Southern History Month 2019: The Southern Progressive Era

As per Fulwar Skipworth’s suggestion, I have continued to read past the first few pages of George B. Tindall’s The Emergence of the New South: 1913-1945:

“As the national movement approached its goal, Southern legislatures gradually yielded. Arkansas in 1917 and Texas in 1918 admitted women to their primaries; Oklahoma adopted statewide woman suffrage in 1918; Tennessee granted a Presidential and municipal suffrage in 1919; Kentucky offered Presidential suffrage in 1920. However, only five Southern states contributed to the ratification of the Nineteenth Amendment: Texas, Oklahoma, Arkansas, Kentucky and Tennessee. The rest rejected it or failed to act, but the Tennessee legislature had the distinction of completing ratification in August 1920, amid a fierce struggle during which the embattled champions of masculine prerogative fled the state in a vain effort to prevent a quorum.

The South was lukewarm on women’s suffrage.

Some of the Southern states supported it while others opposed ratification of the Nineteenth Amendment. Once again, the past is more complex than the present. Few modern day progressives are even aware that the South hasn’t always been as “conservative” as it is today.

Note: I read this book many years ago. I just thought it was interesting and worth pulling off the shelf in light of the Yang phenomena.