atification of the Federal Amendment,
which had been submitted by Congress and was to come before the
Legislature the following January. Mrs. B. F. Saunders of Swan Lake,
retiring president of the federation, was made chairman of the
Ratification Committee; Mrs. Trotter, treasurer; Mrs. Somerville
chairman of Petition and Press Work; Mrs. McClurg chairman of Finance.
By request the National Association sent into the State its
organizers, Miss Watkins of Arkansas and Miss Peshakova of New York.
Mrs. Cunningham, president of the Texas Equal Suffrage Association and
a national worker, also came to assist. Petitions were circulated,
leaflets published and distributed, newspapers enlisted and
legislators systematically interviewed. The organization thus speedily
effected worked during the session of 1920. In April of this year the
convention of the State Federation, held in Gulfport, closed with a
"suffrage luncheon," a brilliant affair attended by 125 prominent men
and women. Speeches were made by the Hon. Barney Eaton, a lawyer of
Gulfport; Mrs. S. P. Covington, its president, and others. The State
League of Women Voters was organized at this time with Miss Blanche
Rogers chairman.

It had been the hope for years to have an endorsement of woman
suffrage from the Federation of Women's Clubs, a strong and popular
organization numbering over 3,000 of the State's leading women. During
its annual meeting in 1916 Miss Orr, president of the State Suffrage
Association, had introduced a favorable resolution and with Mrs.
Somerville, Mrs. J. W. McGrath of Canton, Mrs. William Baldwin of
Columbus and Mrs. W. S. Lott of Meridian led the fight for suffrage.
Mrs. William R. Wright of Jackson headed the opposition, which asked
for the postponement of the question until the next year and won. At
the next convention, held in Meridian in 1917, the resolution was
introduced by Miss Ann Rothenberg (now Mrs. Rosenbaum) of Meridian
and passed almost unanimously. In 1919 at the annual meeting held in
Clarksdale, during the presidency of Mrs. Saunders, a resolution
endorsing the ratification of the Federal Suffrage Amendment was
carried with but one dissenting vote, that of Mrs. Lizzie George
Henderson of Greenwood, daughter of the late U. S. Senator J. Z.
George. When the League of Women Voters was formed the next year Mrs.
Henderson was among the first to join it.

In 1919, the State Teachers' Association passed unanimously a
resolution endo