Ninety-nine years ago today, a stalemate between two states nearly derailed the women’s suffrage movement. With just one state shy of the required 36 to ratify the 19th amendment, North Carolina and Tennessee were battling not to be the one to allow women the right to vote.

North Carolina lawmakers sat on their hands. But on Aug. 18, 1920, Tennessee voted “yes,” giving 10 million women in the U.S. the historic right to vote. The 19th amendment also emboldened women to run for office, although those elected posts were largely the domain of white women. Not until the 1960s and 1970s did women of color begin to make forays into elected life — and they are still underrepresented in all forms of government.

In collaboration with the Pauli Murray Projectstory was researched by Sophia Hutchens, an intern with the Pauli Murray Project, and Rakhia Bass, an NC Policy Watch intern. Citations are embedded as links and listed below each entry.

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Pre-1920

Minna Curtis “Barbara” Bynum Henderson, 1880-1955

Calvary Episcopal Church, Fletcher

This is the burial site of Minna Curtis “Barbara” Bynum Henderson, a leader of the women’s suffrage movement in North Carolina. She coordinated the Equal Suffrage League of North Carolina and was elected as president in 1913 and 1915. Her poems about suffrage helped motivate the women of North Carolina to participate in the women’s movement, particularly her poem “The March of Women” in 1915. She spoke before the General Assembly in February 1915 during their special session in which they considered women’s suffrage. She argued that suffrage is necessary