44 minute read
News
BY HOLLY KAYS S TAFF WRITER
In a nearly split vote held during a specialcalled meeting Aug. 10, the Western Carolina University Faculty Senate passed a resolution opposing a residential opening for fall 2020 and calling on the state to guarantee funding for the university system should future outbreaks force its institutions to return to online-only instruction.
The resolution ultimately passed by a narrow margin, with 15 people voting in favor and 13 opposed, with one abstention.
“Western Carolina University values the voice of its faculty and the role of shared governance,” said Chancellor Kelli R. Brown and Interim Provost Richard Starnes in a joint statement following the meeting. “The vote today during a special-called Faculty Senate meeting to discuss a resolution related to the residential opening of the fall semester reflects the complexity of the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on higher education.”
WCU, like other UNC institutions, is preparing to deliver a hybrid form of instruction aimed at maximizing online learning opportunities while still offering residential living and in-person instruction, with classes beginning Monday, Aug. 17. This year, students will not have a fall break, and in-person instruction will end on Nov. 20, with final exams held online after Thanksgiving.
REASONS FOR A RESOLUTION
“After 20 years in the academy serving as an administrator, as a staff member, as a faculty and certainly as a student, those voices are all important to what we do,” said Associate Professor in the College of Education and Allied Professions Yancey Gulley, who introduced the resolution. “I did feel that our voice was missing a bit in this conversation from this standpoint, so thank you all for taking the time to give that voice that you have to the bigger conversation of higher education to the state of North Carolina and to our own institution.”
The decision to return to in-person instruction this fall unduly prioritizes the institution’s financial concerns and personal liberties for students over the collective good, Gulley said. While WCU and the UNC system ostensibly operate under a shared governance model, he said, none of the meetings and discussions he’d been part of asked faculty members to weigh in on the basic question of whether or not it’s a good idea to reopen the campus at this time.
“It is a dangerous thing to open WCU and other institutions in the UNC system amid the current pandemic, as there is currently no vaccine and positive cases continue to appear,” he said, with the resolution adding that Jackson County’s health care systems could be easily overrun by a spike in cases originating from WCU students arriving from other areas of the state and country.
However, other Faculty Senate members were concerned about both the timing and content of the resolution.
“I commend any thoughtful attempt to
improve societal wellbeing, which I am sure is version during its next meeting Aug. 26. That grocery stores have had for months; cleaning the goal of Yancey (Gulley) and everyone else motion failed, with about three-quarters of supplies have yet to arrive in the classrooms. who is supporting this resolution,” said the body opposed. “I want this discussion raised simply to Assistant Professor of Psychology David de “I’m not sure why we need to table it, parhighlight the practical aspects of what we’re Jong. “I also take it as a given that the issue of ticularly when it is a fluid situation,” said about to do next week,” she said. “I want to residential opening is a ship that has sailed. Professor of English Laura Wright. “It’s going be in the classroom, and I think everybody Students have already moved to campus. to be changing constantly, but we have this else here does too, but we want to do so safeThey have already paid their fees. Those fees point before us now.” ly. And with months of planning behind us, are nonrefundable.” The original resolution Gulley introduced it’s unnerving that we don’t yet have those
Classes don’t start until Monday, Aug. 17, did not include the clause calling on the basic safety measures in place.” but move-in started Saturday, Aug. 1. Tuition General Assembly to guarantee funding for Leigh Odom, who is an associate profesand fees are charged at the beginning of the UNC schools, and stated that in opposing ressor of communication sciences and disorders semester, and students will not receive any idential opening, the Faculty Senate “stand(s) as well as a practicing speech pathologist, refunds due to changes in instructional forin solidarity with School Systems, Faculty reminded the body that not all classes are mat as the semester continues unless the Senates, County Health Departments and adaptable to an online format. In health care UNC System receives financial relief from the The Governor of North Carolina.” disciplines especially, hands-on clinical skills state or federal government, according to Associate Professor of World Languages are just as important as academic knowledge. information on the university website. Will Lehman introduced an amendment that “If we don’t have (clinical opportunities), there are students who will not graduate,” she said. “They cannot move forward in their programs. They are lacking in what they need for certification, licensure. There’s accreditation stuff we have to think about. That’s a big thing for us to think about in our college. Really it’s not feasible to just put everything online.” Staff Senate President Ben Pendry, who works as executive director of advancement services, told the Faculty Senate that staff are in favor of the residential opening. “In many cases we believe and what we are hearing from our constituents is that our staff are ready to get to work and they’re ready to be here,” he said. “One of the things that obviously is under consideration is the employment and Members of the Faculty Senate convene via Zoom for a special-called meeting Aug. 10. the economic impact of what a residential opening or nonopening means to those staff Should the need arise, campus officials will added the call for state funding and amended members, so that becomes part of the arithmake decisions about refunds for housing the final sentence of the resolution, taking out metic in a very real way.” and dining services consistent with UNC the reference to the governor — there is no evi“We’re dealing with a lot of unknowns,” System guidance. The “optics” of calling for a dence the governor would support the ideas added Assistant Professor of Integrated reversal of the decision to begin in-person contained in the resolution, said Lehman — Health Sciences Patrick Baron. “The health instruction this late in the game are “just ter and adjusting the remaining portion of the and safety concerns are certainly real. I think rible,” said de Jong. sentence to remove the implication that all that we need to be able to be flexible and
“This resolution conveys a sense of privischool systems, faculty senates and health adaptable, and I think we’ve come up with a lege and entitlement,” he said. “Consider the departments are opposed to face-to-face plan that is as good as it can be in the face of people that I interact with on a regular basis instruction. Gulley agreed to absorb those so much uncertainty.” who are not going to be as fortunate as many amendments into his proposed resolution. Student Government Association President of us in terms of exposure to the coronavirus Dawson Spencer, meanwhile, said he was hard— healthcare workers, the person at the grocery store who’s checking out my groceries. A MIXED RESPONSE pressed to deliver an opinion on behalf of the student body. Responses to a survey released Those people do not have a lot of flexibility.” Faculty Senate members were forthright last month were split down the middle, he said, de Jong said that the resolution could be about their concerns regarding the semester with 156 students saying they did not wish to “greatly improved” to “flesh out what our ahead, but they were also far from unified in return to campus and 159 saying they did — moral imperatives are,” focus on empirical their opposition to opening the campus. anything he would say could speak only to data and the collective wellbeing, and call for Associate Professor of History Vicki about half of the student population. transparency in decision-making surroundSzabo said she plans to vote against the reso“Most of them are eager to return to noring any criteria developed for switching back lution but thanked Gulley for bringing it formalcy at campus and want to have whatever to remote learning. He moved that it be ward. With the first day of classes just a week they can have as consistent as it was last deferred to a smaller group for discussion so away, Szabo said, university buildings lack semester, but they also are still concerned, that the entire body could vote on a revised many of the basic safety measures that most and rightfully so,” he said.
