Elizabeth Avery Merriwether (1864-1916)
(City of Alexandria, VA, 2012)
- held the first Tennessee public meeting in1876 to discuss women's rights
- delegate to the National Suffrage Convention in 1879
- published her own newspaper, The Tablet
- inspired by the news of Susan B. Anthony's attempted 1872 vote, Elizabeth Avery Merriwether dared to vote in the 1876 Presidential election and reported:"...when I tested the matter I was allowed to cast my ballot. Whether it was counted I cannot say. But counting my ballot was not important; what was important was to focus public attention to the monstrous injustice of including educated women with felons and lunatics as persons denied the right of suffrage."