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GEOFF BENNETT: Nashville,
Tennessee is known as
America's Music City
where country hits are

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recorded and fans feel like to
hear their favorite singers,
less known is the city's

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connection to the 19th amendment
which legally granted women
the right to vote back in 1920.

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Special Correspondent Cat
Wise visited an historic
hotel in Nashville where

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a hard fought battle for
that right was waged.

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CAT WISE: Nashville's Hermitage
Hotel completed in 1910 just
steps from the state capitol has

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been a favorite gathering spot
over the years for locals,
politicians and celebrities,

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including Amelia Earhart and
Elvis Presley. But the hotel
is cemented in history because

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of a group of women who helped
change civil rights in America
more than 100 years ago.

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What would we have seen here in
the lobby in the summer of 1920?

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CAROLE BUCY: We would
have seen women in white

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dresses. It was summertime and
summertime in Tennessee is hot.

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CAT WISE: Local historian
Carol Busey says in 1920,
it became clear Tennessee

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was going to be the final
state needed to ratify the
19th amendment. That summer,

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local and national
suffrage leaders as
well as anti-suffragists
converged on Nashville.

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CAROLE BUCY: The lobby of the
Hermitage Hotel, in some ways is
a character in the story because

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it gets prominent. This is where
all the deals were made. This
was the scene of the action.

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CAT WISE: It became known as the
War of the Roses from a suite on
the third floor suffragists like

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Carrie Chapman Catt advocated
for the right to vote wearing
yellow roses, and on the

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eighth floor those who
opposed suffrage, including
Tennessee native Josephine
Pearson wore red roses.

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This documentary from
Nashville Public Television
highlights the tension
in the hotel that summer.

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ABBY CRAWFORD MILTON, President
of the Tennessee Woman Suffrage
Association: We go up and down

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on the elevator and best
friends wouldn't speak to each
other. It was such an heated

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campaign. The Heritage
Hotel, as I told you, was the
scene of many first fights.

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CAT WISE: Busey says the work
done by so many women to earn

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the right to vote
from the Seneca Falls
convention to the fight at

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the Hermitage Hotel has
often been overlooked
or forgotten in history.

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CAROLE BUCY: There was
no awareness whatsoever
of any of the things of

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related to woman suffrage.
In fact, until the 60s,
there was really no

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such subject as women's
history offered in colleges
undergraduate or graduate level.

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CAT WISE: The Hermitage Hotel's
own history was also lost
for a time. During the 1960s

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and 70s The building fell
into disrepair and was
closed. Local preservationist

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saved it and the hotel
underwent major restorations
in the early 1980s and 2000s.

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In 2020 the hotel was
named a National Historic
Landmark and another major
remodel began. Today,

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the luxury hotel commemorates
its suffrage history in both
subtle and obvious ways.

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What happened here? Dee
Patel manages the hotel,
the first woman to do so.

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DEE PATEL, Managing
Director, The Hermitage
Hotel: So the eighth
floor was a floor in which

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the anti-suffragists would
bring up legislators to
sway their votes, because
they've noticed that

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they were wearing the yellow
rose or perhaps if they weren't
wearing the yellow rose,

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would bring them up to the
eighth floor and get them drunk
off of Jack Daniels whiskey.

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CAT WISE: Today, Room
812, the infamous Jack
Daniels suite looks

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quite a bit different than
a 1920. But the remain
glimpses of its past

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DEE PATEL: And Dallas Dudley
is depicted here and you see
the roses that are a nod to the

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history. And so throughout
the guestrooms, and
throughout this particular
suite, you will notice

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artifacts and ways in which
we've been able to celebrate
and cherish and respect history.

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CAT WISE: Like this piece
of art, paper cut resembled
the bottom of whiskey glass,

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and a bird breaking through a
paper bag and Carrie Chapman
cats form a room overlooking

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the Capitol building. The
hotel also honors it's passed
through tea. A suffrage themed

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tea service is offered several
times a week, Patel and I
shared a cup on the mezzanine.

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DEE PATEL: Afternoon tea was
enjoyed often as women gathered
and it was those gathering

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moments in which the
organization of the suffrage
movement began in Seneca Falls.

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CAT WISE: But in the end,

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it was men who determined
the fate of the 19th
amendment on August 18, 1920.

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TOM VICKSTROM, Historian
and Director of Finance,
The Hermitage Hotel:
Here we have a picture of

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Harry T. Byrne who was the
youngest legislator at the time,
and he cast the deciding vote.

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CAT WISE: Tom Vickstrom, the
Hermitage's historian explained
Burns role in the historic vote.

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TOM VICKSTROM: He had
received a letter from his
mother that very morning,

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encouraging him to do the right
thing. And he did -- he had a
red rose on his lapel meaning

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he was going to vote
against it he was deadlocked
with a 48-48 tie, and he
changed his vote to yes.

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CAT WISE: The final vote
tally was 50 to 46 in
favor of ratification.

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CAROLE BUCY: There was pure
pandemonium. The suffragists

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are crying and hugging
each other. The rose
petals were everywhere.

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CAT WISE: Despite
the victory that day,

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many women especially
black women, continue
to face discriminatory
voting laws for decades.

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CAROLE BUCY: That they end of
the day in 1920, men in this
hotel in the General Assembly,

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were taking votes about
women's rights. They were
making the decisions for women

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and about women. And we are
still in the throes of that
very same debate today.

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CAT WISE: For "PBS News
Weekend," I'm Cat Wise
in Nashville, Tennessee.