian to the exclusion of the mother. The husband must furnish necessities for the family suitable to their station in life.

The "age of protection" for girls still remains 10 years, with a penalty of death, or if recommended to mercy by the jury, imprisonment in the penitentiary at hard labor not less than one nor more than twenty years.

SUFFRAGE: Women have no form of suffrage.

OFFICE HOLDING: In December, 1884, Representative Martin V. Calvin introduced and carried through the Legislature, under most unfavorable pressure, a bill to render women eligible to employment in the State House. Besides the large number engaged in manual labor, a woman is now postmaster of the House of Representatives, and many others are employed as stenographers, typewriters and engrossing clerks, the Governor himself having a woman stenographer.

In 1896 Representative J. E. Mosley succeeded in having an ancient law amended, by which women were made eligible to the position of State librarian; but none has been appointed, although one is now a.s.sistant.

In the opinion of State School Commissioner G. R. Glenn, women are eligible to sit on School Boards, but none ever has done so. Within the past two years the Board of Education in Atlanta has appointed a Board of Women Visitors to the public schools, but they can exercise no authority. Lately they have been permitted to be present at the meetings of the board as listeners but they can have no voice.

In July, 1895, a committee, Mrs. F. S. Whiteside, chairman, appeared before the city council of Atlanta with a pet.i.tion asking for a police matron, signed by more than 1,000 well-known citizens. On the same day a committee of the W. C. T. U., Mrs. McLendon, chairman, presented a similar pet.i.tion from temperance people.[228] The matter was referred to the police committee, who "laid it on the table" and it never was heard from afterward.

In 1897 a woman was employed by the Ladies' Society of the First M. E.

Church South to stay at police barracks and serve as matron. In May, 1898, she was engaged by the city at a salary of $20 per month, but was dismissed without warning in June of the same year. The different organizations of women protested so vigorously that the position of police matron was created by the city council with a salary of $40 per month, but no matron has been appointed up to date.[229]

Women can not serve as notaries public.

OCCUPATIONS: Women may practice medicine, but are forbidden by statute to practice law.

EDUCATION: The Legislature of 1889 established the State Normal and Industrial College for Girls (white) at Athens, largely through the efforts of women. The Hon. W. Y. Atkinson, afterward Governor, championed the bill. No woman is eligible to serve as president of this college. A board of Women Visitors was appointed by Governor Atkinson.

Considerable effort has been made by the Georgia Federation of Woman's Clubs to have the doors of the State University opened to women. At present they are permitted to enter certain departments of the branch colleges in different parts of the State, but not to enter the University itself upon any terms, being thus deprived of the highest educational facilities.

The State Normal School and the North Georgia Agricultural College (both white), the Georgia State Industrial College (colored) and the Atlanta University (white and colored) are co-educational.