Trailblazer honored on National Votes for Women Trail
“A new addition to the National Votes for Women Trail will be unveiled in a public ceremony at 3 p.m. today (Friday, Nov. 18): a historical marker honoring Joseph Hanover, the Memphis state representative who helped steer the 19th Amendment to ratification in 1920.
The amendment, which guaranteed women the right to vote, had to be ratified by 36 states to become law. On Aug. 18, 1920, Tennessee took the amendment over the finish lane when it became the 36th state to embrace it. The vote was narrow indeed: 50 of the 99 members of the Tennessee House of Representatives voted “yes.”
The historic marker credits Hanover with being the “floor leader” who led the “successful effort to enfranchise women.” The marker is at located at the Bounty on Broad restaurant at 2519 Broad, former location of the Hanover home. So far, this is the only marker approved for Memphis for the National Votes for Women Trail, a project of the National Collaborative for Women’s History Sites in partnership with the William G. Pomeroy Foundation.”