August 18, 1920 was just another work day for Harry T. Burn, who was serving his first term as a member of the General Assembly for McMinn County, Tennessee. At 22, he was the youngest member to ever have been elected to that office. And on that hot August afternoon in 1920, on which the Tennessee state legislature had called a special session, Burn was preparing to cast his vote against the ratification of the Nineteenth Amendment, which would finally, after years of suffrage, give American women the right to vote. Thirty-two of America's forty-eight states had already ratified the amendment, but in order for it to become law, a minimum of three more states had to follow suit. But it was already clear that the majority of Tennessee's General Assembly planned to vote against ratification. As a newcomer to the political game, Burn wasn't looking to make enemies, hence his stated decision to vote against the amendment. But there was a caveat.
HARRY T. BURN, CIRCA 1918
The day before the special session, Burn had received a letter from his mother, Mrs. J.L. Burn, of Niota, in which she wrote, "Dear Son: Hurrah and vote for suffrage! Don't keep them in doubt! I notice some of the speeches against. They were bitter. I have been watching to see how you stood, but have not noticed anything yet. Don't forget to be a good boy and help Mrs. Catt put the "rat" in ratification. Your mother." As the afternoon wore on, filled with heated debates and speeches, for and against ratification of the amendment, Burn sat with his mother's letter clenched in his hand. Finally, it was time to vote. The result was a 48-48 deadlock. It had come down to Burn's vote. Still holding his mother's letter, he voted....in
favor of the Nineteenth Amendment. His fellow assembly members went wild. Angry invectives were hurled in his direction. By all accounts, Burn barely made it out of the building alive. In fact, members of the anti-suffragist faction were so enraged by Burn's "turncoat" vote that he was forced to hide for a short time, afraid that he would come to bodily harm.
FEMALE SUFFRAGISTS MARCHING FOR THE CAUSE IN 1918
The next day, Burn returned to the Legislature and asked to speak to members of the House. Standing before the assembled politicians, some of them still seething with anger, he explained that he had changed his vote because his mother had asked him to do so. "My mother taught me that a good boy always does what his mother asks him to do," he said.
MRS. J.L. BURN, MOTHER OF "A GOOD BOY"
Burn went on to enjoy a long career in the Tennessee state legislature, holding positions not only in the State House of Representatives, from 1918 to 1922, but in the State Senate from 1948 to 1952; the state planning commission from 1952 to 1958; and as a delegate for Roane County to the Constitutional Conventions of 1953, 1959, 1965. He died in Niota on Feb. 19, 1977, his greatest political achievement still that of being the man whose vote helped to usher in a new age of rights for women.
Thank you, Harry and Mrs. Burn...and Happy Mother's Day.
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