Women of Influence: Rebecca Felton
If you're like I was before researching this subject, you probably have no idea who Rebecca Ann Latimer Felton was. She is the answer to the trivia question "who was the first woman to serve as a US Senator?" She was also the oldest freshman senator, being sworn into office at the age of 87 years, 9 months and 22 days. While her influence was as a feminist and a suffragist, there was also a negative side to it, as she was also a blatant racist and white supremacist. Fortunately her influence as a senator was short-lived as she old served as a senator for one day.
Felton was born Rebecca Ann Latimer in Decatur, Georgia, on June 10, 1835. She was the daughter of Charles Latimer, a wealthy Georgia planter, merchant, and general store owner. Charles had been born in Maryland and had moved to DeKalb County in the 1820s. Rebecca's mother, Eleanor Swift Latimer, was from Morgan, Georgia. Rebecca Felton was the oldest of four children. When she was 15, her father sent her to live with close relatives in the town of Madison where she attended a private school at a local Presbyterian church. She went on to attend Madison Female College, and it was there that she received a classical liberal arts education, graduating at the top of her class at age 17 in 1852.
In October 1853, Rebecca Latimer married Dr. William Harrell Felton. The couple moved to live at his plantation just north of Cartersville, Georgia. There she gave birth to five children, one daughter and four sons, but only her son, Howard Erwin Felton, survived childhood. During the Civil War, their plantation was destroyed. After the war Dr. Felton returned to farming as his principal means of income earning, doing so without slave labor. The Felton's were able to raise enough money to open a school they called Felton Academy in Cartersville, where both taught.
Rebecca Felton made a name for herself as a campaigner for equal rights for women, white women that is. She joined the Women's Christian Temperance Union in 1886, and gained notoriety as as a speaker on the subject. Her husband had become active in politics and had been elected as a member of the United States House of Representatives and Georgia House of Representatives. She ran his campaigns and in doing so, gained the acquaintance of many members of Georgia's elite society. She lobbied these people to work to achieve achieve equal status for women (once again, white women only). During her 1887 address at the Women's Christian Temperance Union state convention, she made the case that women were actively fulfilling their duties as wives and mothers, but men undervalued their importance. She argued that women should have more power inside of the home with more influence on the decision-making process. She also called for greater education for wives and daughters and asserted that women should have economic independence as a result of this education. She also argued that women should have more influence over their children.
In 1898, Felton wrote a work entitled "Textile Education for Georgia Girls" through which she sought to convince Georgia legislators that education for girls was necessary. In this article, she argued that it was a man's responsibility to take care of his wife and children. Therefore, it was his responsibility to ensure his daughter had equal rights and opportunities to his sons.
Felton achieved little success in her home state and in 1900 she joined the women's suffrage movement. She worked tirelessly for white women's rights, including the right to vote, the progressive movement, free public education for women, and admission into public universities. Her efforts were met with opposition from many anti-suffragist Georgians. One of these was Mildred Lewis Rutherford. In 1915 the two had a debate before the Georgia legislative committee. It wasn't a fair fight. The chairman allowed each of the anti-suffragists to speak for 45 minutes but Felton was told to stop speaking after 30 minutes. She ignored him and spoke for an extra 15 minutes. The Georgia legislative committee did not send the suffrage bill to the state house. Georgia was later the first state to reject the Nineteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution when it was proposed in 1919. Georgia was one of the few states in the Union, that did not allow women to vote in the 1920 presidential election, one which led to the election of Warren Harding. Women in Georgia did not obtain the right to vote until 1922.
