State Chief Justice Walter Clark Predicts State Assembly Will Approve 19th Amendment, June 10, 1919

From The Monroe Journal, Tuesday, June 10, 1919. “The Union County Paper—Everybody Needs It, Everybody Reads It” Judge Clark was wrong; the North Carolina Assembly voted against allowing women to vote. The state would not approve the 19th Amendment until 1971, although the amendment was ratified Aug. 18, 1920.

Judge Clark Says State Will Ratify Suffrage. . . Thinks Endorsement of Woman Suffrage Certain at Special Session. . . Approves Work Done by Miss Paul

Predicting that North Carolina would ratify the suffrage amendment immediately upon the convening of the legislature, the News and Observer’s Washington correspondent says Chief Justice Walter Clark of Raleigh wrote the following letter to Alice Paul, chairman of the National Woman’s Party:

“Will you permit me to congratulate you upon the great triumph in which you have been so important a factor?

“Your place in history is assured. Some years ago when I first met you, I predicted that your name would be written ‘on the dusty roll the ages kept.’

“There were politicians and a large degree of public sentiment which could be won only by the methods which you adopted. There were others which could only be won by the methods adopted by the other wing of the suffrage movement.

“It is certain that but for you, success would have been delayed for many years to come.

“Permit me to express what I believe will be the verdict of history. There will be a special session of the General Assembly of this State next spring, and I feel fully assured of the ratification of the amendment by this State at that time.”