Program

National Votes for Women Trail

Subject

People

Location

2003 Albion St, Nashville, TN 37208, USA

Lat/Long

36.16566, -86.80747

Grant Recipient

National Collaborative for Women's History Sites

Prior to the passage of the Nineteenth Amendment, Meharry Medical College graduate, Dr. Mattie E. Coleman fought for women’s right to vote as an organizer for the Tennessee Woman’s Suffrage Association, working to organize Black women in the state for the suffrage cause. In 1919, she helped to register about 2,500 Black women voters in the city of Nashville. According to her biography published in Notable Black American Women, Book II (1996), Dr. Coleman is believed to have been one of the first Black women doctors in the state of Tennessee and worked for women’s rights from within the Christian Methodist Episcopal Church.

The Nineteenth Amendment, passed by the United States Congress in June 1919, states that the right to vote cannot be denied on account of sex. Once passed by Congress, the amendment moved to the states for ratification. At the time, 36 states needed to ratify the amendment for it to become valid. The efforts of Tennessee suffragists paid off when Tennessee became the 36th state to ratify the Nineteenth Amendment on August 18, 1920, securing the right to vote for women across the United States.

The July 1, 1972 edition of the Nashville newspaper the Tennessean, reported on a memorial gathering of around 70 people at the gravesite of Dr. Coleman in Nashville’s Greenwood Cemetery. The Tennessean noted that officers, pastors, and members of the Nashville-Clarksville District of the Christian Methodist Episcopal Church attended the gathering at Dr. Coleman’s grave, including Martha C. Van Leer. Van Leer recalled how Dr. Coleman “was often found in a church with women and children assembled around her” and referred to her as “one of the greatest missionaries and church leaders in history.” Another memorial attendee recounted Dr. Coleman’s impressive career and expressed that “her great work will go on and on.”