Felton criticized southern views on their close-minded attitude towards opposed women's rights, and she expressed her dislike of the fact that Southern states resisted white women's suffrage longer than other regions of the US. But she failed to see her own hypocrisy in calling for equal rights for some women, while harboring strong racist views. Felton and her husband had owned slaves before the Civil War and she was the last member of either house of Congress to have been a slave owner. She gave speeches not only on the topic of white supremacy, but also in support of the lynching of African-Americans, who she described as "the ravening human beasts." She had other ludicrous views on the subject, claiming that the more money that Georgia spent on educating African-Americans, the more crimes they would commit, failing to explain why the same logic did not apply to educated whites. Her rhetoric is filled with even more absurd, ignorant and horrific language that cast a stereotype of young African-American men as sexual predators. On August 11, 1898, Felton gave a speech in Tybee, Georgia, to several hundred members of the Georgia State Agricultural Society. She urged an increase in lynchings in order to protect rural white women. He speech was reprinted in Georgia newspapers in order to garner support for the Democratic Party. On August 18, 1898, Alex Manly's Daily Record newspaper printed a rebuttal editorial arguing that white rape of African-American women was much more common of a problem.
In 1922, Governor Thomas W. Hardwick was a candidate for the next general election to the Senate. The blatantly racist Senator Thomas Watson had died unexpectedly. Hardwick was seeking someone to appoint to the senate who would not be a competitor in the coming special election to fill the vacant seat. He also wanted to find a way to win the votes of first-time female voters who had been put off u his opposition to the 19th Amendment. The answer for Hardwick was to chose Felton to serve as senator. Congress was not expected to reconvene until after the election, and he didn't even expect that Felton would ever be sworn in. His plan backfired however, as his opponent Walter F. George won the special election. Rather than take his seat immediately when the Senate reconvened on November 21, George allowed Felton to be sworn in. George's decision was mutually beneficial. It increased his support among Georgia's women voters and it raised Felton's profile. Felton saw it as a good thing that politicians desired to enhance their standings with the new women voters even if this was only a symbolic gesture. Nevertheless, Felton thus became the first female senator, and served until George took office one day later.
Felton returned to Cartersville, Georgia and continued to write and lecture. She finished her book entitled The Romantic Story of Georgia's Women only shortly before her death. She died in Atlanta, on January 24, 1930, at the age of 94. Her remains were interred in the Oak Hill Cemetery in Cartersville. Sadly, her influence was often of the negative kind, one that promoted hate for a class of people based solely on the color of their skin.. Her story should not be censored from history however and should serve as a reminder for all of us to be on guard for those who would cloak their influence in one noble cause, only to promote a greater evil.
Felton was born Rebecca Ann Latimer in Decatur, Georgia, on June 10, 1835. She was the daughter of Charles Latimer, a wealthy Georgia planter, merchant, and general store owner. Charles had been born in Maryland and had moved to DeKalb County in the 1820s. Rebecca's mother, Eleanor Swift Latimer, was from Morgan, Georgia. Rebecca Felton was the oldest of four children. When she was 15, her father sent her to live with close relatives in the town of Madison where she attended a private school at a local Presbyterian church. She went on to attend Madison Female College, and it was there that she received a classical liberal arts education, graduating at the top of her class at age 17 in 1852.
In October 1853, Rebecca Latimer married Dr. William Harrell Felton. The couple moved to live at his plantation just north of Cartersville, Georgia. There she gave birth to five children, one daughter and four sons, but only her son, Howard Erwin Felton, survived childhood. During the Civil War, their plantation was destroyed. After the war Dr. Felton returned to farming as his principal means of income earning, doing so without slave labor. The Felton's were able to raise enough money to open a school they called Felton Academy in Cartersville, where both taught.
Rebecca Felton made a name for herself as a campaigner for equal rights for women, white women that is. She joined the Women's Christian Temperance Union in 1886, and gained notoriety as as a speaker on the subject. Her husband had become active in politics and had been elected as a member of the United States House of Representatives and Georgia House of Representatives. She ran his campaigns and in doing so, gained the acquaintance of many members of Georgia's elite society. She lobbied these people to work to achieve achieve equal status for women (once again, white women only). During her 1887 address at the Women's Christian Temperance Union state convention, she made the case that women were actively fulfilling their duties as wives and mothers, but men undervalued their importance. She argued that women should have more power inside of the home with more influence on the decision-making process. She also called for greater education for wives and daughters and asserted that women should have economic independence as a result of this education. She also argued that women should have more influence over their children.