The Anthony Amendment
Women’s suffrage in NC and beyond
BY CORY VAILLANCOURT S TAFF WRITER
When the United States Constitution was adopted in 1787, left to the states was the power to determine who should be allowed to vote in elections. While several states indeed permitted some women to vote in various elections, the right of suffrage was far from universal.
Changing that would require an amendment to the Constitution — a lengthy and onerous process. After a seven-decade fight, universal suffrage for women was finally within reach when on Aug. 17, 1920, eyes across the country trained on North Carolina as the state that might make it so.
Events leading up to that August day in Raleigh a century ago are complex but can be traced back to an 1848 gathering in New York.
The Seneca Falls Convention is widely acknowledged as the first organized effort to discuss “the social, civil and religious condition and rights of woman.”
Organized by activist Elizabeth Cady Stanton, the convention resulted in the issuance of The Declaration of Sentiments. It mirrors the Declaration of Independence in structure, style and strength.
When, in the course of human events, it becomes necessary for one portion of the family of man to assume among the people of the earth a position different from that which they have hitherto occupied, but one to which the laws of nature and of nature’s God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes that impel them to such a course …
We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men and women are created equal; that they are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights; that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness; that to secure these rights governments are instituted, deriving their powers from the consent of the governed. Whenever any form of government becomes destructive of these rights, it is the right of those who suffer from it to refuse allegiance to it, and to insist upon the institution of a new government, laying its foundation on such principles, and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their safety and happiness …
Now, in view of this entire disfranchisement of one-half the people of this country, their social and religious degradation, - in view of the unjust laws above mentioned, and because women do feel themselves aggrieved, oppressed, and fraudulently deprived of their most sacred rights, we insist that they have immediate admission to all the rights and privileges which belong to them as citizens of these United States.
The movement languished during the Civil War, but in 1866 was formalized when the American Equal Rights Association was founded by Stanton, along with abolitionist Frederick Douglass and social reformers Susan B. Anthony and Lucretia Mott.
The AERA split in 1870 over the 15th Amendment, which doesn’t mention women’s suffrage but does say that “The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude.”
Stanton and Anthony were opposed to Black male suffrage, and the 15th
Amendment, and the male immigrants it would also empower. They formed the National Women’s Suffrage Association.
Another group, called the American Women’s Suffrage Association and led by suffragist Lucy Stone and poet Julia Ward Howe, supported the 15th Amendment while still pursuing universal suffrage for women.
An 1878 women’s suffrage amendment introduced by a U.S. Senator from California was “indefinitely postponed,” but not before 30,000 people had signed petitions of support.
That led to the establishment of a Senate committee in 1882, which in turn led to a floor vote on women’s suffrage in 1887.
The “Susan B. Anthony Amendment,” as it was called, was defeated 34 to 16, far below the two-thirds majority needed for passage.
Perhaps a blessing in disguise, the defeat was quickly followed in 1890 by a merger of the
Women’s Suffrage Timeline — 1840-1920
Source: National Women’s History Museum
1840 — Lucretia Mott and Elizabeth Cady
Stanton are barred from attending the World
Anti-Slavery Convention held in London, which prompts them to hold a Women’s
Convention in the U.S. 1848 — Seneca Falls, New York is the location for the first Women’s Rights Convention.
Elizabeth Cady Stanton writes “The
Declaration of Sentiments” creating the
agenda of women’s activism for decades to come. 1849 — The first state constitution in
California extends property rights to women. 1850 — Worcester, Massachusetts, is the site of the first National Women’s Rights
Convention. Frederick Douglass, Paulina
Wright Davis, Abby Kelley Foster, William
Lloyd Garrison, Lucy Stone and Sojourner
Truth are in attendance. A strong alliance is formed with the Abolitionist Movement. 1851 — At a women’s rights convention in
Akron, Ohio, Sojourner Truth, a former slave, delivers her now memorable speech, “Ain’t I a woman?” 1852 — The issue of women’s property rights is presented to the Vermont Senate by Clara
Howard Nichols. This is a major issue for the
Suffragists. “Uncle Tom’s Cabin” by Harriet
Beecher Stowe, is published and quickly becomes a bestseller. 1853 — Women delegates, Antoinette Brown and Susan B. Anthony, are not allowed to speak at The World’s Temperance Convention held in New York City. 1861-1865 — During the Civil War, efforts for the suffrage movement comes to a halt.
