So it’s 2019. And our summer politics have been defined by a team of women demanding equal payment for their work, and a serial womanizer in the White House criticizing four Congresswomen for being unpatriotic. It’s amazing – sarcasm! – how far we’ve come in only 99 years…

Back in 1920, a 22-year-old first-term member of the Tennessee legislature was put right into the cross hairs of history. His name was Harry Burn, and he was an opponent of the idea that women should have the right to vote. When the 19th Amendment was proposed that year by Congress, it required approval by 36 of the then-48 states. During their regular sessions, 35 states did indeed approve it. And 4 more were scheduled to vote on it over the summer.

3 of those states balked, and tabled their vote until the Fall. But Tennessee went ahead with their vote on August 18. Young Harry Burn arrived in the chamber wearing a red rose in his lapel, signifying his opposition to the Amendment. (Proponents of the Amendment wore yellow roses.) Looking around the room, it was easy to see the legislature was pretty evenly split between red and yellow. Indeed, when the votes were counted, it was deadlocked, 48/48. The only vote left to be counted, the one that would break the deadlock, was that of Harry Burn. 

He stood up. He reached into his pocket. He pulled out a letter he had received from his mother, which read, “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 (vote for) ratification. Your mother.” Harry Burn clutched his letter, raised his head, and voted “aye” so quickly and unexpectedly that folks had to clarify what he just said. Which was this: Harry Burn just gave the Tennessee proponents their 49/48 victory, gave the Amendment its 36-state approval requirement, and gave all women in the United States the right to vote.

The next day, he addressed the legislature and explained “a good boy always does what his mother asks him to do.”  

Good boy.