Category Archives: AAUW TN State Convention

Tennessee State Representative John Ray Clemmons, House District 55

The convention honored Representative Clemmons for his legislative work on behalf Tennessee families, presenting him with a resolution noting his sponsorship of bills dealing with transportation, affordable housing, mental health, and women’s rights.

Representative Clemmons sponsored a pay equity bill in 2017 which unfortunately did not make it out of committee, and he is sponsoring another pay equity bill this session. He stated that he will continue to advocate for pay equity until it becomes a reality in our state.

He feels that he doesn’t represent just the constituents in his his district, but all the residents of Tennessee, and that if his children ask him some day what he did in the legislature, he will tell them that he worked hard and did his best to make our state a better place for everyone.

Elizabeth Holden, Grassroots Advocacy Manager, AAUW National

Ms. Holden spoke to the convention on AAUW National Issues and Local Opportunities in 2018.

The top three issues are:

  1. 1) Defending Title IX legislation
  2. 2) Pay equity, with 42 states having initiated pay equity legislation, and in our part of the country, Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama are currently working on bills
  3. 3) Voter education, focusing on the 2018 mid-term elections, from congressional races all the way down to state and municipal elections

In looking at local opportunities, Ms. Holden emphasized the importance of candidate and issue forums that have relevance to AAUW, have a specific focus, and that might be either prepared remarks by candidates with questions from attendees and AAUW, or panel discussions with a non-partisan moderator.

For all events media coverage is paramount, with media advisories, invitations to media in advance of the event, and press releases at the time of the event.

Circle of the Watchfire – Chick History

AAUW TN State Convention 2018

In 1917, the National Woman’s Party began picketing the White House to pressure President Woodrow Wilson to support the Susan B. Anthony Amendment – votes for women. Silent Sentinels, as they were known, picketed in shifts around the clock. After two years, they turned up the heat. Placing a giant cauldron in front of the White House, suffragists kept a perpetual fire ablaze to burn effigies and hypocritical speeches of the President. These protests became known as Watchfires. Hundreds of women picketed and dozens were jailed over this period in their fight for the vote. In 1920, the Susan B. Anthony Amendment was ratified by the final state—Tennessee —and became the 19th Amendment to the Constitution.

Chick History performed A Watchfire Party, a modern adaptation of these historic protests, complete with a cauldron ceremony. We honored Tennessee picketers Mary Church Terrell and Sue Shelton White and featured select historical readings ranging from Anti-Suffrage Pamphlets to the NAACP’s The Crisis Magazine. We heard some of the most outlandish arguments of the time against suffrage, as well as the words of suffrage leaders demanding votes for women.

It was truly an amazing performance, engaging the audience and giving an invaluable perspective on women’s fight for the vote. It is highly recommended to check out Chick History and their other performances. Find them on Facebook, too. 

Panel Discusison

Dia Cirillo, incoming TN President (July 1, 2018) moderated a panel of speakers including:

Dawn Harrington – Executive Director, Free Hearts

Dawn is a formerly-incarcerated advocate from Nashville, TN and serves as the executive director of Free Hearts, a nonprofit led by formerly incarcerated women that was created to reunite families and keep families together. She has a Bachelor’s degree in Recording Industry Management and Public Relations from Middle Tennessee State University and a Master of Business Administration degree in Information Technology from Bethel University. Dawn is currently a doctoral candidate in public Policy and advises a number of initiates dedicated to incarcerated and formerly incarcerated women, including Nashville Defenders and Unheard Voices Outreach and the National Council for Incarcerated and Formerly Incarcerated Women and Girls.

Kathy Walsh – Executive Director, Tennessee Coalition to End Domestic and Sexual Violence

Working with survivors, advocates and policy makers over the last three decades, Kathy has helped craft more than 200 new laws improving victim safety and offender accountability including orders of protection, spousal rape, stalking and domestic assault. This legislation expanded the number of domestic violence programs and rape crisis centers in Tennessee from five in 1984 to more than sixty today and improved law enforcement response to domestic and sexual violence by creating a model training project educating more than 10,000 police officers, as well as provide much-needed emergency financial assistance to hundreds of victims of rape and abuse by establishing a statewide emergency assistance fund. Kathy is the co-author of many publications and serves on numerous boards and committees.

Zulfat Suara – Chair, American Muslim Advisory Council of Tennessee

Zulfat Suara is the Chair of the American Muslim Advisory Council of Tennessee (AMAC). AMAC’s mission is to foster mutual trust and respect through civic engagement, community building and media relations. Since inception, AMAC has been working to increasing civic participation of Muslims in Tennessee via its quarterly leadership meetings, Muslim Day on the Hill and the annual Empowering Women Conference. For the last 5 years, Zulfat has served as the Women’s Day on the Hill Chair and coordinator of joint legislative day for several women organizations on issues affecting Tennessee women and children. She is the recipient of numerous awards, including by the FBI directors, ans serves on the Metro Action Commission of Nashville. She was inducted into the TN Women Hall of Fame in October 2015. Zulfat is a CPA and is the Assistant Controller at Meharry Medical College.

Keri Adams – CEO, Planned Parenthood of Middle and East Tennessee

Before joining Planned Parenthood 16 years ago, Keri worked in finance for the Gore/Lieberman Campaign in Nashville and the post-election audit state in Washington, DC. Prior to the Gore campaign, she worked in finance and management for multiple non-profits in Ohio and Illinois. She is currently the Chair of the Board of Community Shares, and is on the Board for the Holly Street Daycare. Keri is married and has three young daughters in Metro Public Schools.

 

Madelyn Scales Harris

If you’re ok with how things are today, stay seated and be quiet, if you want to make a change, vote, volunteer, get involved…make a change.

Madelyn Scales Harris is vice-mayor of Murfreesboro, TN and a city council member. She was elected to the Murfreesboro, Tennessee City Council in 2010.

Her mother, Mary Scales was the first black faculty member at Middle Tennessee State University after having been denied admittance as a young woman. Her father Robert W. Scales was the first African-American city councilman and first African-American Vice-Mayor of Murfreesboro. He was known for his fairness and ability to bring folks together.

Her family owns the Scales & Son Funeral Home founded by Preston Scales in 1916 as the first black-owned funeral home in Rutherford County, TN and Murfreesboro.

“I believe now, more than ever that we need creativity to move forward, we have to change with the times and we need creativity to do that.”

Murfreesboro is growing by 300 people a month and we’ve got big plans for the area. Details are still being decided. We’ve got sate of the art hospitals, shopping, restaurants a proactive chamber of commerce. Vanderbilt will be building a pediatric hospital here. We welcome you to Murfreesboro!

Madelyn went on to share a bit of her life with us and the activism of her family.

Read about some of her family’s history here. Starting on page 74.