Women put their energies toward the war effort. 1866 — Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B.
Anthony form the American Equal Rights
Association, an organization dedicated to the goal of suffrage for all regardless of gender or race. 1868 — Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Susan B.
Anthony, and Parker Pillsbury publish the first edition of The Revolution. This periodical carries the motto “Men, their rights and
nothing more; women, their rights and nothing less!” 1868 — In Vineland, New Jersey, 172 women cast ballots in a separate box during the presidential election. 1868 — Senator S.C. Pomeroy of Kansas introduces the federal Women’s Suffrage amendment in Congress. 1868 — The Fourteenth Amendment is ratified.
“Citizens” and “voters” are defined exclusively as male. 1869 — The American Equal Rights
Association is wrecked by disagreements over the Fourteenth Amendment and the question of whether to support the proposed
Fifteenth Amendment, which would enfranchise Black American males while avoiding the question of Women’s Suffrage entirely. F
two competing suffrage organizations into a new one — the National American Women’s Suffrage Association (NAWSA), led by Stanton.
Activism continued through the turn of the century on both sides; a Dec. 11, 1894 letter to the editor of the Asheville Daily Citizen written anonymously by “A North Carolina Woman” points out that the issue of suffrage was also intertwined with that of race.
“Whilst the ripple of Women’s Suffrage is stirring the stagnant pool of prejudices in our dear old State of North Carolina I feel moved to express utterances that occur in my vicinity,” she wrote. “Some of our men are only opposed to a Women’s Suffrage on the grounds that ‘in our Southern country it would put a great power in the hands of negro women.’”
NAWSA would again see a floor vote of the Anthony Amendment in the Senate in 1914, but it was defeated soundly.
By this time universal women’s suffrage was also tied closely to auxiliary causes espoused by its supporters, including trade unionists and the temperance movement. This made the decision on suffrage much more difficult for everyone, including the antilabor south and the anti-prohibition north.
Once again war intervened, but this time, the suffrage movement continued unabated. More than a dozen states had already granted suffrage to women, North Carolina not among them.
In advance of a January 1918 House vote on the Anthony Amendment, a story in the Carolina Mountaineer-Waynesville Courier detailed Western North Carolina Democratic Congressman Zebulon Weaver’s stance on the issue.
Weaver was perhaps a man ahead of his time; born in 1872 in (of course) Weaverville, he studied law at UNC-Chapel Hill and began practicing in Asheville in 1894. After a term in both the N.C. House and Senate, he served as Western North Carolina’s congressman from 1917 to 1919, and then from 1921 to 1928, and then again from 1930 to 1943.
During the 1920s, Weaver corresponded by letter with prominent Appalachian naturalist Horace Kephart and was credited for his advocacy on behalf of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park and the Blue Ridge Parkway.
He also benefitted from the support of Dillsboro civic leader Gertrude Dills McKee who went on to become a groundbreaking politician in her own right.
Near the end of his first term, Weaver was the only North Carolina congressman to support the Anthony Amendment.
“I am going to cast my vote for suffrage. I see no reason why the women of the United States and the South should not vote,” Weaver told the Mountaineer-Courier in January, 1918. “That is, those that desire the ballot should not be denied the privilege; there are vast numbers of women who are large property holders and I feel that it is just to them that they shall decide how they are to be governed and taxed.”
The Anthony Amendment passed the House of Representatives that very month, by one vote.
On Sept. 30, 1918, with the end of World War I just weeks away, President Woodrow Wilson likewise asked the Senate to pass the Anthony Amendment. It failed the next day by two votes.
Three months later, in February 1919, it again failed, this time by one vote.
Not everyone was disappointed. On Feb. 20, 1919, the Mountaineer-Courier reprinted a letter sent by Newton, N.C., woman Kitty Ruskin to the Charlotte Observer.
“It is sickening and disgusting to me as a Southern woman. Why should I want to vote? Do we not have the best government on God’s green earth the way it is?” she wrote. “… I have only one desire, or two. … First, that from now until the gates of eternity are unlocked, the Women’s Suffrage movement
THE 19TH AMMENDMENT
will be defeated and persecuted; and secondly, that the women of the dear old southland will forever stand out nobly against this pest, this menace, and defeat it.”
Mountaineer-Courier Editor Jesse Daniel Boone, who was given to printing his poems on the front page of his paper, may have seen the writing on the wall two months later when he penned the following:
Our women long have been kept down, And were denied both place and crown; But soon a nation-wide decree Will let them vote and set them free.
Less than two months after Boone’s April 10, 1919 verse the Anthony Amendment passed the Senate by a comfortable margin, on June 4.
But that wasn’t the end of it.
There are a couple of ways to amend the Constitution but only one of them has ever been pursued. A proposed amendment can be introduced in either the House or the Senate but must eventually pass both by a two-thirds majority.
