Sue Shelton White

Sue Shelton White (May 25, 1887 – May 6, 1943), called Miss Sue, was a feminist leader originally from Henderson, Tennessee, who served as a national leader of the women's suffrage movement, member of the Silent Sentinels and editor of The Suffragist.

In 1918, White became chair of the National Woman's Party. With passage of the Nineteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution she returned home to help gain Tennessee ratification. In 1920 White returned to Washington, working as administrative secretary to U.S. Senator Kenneth McKeller, while attending Washington College of Law where she earned a law degree in 1923. She became lead counsel for the Social Security Administration.

Background Sue Shelton White was born on May 25, 1887, in Henderson, Tennessee, the fourth of six children of James Shelton White and Mary Calista (Swain) White. When she was sixteen she took a teacher training course at Georgia Robertson Christian College (now Freed–Hardeman University) and the following year (1904-1905) attended West Tennessee Business College. She started her career as a stenographer and clerk for the Southern Engine and Boiler Works in Jackson, Tennessee, but was discouraged by her employers from learning the business.

Suffragist White joined the woman suffrage movement in 1912. She was originally active in the moderate Tennessee Equal Suffrage Association (an affiliate of the National American Woman Suffrage Association), and was elected recording secretary for that organization in 1913, They did this to protest Wilson's lack of energy in pressuring balky Senators of his own party. White, with others, was arrested and jailed. After her release, White and others like her chartered a railroad car they called the "Prison Special," which toured the United States to keep the issue of suffrage before the public.

From 1920 to 1926, White served as an administrative secretary running the Washington office of Tennessee U.S. Senator Kenneth McKeller.

Tributes On August 26, 2016, as part of Women's Equality Day, a monument by Alan LeQuire was unveiled in Centennial Park in Nashville, featuring depictions of White, Carrie Chapman Catt, Anne Dallas Dudley, Abby Crawford Milton, and Juno Frankie Pierce.

There is a bust of White by Wanda Stanfill at the Jackson City Hall Plaza; it is part of the Tennessee Woman Suffrage Heritage Trail, and was placed as part of the centennial celebration of the 19th Amendment.

The Sue Shelton White Award is given annually "to an outstanding attorney in West Tennessee who is a community activist working to create or change legislation to improve the lives of women and children in the state of Tennessee."