Eliza Shaut White, photograph, courtesy of Stacey White Ferren
Mrs. White … is one of the leading spirits of the Johnson City branch of the Congressional Union and a woman of force and charm.
Often overlooked in the history of woman suffrage in Tennessee, Pennsylvania-born ELIZA SHAUT WHITE was a member of the Equal Suffrage League of Johnson City, one of the few suffrage clubs in Tennessee to be affiliated with Alice Paul’s Congressional Union for Woman Suffrage (later the National Woman’s Party). In 1916, White was elected chairman of the newly-formed state branch of the Congressional Union. While the majority of Tennessee suffragists continued to support the more moderate National American Woman Suffrage Association, White and other outspoken women (many from East Tennessee) chose to back the Congressional Union’s single-minded goal of gaining the vote through a federal amendment.