After repeated attempts over 41 years, the Susan B. Anthony Amendment had finally accomplished that feat in 1919, but a proposed amendment must thereafter be ratified by legislatures in three-fourths of the existing states, at that time numbering 48.
Less than a week after clearing the Senate, the Anthony Amendment was first ratified by Illinois, Wisconsin and Michigan, all on the same day.
Local advocacy surrounding the issue ramped up, especially in North Carolina. Esteemed Democrat and three-time presidential candidate William Jennings Bryan addressed a suffrage meeting in Raleigh, and on June 30, prominent early feminist Mary Elizabeth Pidgeon of Winchester, Virginia, traveled to Waynesville to speak.
Six more states ratified the Anthony Amendment that month, and four more followed in July.
By the end of 1919, 22 states had ratified the Anthony Amendment. Opinion pieces in Western North Carolina newspapers began to reveal more and more support for ratification.
“When the legislature meets in extraordinary session next July it will be confronted with the question of ratification of the amendment to the federal constitution granting the suffrage to the women,” reads one such editorial in the Nov. 28, 1919 issue of the Sylva-based Jackson County Journal. “Personally we can see no reason why the women citizens and taxpayers of the country should not be given the privilege of voting if they want to do so.”
In March 1920, Washington became the 35th state to ratify the Anthony Amendment — one short of the 36 required.
Legislatures went into summer recess but as some reconvened early, the Old North State was poised to vote on Aug. 17, 1920.
Front-page headlines in the Aug. 17 issue of the Hickory Daily Record proclaim “Women’s Suffrage Battle is Begun in State Senate Today,” and “Senate is Scene of Vigorous Battle.”
In the end, ratification of the Anthony Amendment in North Carolina’s legislature failed by two votes.
The very next day, the main headline in the Daily Record read, “Tennessee Has Ratified U.S. Suffrage Amendment,” noting that the Volunteer State had forever taken its rightful place in history as the state that pushed women’s suffrage over the top.
Although the Anthony Amendment became the law of the land at that time, North Carolina went on to become the second-to-last state — ahead of only Mississippi — to ratify it in 1971.
1869 — Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B.
Anthony found the National Women’s
Suffrage Association (NWSA), a more radical institution, to achieve the vote through a
Constitutional amendment as well as push for other women’s rights issues. 1869 — Lucy Stone, Henry Blackwell, Julia
Ward Howe and other more conservative activists form the American Women’s
Suffrage Association (AWSA) to work for
Women’s Suffrage through amending individual state constitutions. 1870 — The Fifteenth Amendment gave black men the right to vote. NWSA refused to work for its ratification and instead the members advocate for a Sixteenth Amendment that would dictate universal suffrage. Frederick
Douglass broke with Stanton and Anthony over the position of NWSA. 1870 — The Woman’s Journal is founded and edited by Mary Livermore, Lucy Stone, and
Henry Blackwell. 1871 — Victoria Woodhull addresses the House
Judiciary Committee, arguing women’s rights to vote under the Fourteenth Amendment.
The Anti-Suffrage Party is founded. 1872 — Susan B. Anthony casts her ballot for
Ulysses S. Grant in the presidential election and is arrested and brought to trial in
Rochester, New York. Fifteen other women are arrested for illegally voting. Sojourner
Truth appears at a polling booth in Battle
Creek, Michigan, demanding a ballot to vote; she is turned away. 1872 — Abigail Scott Duniway convinces
Oregon lawmakers to pass laws granting a married woman’s rights such as starting and operating her own business, controlling the
money she earns, and the right to protect her property if her husband leaves. 1874 — The Woman’s Christian Temperance
Union (WCTU) is founded by Annie
Wittenmyer. With Frances Willard at its head (1876), the WCTU became an important proponent in the fight for women’s suffrage. As a result, one of the strongest opponents to women’s enfranchisement was the liquor lobby, which feared women might use their vote to prohibit the sale of liquor. 1876 — Susan B. Anthony and Matilda Joslyn
Gage disrupt the official Centennial program at Independence Hall in Philadelphia, presenting a “Declaration of Rights for Women” to the Vice President. 1878 — A Women’s Suffrage Amendment is proposed in the U.S. Congress. When the 19th Amendment passes 41 years later, it is worded exactly the same as this 1878
Amendment. 1887 — The first vote on Women’s Suffrage is taken in the Senate and is defeated. 1888 — The National Council of Women in the
United States is established to promote the advancement of women in society. 1890 — NWSA and AWSA merge and the
National American Women’s Suffrage
Association is formed. Stanton is the first president. The Movement focuses efforts on securing suffrage at the state level. 1890 — Wyoming is admitted to the Union with a state constitution granting Women’s
Suffrage. 1890 — The American Federation of Labor declares support for Women’s Suffrage. 1890 — The South Dakota campaign for
Women’s Suffrage loses.
For commissioner’s wife, winding road leads to citizenship, voting rights
BY HOLLY KAYS S TAFF WRITER
With the 19th Amendment’s passage now 100 years in the rearview, most American women alive today have been eligible to vote since the age of 18, or 21 for those who came of age before 1971. Balsam resident Luisa Teran de McMahan, however, was 40 years old before she was allowed to cast an American ballot.
“We take it for granted, but not all countries have the right to vote for their leaders, and the fact that in this country we can vote for our local leaders and vote for our government and vote for our president, that’s important,” she said. “You want to choose who is going to guide you or who is going to be the leader. You want to have someone who you believe is capable of handling situations and problems.”
