May 18, 1920 — Inaugural Convention, Tennessee League of Women Voters, House Chamber, Tennessee Statehouse, Nashville TN

What will the Negro women do with the vote? Yes, we will stand by the white women. We are optimistic because we have faith in the best white women of the country, of Nashville. We are going to make you proud of us, because we are going to help you help us and yourselves. We are interested in the same moral uplift of the community in which we live as you are. We are asking only one thing — a square deal.

It remains for the war to show what the negroes could do. We bought bonds, we gave money, we made comfort kits, we prayed.

[Mrs. Pierce said the negro women have profited by the mistakes of the negro men. It was unfortunate for the men to be enfranchised when they were, she said, because they did not know how to use the vote. The women are fortunately enfranchised now because they are ready for the ballot.]

We want recognition in all forms of government. We want a state vocational school and a child welfare department of the state, and more room in state schools.

Source: Nashville Tennessean, May 19, 1920, p. 8.