Membership of the League of Women Voters and its goals during the 1920s
Tillett goes into further detail regarding the composition and goals of the League of Women Voters during the 1920s in Charlotte, North Carolina. Tillett says that membership was high, with at least fifty women joining in the organization's first years. She describes the kind of women who tended to participate and take positions of leadership and she asserts that the primary goal of the League during those years was to pique interest in political issues, raise awareness about political candidates, register women voters, and increase women's participation in politics.
Citing this Excerpt
Oral History Interview with Gladys Avery Tillett, March 20, 1974. Interview G-0061. Southern Oral History Program Collection (#4007) in the Southern Oral History Program Collection, Southern Historical Collection, Wilson Library, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
Full Text of the Excerpt
- JACQUELYN HALL:
-
How many women were in your local league? Was it the county or what?
- GLADYS AVERY TILLETT:
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We called it Mecklenburg County League of Women Voters, and I put much
time into getting women who were respected leaders, and genuinely
interested.
- JACQUELYN HALL:
-
How many women?
- GLADYS AVERY TILLETT:
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I'd have to go back… I couldn't say… but it was a
creditable number and members from other organizations attended
meetings… we… I worked hard. I got women to serve
as officers on the board—many of them outstanding in their
own right.
- JACQUELYN HALL:
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50 women?
- GLADYS AVERY TILLETT:
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On yes, I feel reasonably sure there were 50 women. I might be able to
find you this. But I had… there was the president and then
the vice president, secretary, treasurer. We had, you know, the usual
set up. And then I tried to get women of other
organizations—women of influence and standing in the
community, who shared our views on women's civic responsibility. And
therefore, they themselves were leaders and they gave an added support
to the movement.
- JACQUELYN HALL:
-
What kind of women would be considered women of influence and
standing?
- GLADYS AVERY TILLETT:
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Well, they were women who had stood for women voting and had taken part
in such things as the YWCA, AAUW, Woman's Club,
Business and Professional Women's Clubs, or church work. Or patriotic
societies and whatever opportunity there was for leadership. I spoke to
some of the organizations of women and invited them to join the League.
And those were, to some extent limited, though there were women
secretaries and…
- JACQUELYN HALL:
-
Would you say it would be more women's positions in women's organizations
than their position as say the wives of prominent men?
- GLADYS AVERY TILLETT:
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I don't think the husbands played a part… most of them were
married, but many had responsible positions or were leaders in other
groups or organizations… one of the first
secretaries… Miss Carrie McLean, a lawyer, was active in the
community. A woman who had had a very interesting life. She'd graduated
from a Baptist college. Grown up without great means in life. And as a
young girl had written letters to a missionary and told her about how
she longed to have an education. And the missionary would write back and
she'd write and they wrote for some years. And she was a very very able
young woman. And she, when she got old enough to go off to school the
missionary told her that she was going to send her to the Baptist
college. So she had gone and made a splendid record and then taken
secretarial training. And she was one of my allies in public work.
- JACQUELYN HALL:
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And she was a secretary?
- GLADYS AVERY TILLETT:
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At first she worked as a business secretary but then she studied law at
night and passed bar exams. Later she ran for the
legislature and was elected. I managed her campaign. She made an
outstanding record… So there were women and there
were… one woman was from another part of the country with a
very broad… she'd lived numbers of places. And then one was
the wife of a dentist, a woman with qualities of leadership. There were
college graduates and some teachers. They were people of, often,
professional standing. And many had supported woman's suffrage. And
there were some very ardent supporters, you know, among the women. When
we … these were the group that were backing me in what I was
doing. Well, the meeting came and we had it and it was magnificently
attended because of the wide interest in the contest.
- JACQUELYN HALL:
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What were the politicians afraid of? What were they afraid would happen
if they had the meeting?
- GLADYS AVERY TILLETT:
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Well, I… they were false fears. It was something new in
political meetings. They were dealing with an unfamiliar political
meeting and they were fearful of the unknown. It was most
successful—very well attended and both sides thought it a
success. 7
* The Mecklenburg League of Women Voters directed the first
registration campaign for women and it was very successful.