Originally from Venezuela, McMahan moved to the United States in July 2006 on a J1 visa, teaching second grade math and science at a bilingual school in Greenville, South Carolina. The Venezuela of McMahan’s childhood was an affluent, democratic, stable country, but by the time she left that was already beginning to change. Hugo Chavez would be elected to this third term in December of that year, and in the seven years since he’d first gained power the country had already seen a string of violent conflicts between the government and its opposition in response to Chavez’ dictatorial bent.
“I came for the ‘American Dream,’ if you want to call it that,” she said. “I came with the hope of being able to stay one way or another.”
Single at the time, she began to explore the world of online dating and ended up meeting a man named Brian McMahan, who was chairman of the commission for a rural county whose population was smaller than that of the entire city where she now lived. Luisa grew up in the city of Barquisimeto, which at the time had a population of about 1 million, and went to college in the capital city of Caracas. Greenville was by far the smallest town she’d ever called home.
But the two fell in love, and in 2008 they married. The following year, Luisa secured her green card and left Greenville for Jackson County. Marrying an American citizen had made her eligible to apply for the green card, but earning it was still a process.
“We had to prove to the U.S. government that he really loved me, and I really loved him and that the marriage was legitimate,” she said.
THE 19TH AMMENDMENT
They gathered together an enormous file of documents to prove this claim, including copies of all the emails they’d sent each other before meeting in person and the telephone bills that showed how many times they’d talked on the phone and how long the conversations were.
“It was a lot of money we had to pay in fees to change my status,” she said. “We did what we had to do.”
The green card allowed her to remain in the United States as a permanent resident. She could hold a job, travel freely and enjoy many of the same right that U.S. citizens enjoy — but she couldn’t vote. Only citizens are allowed to vote, and the McMahans had to make it through three years of marriage before Luisa could apply for citizenship. By the time that date rolled around in 2012, she wasn’t in a hurry to make the move. It was an expensive process, for one thing, and family life was busy. The McMahans had their first child, and then their second one, plus work and church and all the other responsibilities that come with being part of a community. It was really the election of President Donald Trump in 2016 — and the ensuing uncertainty as to what immigration policies his administration might enact — that spurred her to start the citizenship process.
Luisa Teran de McMahan and her children, Henry and Annie, sport ‘I voted’ stickers following
McMahan’s first trip to the polls as an American citizen. Donated photo
In February, Luisa went to Atlanta to get fingerprints and biometrics taken at the immigration office. She was given an appointment in Charlotte several months later to complete the second step, which included a citizenship exam and a test to prove that she could read and write in English. The stakes were high.
“If you don’t pass, you have to start over again,” she said. “They don’t reimburse you anything.”
But, she did pass, and on Aug. 15, 2017, she was naturalized as a citizen of the United States.
Luisa voted for the first time the following year, in 2018, a milestone that would have been a big deal for anybody. But for her it was especially important, because her husband was on the ballot. Brian is currently serving his fourth term on the Jackson County Board of Commissioners after winning re-election in 2018. One of the 8,589 votes cast to elect him was his wife’s.
“When my first time to vote came, we all went together,” she said. “We made it a family affair, and we took pictures. It was meaningful because I was voting for my husband for the first time.”
While Luisa and Brian didn’t yet know each other during his first two political campaigns in 2002 and 2006, they were married when he won his contest in 2014, and in 2010, when he lost by just 68 votes.
It was “a little awkward,” said Luisa, knowing that she could have helped narrow that gap were she eligible to vote.
“Especially in a small election like the county election, one or two or 10 votes makes a big difference,” she said. “I felt a little frustrated, but then maybe it was for the best because those first four years of (our son) Henry’s life, he was home way more than after he was elected again.”
Now, as a full citizen of the U.S., Luisa loves knowing that this country is her home, and that she will always have a voice at the ballot box.
“We believe in democracy here, and voting is a big part of it,” she said.
Women’s Suffrage Timeline continued
1890-1925 — The Progressive Era begins.
Women from all classes and backgrounds enter public life. Women’s roles expand and result in an increasing politicization of women.
Consequently the issue of Women’s Suffrage becomes part of mainstream politics. 1892 — Olympia Brown founds the Federal
Suffrage Association to campaign for women’s suffrage. 1893 — Colorado adopts Women’s Suffrage. 1894 — 600,000 signatures are presented to the New York State Constitutional Convention
in a failed effort to bring a Women’s Suffrage amendment to the voters. 1895 — Elizabeth Cady Stanton publishes The
Woman’s Bible. After its publication, NAWSA moves to distance itself from Stanton because many conservative suffragists considered her to be too radical and, thus, potentially damaging to the suffrage campaign. 1896 — Mary Church Terrell, Ida B. Wells
Barnett, and Frances E.W. Harper among others found the National Association of
Colored Women’s Clubs. 1896 — Utah joins the Union with full suffrage for women. 1896 — Idaho adopts Women’s Suffrage. 1903 — Mary Dreier, Rheta Childe Dorr,
Leonora O’Reilly, and others form the
Women’s Trade Union League of New York, an
organization of middle- and working-class women dedicated to unionization for working women and to Women’s Suffrage. 1910 — Washington State adopts Women’s
Suffrage. 1910 — The Women’s Political Union organizes the first suffrage parade in New York City. 1911 — The National Association Opposed to
Women’s Suffrage (NAOWS) is organized. Led by Mrs. Arthur Dodge, its members included wealthy, influential women, some Catholic clergymen, distillers and brewers, urban political machines, Southern congressmen, and corporate capitalists. 1911 — The elaborate California suffrage campaign succeeds by a small margin. 1912 — Women’s Suffrage is supported for the first time at the national level by a major political party, Theodore Roosevelt’s Bull
Moose Party. 1912 — 20,000 suffrage supporters join a New
York City suffrage parade. 1912 — Oregon, Kansas, and Arizona adopt
Women’s Suffrage. 1913 — In 1913, suffragists organized a parade down Pennsylvania Avenue in
Washington, D.C. The parade was the first major suffrage spectacle organized by the
National American Women’s Suffrage
Association (NAWSA). 1913 — The two women then organized the
Congressional Union, later known at the
National Women’s Party (1916). They borrowed strategies from the radical Women’s
Social and Political Union (WSPU) in
England.
