Calendar of Events

The Tennessee State Museum is a member of the Tennessee Woman Suffrage Centennial Collaborative (TWSCC), an organization that was organized to commemorate the passing of the Nineteenth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution granting American women the right to vote.

On Friday, March 29, from 9 a.m. to 3:30 p.m., TWSCC will present “Teaching Woman’s Suffrage,” a free educator’s workshop, at the Pink Palace Museum in Memphis. The featured speaker will be Dr. Beverly Bond, Associate Professor of History at the University of Memphis. To register, email Kira Duke at kira.duke@mtsu.edu.

On Saturday, March 30, at 1 p.m., TWSCC will present a free public symposium at the Pink Palace Museum. Guest speakers include Dr. Nicole Etcheson, Alexander M. Bracken Professor of History, Ball State University, who will present “When Women Do Military Duty: Woman Suffrage in the Civil War Era.” She will examine how the Civil War created, rather than removed, obstacles to woman suffrage.

At 2 p.m., Dr. Sarah Wilkerson-Freeman, Professor of History, Arkansas State University will present “Charl Ormand Williams: A Career in Suffrage.” Williams, a native of Arlington, Tennessee, began her political career as Superintendent of Shelby County Public Schools during the 1910s. Her expansion and improvement of black and white schools in her districts made her a national leader in the public education movement.

And at 3 p.m., Bond will present “To Prepare Her for the Duties of Life: Envisioning Black Womanhood in Post-Emancipation Memphis.” She will examine how black women negotiated boundaries of race, class, and gender in Memphis in the second half of the 19th century.

The event is free to the public and no registration is required. For more information: https://www.mtsuhistpres.org/tennessee-woman-suffrage-centennial-collaborative/