Albert H. Roberts

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Albert Houston Roberts (July 4, 1868–June 25, 1946) was Governor of Tennessee from 1919 to 1921.

A native of Overton County, Tennessee, Roberts was a graduate of Hiwassee College in Madisonville, Tennessee. He was a schoolteacher and later a county superintendent of schools before being admitted to the bar. He later became a Chancery Court judge and was serving as such when he received the 1918 Democratic nomination for governor.

Roberts' single two-year term as governor was very eventful. National Prohibition became the law of the land with the ratification of the Eighteenth Amendment and the enabling legislation for it, the Volstead Act. Worker's compensation was enacted, and Roberts called a special session of the Tennessee General Assembly to consider the ratification of the Nineteenth Amendment, national woman's suffrage. The legislature ratified the measure by a single vote, completing the drive for women's suffrage, as Tennessee became the thirty-sixth state to do so, giving the measure the constitutionally-required three-fourths of the then-48 states. The legislature almost immediately tried to rescind its action, but this was disallowed.

After his term, Roberts returned to the practice of law.

Governors of Tennessee

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