Lassie Kelly Before WWI, women were not allowed to serve in the military — some dressed as men to serve while others served as nurses on the the nation to serve as commander over an American Legion Post.
Those are pretty hefty credentials for a woman living today in Western North Carolina, let alone during a time when women just gained the right to vote.
“I think probably it was kind of weird for some people at first who had never been exposed to that — a woman having a law license and serving in the Navy. Maybe some thought it’s not her place, but at the same time other people probably looked up to her and took a lot of pride in her being local. She came from the mountains and did so much to help this area,” said Sydney Giaquinto, a 2019 Franklin High School graduate.
Giaquinto had the opportunity to learn more about Lassie Kelly and even portray Macon County, the Women’s even know what that meant and had to go frontlines — but as progressive social moveFranklin’s most ments moved women’s rights forward, women had more opportunities to serve influential suffragette their country. Kelly enlisted as a female Yeoman in the U.S. Navy in April 1918. BY JESSI STONE severe clerical shortage and primarily did N EWS EDITOR secretarial duties — translating, fingerprint
It’s fun to imagine what the people of ing, recruiting and drafting. Kelly served in Macon County must have thought of prominent roles in the offices of Secretary of Lassie Kelly. Born in 1881, she was the Navy Josephus Daniels, Assistant regarded as a “vivid leader” in Franklin and Secretary Franklin D. Roosevelt and Admiral an actively engaged community member William Sims. until her death in 1963. “I felt so much pride wearing that uni
Kelly served in World War I, was one of form and being saluted by veterans at the the first women in North Carolina to pass American Legion,” Giaquinto said. “I was the bar exam and practice law, the first treated like a celebrity even though I’m only women in the state to be appointed as a U.S. 5’4” and Lassie was over 6 feet tall. Everyone District Attorney and was the first woman in wanted to take a picture with her.”
the historic figure when she became involved in the Macon County Women’s Picture of Chief Yeoman Lassie Kelly (right) and Yeoman Eloise Fort in New York May 1919. They were part of a conHistory Trail project. A comtingent of 250 Yeomen (F) who were sent to New York from mittee formed out of the Folk Washington, D.C., to take part in the Victory Loan drive. U.S. Heritage Association of Naval History and Heritage Command Photograph History Trail aims to bring more attention to Kelly’s contributions did not end after the forgotten contributions of women. the war; she came back home to Macon
Kelly’s contributions are honored with a County and helped form the American plaque placed at the American Legion Post Legion and represented the Franklin post at 108 in Franklin — a post she helped organthe Legion’s national convention held in ize and where she served as commander. New Orleans in 1922. During the plaque dedication ceremony in In August 1917, Kelly was one of two 2019, Giaquinto was the guest of honor women licensed to practice law in the state dressed up as Lassie Kelly during WWI. The out of a group of 40 successful applicants. authentic Chief Yeoman uniform she donned According to a December 1918 announcewas made by Women’s History Trail memment in The Mountaineer, Kelly was ber Kathryn Sellers. appointed as an Assistant U.S. District
“When I was asked to portray Lassie, it Attorney at a salary of $2,000 a year — was fun doing the research and finding out adjusted for inflation that would be about more about her,” she said. “She served in $38,000 in 2020. World War I as a Chief Yeoman — I didn’t “She left Saturday to take up her duties “Yeomanettes” helped the Navy meet a look it up.” SEE KELLY, PAGE 11
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After Anthony: NC women still struggle for representation
BY CORY VAILLANCOURT S TAFF WRITER
It’s been almost exactly 100 years since the 19th Amendment — often called the Anthony Amendment — was ratified on Aug. 18, 1920.
Despite comprising more than 50 percent of the population of North Carolina, the women of the Old North State continue to fight for some semblance of equal representation on the state’s various governing bodies.
Voter registration statistics show they’re actually losing ground.
“Maybe the perception that ‘my vote doesn’t matter’ is still pretty strong, sadly,” said Myrna Campbell, chair of the Haywood County Democratic Party. “Maybe it’s that when they vote, they don’t see anyone that looks like them. Certainly, that could be a factor.”
To their credit, N.C.’s voters do have a history of putting women in high office. Republican Elizabeth Dole was elected to the U.S. Senate in 2003 but after one term was defeated by another woman, Democrat Kay Hagan.
N.C. is one of only 30 states to ever have a female governor, Democrat Bev Perdue from 2009 to 2013. Perdue also served as lieutenant governor from 2001 to 2009, breaking both glass ceilings in the process.