In 1898, Felton wrote a work entitled "Textile Education for Georgia Girls" through which she sought to convince Georgia legislators that education for girls was necessary. In this article, she argued that it was a man's responsibility to take care of his wife and children. Therefore, it was his responsibility to ensure his daughter had equal rights and opportunities to his sons.
Felton achieved little success in her home state and in 1900 she joined the women's suffrage movement. She worked tirelessly for white women's rights, including the right to vote, the progressive movement, free public education for women, and admission into public universities. Her efforts were met with opposition from many anti-suffragist Georgians. One of these was Mildred Lewis Rutherford. In 1915 the two had a debate before the Georgia legislative committee. It wasn't a fair fight. The chairman allowed each of the anti-suffragists to speak for 45 minutes but Felton was told to stop speaking after 30 minutes. She ignored him and spoke for an extra 15 minutes. The Georgia legislative committee did not send the suffrage bill to the state house. Georgia was later the first state to reject the Nineteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution when it was proposed in 1919. Georgia was one of the few states in the Union, that did not allow women to vote in the 1920 presidential election, one which led to the election of Warren Harding. Women in Georgia did not obtain the right to vote until 1922.
Felton criticized southern views on their close-minded attitude towards opposed women's rights, and she expressed her dislike of the fact that Southern states resisted white women's suffrage longer than other regions of the US. But she failed to see her own hypocrisy in calling for equal rights for some women, while harboring strong racist views. Felton and her husband had owned slaves before the Civil War and she was the last member of either house of Congress to have been a slave owner. She gave speeches not only on the topic of white supremacy, but also in support of the lynching of African-Americans, who she described as "the ravening human beasts." She had other ludicrous views on the subject, claiming that the more money that Georgia spent on educating African-Americans, the more crimes they would commit, failing to explain why the same logic did not apply to educated whites. Her rhetoric is filled with even more absurd, ignorant and horrific language that cast a stereotype of young African-American men as sexual predators. On August 11, 1898, Felton gave a speech in Tybee, Georgia, to several hundred members of the Georgia State Agricultural Society. She urged an increase in lynchings in order to protect rural white women. He speech was reprinted in Georgia newspapers in order to garner support for the Democratic Party. On August 18, 1898, Alex Manly's Daily Record newspaper printed a rebuttal editorial arguing that white rape of African-American women was much more common of a problem.
In 1922, Governor Thomas W. Hardwick was a candidate for the next general election to the Senate. The blatantly racist Senator Thomas Watson had died unexpectedly. Hardwick was seeking someone to appoint to the senate who would not be a competitor in the coming special election to fill the vacant seat. He also wanted to find a way to win the votes of first-time female voters who had been put off u his opposition to the 19th Amendment. The answer for Hardwick was to chose Felton to serve as senator. Congress was not expected to reconvene until after the election, and he didn't even expect that Felton would ever be sworn in. His plan backfired however, as his opponent Walter F. George won the special election. Rather than take his seat immediately when the Senate reconvened on November 21, George allowed Felton to be sworn in. George's decision was mutually beneficial. It increased his support among Georgia's women voters and it raised Felton's profile. Felton saw it as a good thing that politicians desired to enhance their standings with the new women voters even if this was only a symbolic gesture. Nevertheless, Felton thus became the first female senator, and served until George took office one day later.
Felton returned to Cartersville, Georgia and continued to write and lecture. She finished her book entitled The Romantic Story of Georgia's Women only shortly before her death. She died in Atlanta, on January 24, 1930, at the age of 94. Her remains were interred in the Oak Hill Cemetery in Cartersville. Sadly, her influence was often of the negative kind, one that promoted hate for a class of people based solely on the color of their skin.. Her story should not be censored from history however and should serve as a reminder for all of us to be on guard for those who would cloak their influence in one noble cause, only to promote a greater evil.