On this day in 1919, women got the vote in Lawrenceburg–more than a year before the passage of the Nineteenth Amendment!

Locally, the cause of women’s suffrage enjoyed support in high places. The Lawrence ‘Democrat’–which was the forerunner of today’s ‘Democrat-Union’–was a champion of many early-20th century progressive causes, and its editors consistently supported giving women the right to vote.

The women of Lawrenceburg won the right to vote in municipal elections more than a year before the passage of the Nineteenth Amendment. The first time women voted in Lawrenceburg was on May 13, 1919. Mrs. C.T. Crawford was the first woman to arrive at the polls soon after they opened that morning, followed shortly thereafter by Docia Spann. Many of “the prominent society women of the city” went to the polls as a group in the early afternoon.

Overall, the ‘Democrat’ reports that 161 women participated in that first mixed-sex municipal election in 1919. This number, according to the ‘Democrat,’ included several black women, whom it says “were allowed to [vote] the same as the [black] men.”