Most council of state offices have seen women elected as well, according to Dr. Michael Bitzer, a Catawba College professor and frequent contributor to preeminent NC political blog www.oldnorthstatepolitics.com.
“The attorney general and commissioner of insurance have not had women elected to those positions in the council of state, but everything else has,” said Bitzer. “On the judicial side, we’ve got our first female chief justice in Cheri Beasley. On the legislative side, I can’t recall a House speaker or president protemp of the Senate being a woman.”
Although Perdue served as president of the Senate in her role as lieutenant governor,
THE 19TH AMMENDMENT
it’s the president pro-temp — a senator from the majority party — that wields most of the power.
As of Jan. 1, 2020, there were just 43 women in the North Carolina General Assembly — 10 in the Senate, and 33 in the House. Compared to the 170 seats in both bodies, that’s good for about 25.3 percent.
Across the country, 2,145 women currently serve as state legislators, making up 29 percent of all legislators, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures. Only one state, Nevada, has a female-majority legislature.
Although that 29 percent is up from 2018’s average of 25.3 percent there’s still a long way to go until those numbers begin to approach 50-50.
In the Western North Carolina counties of Cherokee, Clay, Graham, Haywood, Jackson, Macon and Swain, only two of a possible 35 county commission seats are held by women, including Connie Orr in Graham and Gayle Woody in Jackson.
In Haywood County, there hasn’t been a female commissioner since two-term incumbent Mary Ann Enloe was defeated in 2008. Enloe, who was actually the second female Haywood commissioner, told The Smoky Mountain News back in 2018 that there are a number of reasons for the dearth of local women in politics.
“I think one thing, and I won’t put them in order, is it’s hard to put yourself out there when you realize that you’re not entitled to one minute’s privacy. You can find out and tell everything you can find out and tell about me,” she said. “And of course, the bias against women anyway — we’re at least a generation away, in my opinion, from fixing that, and I think that’s what we’re seeing nationally is
Percentage of female voters in NC11 by county
Jan. 1, 2004 Aug. 8, 2020
Avery .....................51.8% ..............50.8% Buncombe.............54.8% ..............51.2% Cherokee ...............53.6% ..............52.2% Clay.......................52.8% ..............50.7% Graham.................51.8% ..............51.0% Haywood................53.7% ..............52.2% Henderson.............54.3% ..............51.9% Jackson .................52.7% ..............50.6% Macon ...................53.8% ..............52.8% Madison ................52.4% ..............48.7% McDowell...............54.0% ..............52.0% Mitchell.................53.2% ..............50.1% Polk .......................55.9% ..............52.6% Rutherford*...........54.1% ..............51.3% Statewide..............54.8% ..............51.2% Swain....................52.8% ..............51.8% Transylvania..........52.7% ..............51.4% Yancey...................52.3% ..............50.0%
Source: NC State Board of Elections *Only half of Rutherford County lies within NC11. Numbers reported here are for the full county.
Makeup of NC county boards, 1974-2018
Total seats Females Percent
1974.............477 ..............17 .............3.6% 1976.............484 ..............27 .............5.6% 1978.............493 ..............29 .............5.9% 1980.............492 ..............30 .............6.1% 1982.............494 ..............42 .............8.5% 1984.............492 ..............45 .............9.1% 1986.............501 ..............49 .............9.8% 1988.............521 ..............58 ............11.1% 1990.............538 ..............64 ............11.9% 1992.............551 ..............74 ............13.4% 1994.............560 ..............67 ............12.0% 1996.............566 ..............75 ............13.3% 1998.............566 ..............83 ............14.7% 2000.............566 ..............82 ............14.5% 2002.............568 ..............88 ............15.5% 2004.............570 ..............82 ............14.4% 2006.............572 ..............88 ............15.4% 2008.............576 ..............96 ............16.7% 2010.............578 ..............93 ............16.1% 2012.............580 ..............93 ............16.0% 2014.............583 ..............93 ............16.0% 2016.............583 ..............91 ............15.6% 2018.............587 ..............98 ............16.7%
Source: NC Association of County Commissioners
that women have their place, and [politics] isn’t their place. That’s a generational thing, and it’s wrong. It’s as wrong as can be.”
It’s not as though women are competing en masse in Haywood County and experiencing defeat; in the five elections subsequent to Enloe’s last term, only four women have run for commission seats.
Democrat Robin Greene Black finished fourth of four in the 2016 General Election. Libertarian Windy McKinney finished sixth of six in the 2014 General. Democrat Rhonda Cole Schandevel finished fourth of seven and Republican Jeanne Sturges Holbrook finished fourth out of five in their respective 2010 party primaries, with neither placing high enough to advance to the General.
“In 2016, I went to a conference where the speaker was a consultant working with female candidates. He said several things that struck me,” Campbell said. “First of all, a lot of women don’t feel qualified to run. It’s a cultural thing. Women feel like before they do something, they need to have some knowledge about it, whereas men are willing to jump in and do ‘on-the-job training.’ Plus, according to the research he’d done, women have to be asked, or rather convinced to run. They will generally say no the first time they’re asked. That has been my experience. One of my goals when I became party chair was get women elected to county commission. I know I’ve talked to at least a dozen women. The typical female paradigm is not viewing themselves as candidate material.”
This November, Haywood County voters will have a chance to break that streak; uncontested in the March 3 Primary Election, Waynesville Democrat Leah Hampton will appear on ballots alongside fellow Democrat David Young and incumbent Republicans Kevin Ensley and Brandon Rogers. Only two of them will win.
