Anne Dallas Dudley, a state and national leader in the women's suffrage movement, was born Annie Willis Dallas to Trevanion Barlow Dallas and Ida Bonner. Her husband was Guilford Dudley, Sr.
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On November 13, 1876, Annie Willis Dallas was born in Nashville, Tennessee. Anne attended Ward's Seminary and Price's College for Young Ladies. Anne married Guilford Dudley in 1902. They had three children. Only one child survived until adulthood.
Shortly after her marriage, Anne became a supporter of alcohol prohibition and worked with the temperance movement. Her involvement in the movement convinced her that women's place in society could only be improved if allowed to vote.
In 1911, Dudley and several women met at the Tulane Hotel and founded the Nashville Equal Suffrage League. It was an organization dedicated to building local support for women's suffrage while "quietly and earnestly avoiding militant methods." Anne Dudley was selected as the organization's first president. During her presidency, the league organized giant May Day suffrage parades. In 1913, Anne said, "I have never yet met a man or woman who denied that taxation without representation is tyranny. I have never yet seen one who was such a traitor to our form of government that he did not believe that the government rests upon the consent of the governed. This is a government of, for, and by the people, and only the law denies that women are people." The 1914 National Suffrage Convention was brought to Nashville due to Dudley's work. It was one of the largest conventions ever held in Nashville.
In 1915, Anne was elected to become the head of the Tennessee Equal Suffrage Association. She helped to lobby for a suffrage amendment to the state constitution. Although initially defeated, it was passed in 1919.
Anne became the Third Vice President of the National American Woman Suffrage Association in 1917. By 1920 Dudley, Talty Kenny, and Crawford led the campaign to ratify the Nineteenth Amendment. On August 18, 1920, Tennessee became the 36th and deciding state to ratify the Nineteenth Amendment.
After ratification, Dudley became the first woman associate chairman of the Tennessee Democratic Committee. She was also the first female delegate at large to the Democratic National Convention in 1920.
For the remainder of her life, Anne focused on civic and charitable causes.
Anne Dallas Dudley died on September 13, 1955, in Tennessee.
Contributor: md rudder (49492160)
Family Members
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Trevanion Barlow Dallas
1843–1902
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Ida Bonner Dallas
1856–1915
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Guilford Dudley
1854–1945
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Trevania Dallas Pomeroy
1881–1964
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Alexander James Dallas
1882–1950
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George M. Dallas
1884–1937
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Elizabeth Dallas Ward-Smith
1885–1946
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Hugh Douglas Dallas
1872–1900
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Ida Dallas Dudley
1903–1904
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Trevania Dallas Dudley
1905–1924
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Guilford Dudley
1907–2002
Flowers
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