Expert on Tennessee suffragists and 19th Amendment to speak at APSU Constitution Day on Sept. 17

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Suffragists on the Montgomery County Courthouse steps.

CLARKSVILLE, Tenn. – At 2 p.m. on Sept. 17, Dr. Carole Bucy, an expert on Tennessee’s role in passing the 19th amendment, will visit Austin Peay State University to deliver a lecture as part of the campus’ Constitution Day celebration.

Constitution Day commemorates the day – Sept. 17, 1787 – the country’s Founding Fathers adopted the U.S. Constitution. Bucy’s talk celebrating another important U.S. milestone – women receiving the right to vote – will take place in room 307 of the Morgan University Center.

“With Tennessee’s dramatic ratification of the 19th Amendment to the United States Constitution in 1920, more than 20 million Americans became eligible to vote,” Bucy said. “This was the largest single expansion of voting rights in the nation’s history. Tennessee’s suffragists understood that voting was power. Without the vote, their voices could not be heard. It was a hard-fought battle that did not end with ratification.”

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Dr. Carole Bucy

Bucy, a Volunteer State Community College history professor, was appointed Davidson County Historian by former Nashville Mayor Karl Dean. She is author of “Tennessee Through Time: The Early Years,” “Tennessee Through Time: The Later Years,” “History Carved in Stone: The Nashville City Cemetery,” “Women Helping Women: The YWCA of Nashville” and “Exercising the Franchise, Building the Body Politic: The League of Women Voters and Public Policy, 1945-1964.”

“APSU is lucky to have one of the foremost experts of Tennessee’s role in the passage of the 19th Amendment,” Dr. Minoa Uffelman, APSU history professor, said. “Carole Bucy has delivered numerous lectures over the years and now the APSU community will get to hear her expertise. She is an engaging and interesting speaker.”

Uffelman also is a co-editor for an upcoming book featuring an article by Bucy, “Constructing Citizenship: Education, Associations, Service, Suffrage ‒ Tennessee Public Women in the Progressive Era.”

Austin Peay’s Constitution Day Lecture, which is free and open to the public, is sponsored by the APSU College of Arts and Letters, the APSU Department of History and Philosophy and the APSU Department of Political Science and Public Management.

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