“The vast majority of teachers, medical staff, and service industry workers are women, and those are huge employers in Haywood County, so it’s crucial that they have representation on the county commission. That’s why I’m running,” said Hampton. “I hope voters will remember me and other women in November. Governments should reflect who the people really are, and right now Haywood County isn’t hearing from half of us.”
Across the state and the region, the playing field is clearly tilted against women running for office — from any political party — but if a disturbing trend in voter registration continues, the slant could become more severe.
Over the past 16 years, the percentage of the North Carolina electorate that is female has steadily diminished, according to voter registration statistics from the North Carolina State Board of Elections.
On Jan. 1, 2004, women made up 54.8 percent of the state’s registered voters, but as of Aug. 8 of this year had dwindled to 51.2 percent.
North Carolina’s 11th Congressional District has fared little better. In each of the 17 counties that make up the 11th (actually, 16 and half of Rutherford) the percentage of women in the electorate declined, with the biggest losses coming in Mitchell, Polk, Buncombe and Madison counties.
Over that 16-year period, the decline in Madison County means that today, women make up just 48.7 percent of registered voters — lowest in the 11th.
“We’ve got to do a better job of nurturing women, and encouraging them to vote and to run,” Campbell said.
1914 — Nevada and Montana adopt Women’s
Suffrage. 1914 — The National Federation of Women’s
Clubs, which had over two million women members throughout the U.S., formally endorses the suffrage campaign. 1915 — Mabel Vernon and Sara Bard Field are involved in a transcontinental tour which gathers over a half-million signatures on petitions to Congress. 1915 — 40,000 march in a NYC suffrage parade. Many women are dressed in white and carry placards with the names of the states they represent. 1915 — Pennsylvania, New Jersey, New York, and Massachusetts continue to reject
Women’s Suffrage. 1916 — Jeannette Rankin of Montana is the first woman elected to the House of
Representatives. Woodrow Wilson states that the Democratic Party platform will support suffrage. 1917 — New York women gain suffrage.
Arkansas women are allowed to vote in primary elections. 1917 — National Woman’s Party picketers appear in front of the White House holding two banners, “Mr. President, What Will You
Do For Women’s Suffrage?” and “How Long
Must Women Wait for Liberty?” 1917 — Jeannette Rankin of Montana, the first woman elected to Congress, is formally seated in the U.S. House of Representatives. 1917 — Alice Paul, leader of the National
Woman’s Party, was put in solitary confinement in the mental ward of the prison as a way to “break” her will and to undermine her credibility with the public. 1917 — In June, arrests of the National
Woman’s party picketers begin on charges of obstructing sidewalk traffic. Subsequent picketers are sentenced to up to six months in jail. In November, the government unconditionally releases the picketers in response to public outcry and an inability to stop National
Woman’s Party picketers’ hunger strike. 1918 — Representative Rankin opens debate on a suffrage amendment in the House. The amendment passes. The amendment fails to win the required two thirds majority in the
Senate. 1918 — Michigan, South Dakota, and
Oklahoma adopt Women’s Suffrage. 1918 — President Wilson states his support for a federal Women’s Suffrage amendment.
Wilson addresses the Senate about adopting
Women’s Suffrage at the end of World War I. 1919 — The Senate finally passes the
Nineteenth Amendment and the ratification process begins. Aug. 18, 1920 — Tennessee adopts Women’s
Suffrage. Aug. 26, 1920 — Three quarters of the state legislatures ratify the Nineteenth
Amendment. American women win full voting rights.
KELLY, CONTINUED FROM 9 and her headquarters will possibly be in
Asheboro, N.C. This is the first woman we have any knowledge of being appointed to a position of this kind, which speaks well for
Miss Kelly,” the announcement read.
She also opened Kelly’s Tea Room on
Main Street in Franklin in 1929. Looking — through newspaper announcements from that time, it’s clear the tea room was well utilized in the community for meetings, speakers and other special events. She also served f as a court reporter in the western district for 45 years. As a writer and an avid reader, Giaquinto said she was also impressed with Kelly’s efforts as a teenager to get a library started in Macon County. Then in 1955, she raised $10,000 to build a new Franklin Library on
Phillips Street.
“She was very instrumental in getting the library started here and expanding reading opportunities to mountain people,” she said.
“As a writer myself, I appreciate that, knowf ing it was a huge problem that she stood up for at the time.”
As for her direct participation in the
Women’s Suffrage Movement, Kelly was a charter member and the recording secretary for the N.C. League of Women Voters.
When she passed away in 1963, the tribute to her in The Franklin Press called her
“honest and fiercely loyal; her faults were exaggerations of her virtues.”
Meanwhile, a young Giaquinto, who is
Sydney Giaquinto portraying Lassie Kelly in 2019 during a Women’s History Trail plaque dedication at American Legion Post 108.
Donated photo
now a sophomore at Western Carolina University, is excited about casting her first ballot in a presidential election this fall.
“The upcoming election will be the first presidential election I’ve been able to vote in, and I’m excited. The 19th Amendment for me, personally, it means women finally had a voice,” she said. “I was talking to my mom recently and wondering if I’d been born in the 18th century and if I’d wanted to speak before Congress or do the things I’ve already done at this point in my life, would I have been able to. Unfortunately, I wouldn’t have been able to do that.”
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