Event Title
"A Mother's Advice Is Always Safest:" The Woman Who Wrote the Letter That Changed American History
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Location
Zoom
Presentation Type
Presentation
Start Date
30-9-2020 2:00 PM
End Date
30-9-2020 2:50 PM
Description
When the fight for ratification moved to Tennessee, many suffragettes were ready to write off the amendment. They believed there was no hope for victory in the South. Then Febb Burn, a widowed mother in Appalachia, sent an eight-page letter to her son Representative Harry T. Burn, flipping his vote. Febb Burn's story challenged (and challenges) the idea that there is a solid, conservative, rural, white South, though there were a significant number of disenfranchised Southerners. She also reminds us that world-changing reform doesn't happen because famous people behave heroically; change occurs when thousands of ordinary people living in quiet backwaters decide to fight for the American dream. Illustrated talk followed by Q&A.
Recommended Citation
Martin, Rachel Louise, ""A Mother's Advice Is Always Safest:" The Woman Who Wrote the Letter That Changed American History" (2020). Humanities Symposium. 1.
https://repository.belmont.edu/humanities_symposium/2020/2020/1
"A Mother's Advice Is Always Safest:" The Woman Who Wrote the Letter That Changed American History
Zoom
When the fight for ratification moved to Tennessee, many suffragettes were ready to write off the amendment. They believed there was no hope for victory in the South. Then Febb Burn, a widowed mother in Appalachia, sent an eight-page letter to her son Representative Harry T. Burn, flipping his vote. Febb Burn's story challenged (and challenges) the idea that there is a solid, conservative, rural, white South, though there were a significant number of disenfranchised Southerners. She also reminds us that world-changing reform doesn't happen because famous people behave heroically; change occurs when thousands of ordinary people living in quiet backwaters decide to fight for the American dream. Illustrated talk followed by Q&A.
Comments
Featured Speaker
Introduction by Dr. Maggie Monteverde
Moderated by Dr. Maggie Monteverde