It contributed to getting out the vote. But we had it and it had
excellent publicity. We were pleased we had established the fact that
candidates meetings could be held and the voters could hear them discuss
issues. It had been a success. And we were assured we could move on and
have other meetings in the future. You see, later
we had—in 1928, we had a speaker for Al Smith and a speaker
for Hoover. So, we kept up the interest in candidates, you see. And it
was quite a contribution because it had never been done in North
Carolina or Charlotte before. Two party—both parties
speaking—each for their party candidate.
- JACQUELYN HALL:
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So you were trying to educate women about the issues and increase
interest in voting.
- GLADYS AVERY TILLETT:
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Sure, the same political issue education the League does now. I mean,
this is the thing the League succeeded in doing. We were working for the
things we believed in and we wanted the women to know what these
candidates stood for and then women would hopefully make their own
decisions.
- JACQUELYN HALL:
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Did you work on any issues like the Sheppard-Towner Maternity Act, the
city manager form of government or women's work, wages. Did you take a
stance on those kinds of issues and work on them?
- GLADYS AVERY TILLETT:
-
Yes, we did. A very conservative local businessman reacted adversely to
our interest in wages for women's work. And there was a debate at the
time on the election of city council. We took a stand. See, we had at
that time Mrs. Palmer German who was active in Woman's Club and also
politics. Women's organizations lobbied at the legislature. Mrs. German
was a leader in Raleigh. She was really a very able person. She'd been
state president of the women's clubs and she was a leader on issues and
all the women's club and other organizations had a legislative
program… one thing, dormitories for women at UNC, raising the
age of consent from 14 to 16, admitting girls to UNC before their junior
year. We had women who were quite capable of
leading and to a great extent—they had gotten their
experience in the women's club and other women's organizations and
had—it was broad in its outlook, one of the women's groups at
that time. Of course they had educational things and they had teachers'
organizations. A number of the early officers in the party were women
who had been state presidents in women's organizations and knew the
state. Would be the natural thing, you know. And here, of course, the
League contributed to the interest of people for participation in
politics. But of course as far as being integrated into the party, that
was a closed book.
- JACQUELYN HALL:
-
Well tell me the story of how that integration came about. What kind of
obstacles you ran into. When you first organized the League of Women
Voters were you intending to get inside party politics?
- GLADYS AVERY TILLETT:
-
I had every intention of doing this. The men were not aware of just what
steps or course women would take in the League… they didn't
exactly know what the League of Women Voters wanted and they were very
respectful… people running for… because some of
the women were from influential families and were influential in their
own right, and they had their families behind them. My father-in-law, my
husband, were lawyers of standing in the state and in the community and
we … though we proceeded tactfully, we felt self-assurance.
We gave thoughtful consideration to issues and our stand on them. And
the more I thought about it, realized that women
must have some standing in the political party organization. It helped
to have had some political science along the way. And so—of
course the family knew everybody in the community, all the lawyers and
so forth, and I decided that the thing to do was for me to go as the
president of the League of Women Voters and talk—it was a one
party system in the state, but the registration was for all women, each
choosing her party—and talk to the chairman of the party
about the matter and get his reaction. And I had talked to some of my
League officers and members. Would they serve on precinct committees, if
they were permitted to do so, and work on registering women? And I had
about 15 or so who wished to serve and would welcome the experience, you
see. So I went to see the chairman and he was a lawyer and of course
knew my family and they knew him. Name's Hamilton Jones. And I said,
"Hamilton, I came over to talk to you about the registration of
women." I said, "I know you're interested in getting
them registered and getting them registered possibly in the democratic
party." And he said "Yes." I said
"It seems to me that it would be very important for you to have
some women who are within the party organization to serve on a
registration committee. Some vice-chairmen of precincts." He
looked at me in great astonishment and said, "But Gladys, you
wouldn't be vice-chairman of a precinct. Why your father was a judge and
so forth. You wouldn't be…" I said "I'm
eager to be useful in the registration of women. And I know about 15
more women who are just as eager as I am and I think you ought to look
at this very seriously. For example," I
said, "how are you going to get the women registered?"
I said "I know you have precinct workers, but do you think
those men are going to be able to go and knock on a lady's
door?" And I said "lady's" with purpose. And
I think it hit home. Anyhow he decided to appoint about 15 women so we
could conduct a registration campaign. You see, you had to take the
step. And women registered in the party of their choice.