Rebecca Latimer Felton

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Rebecca Latimer Felton

Junior Senator, Georgia
In office November 21, 1922 – November 22, 1922
Preceded by	Thomas E. Watson
Succeeded by	Walter F. George

Born	June 10, 1835 Decatur, Georgia
Died	January 24, 1930 (aged 94) Atlanta, Georgia
Political party	Democratic
Spouse	William H. Felton

Rebecca Ann Latimer Felton (June 10, 1835 – January 24, 1930) was an American writer, teacher, reformer, and briefly a politician who became the first woman to serve in the United States Senate, filling an appointment on November 21, 1922, and serving until the next day. At 87 years old, she was also the oldest person to enter the Senate.

1 Education, teaching, and marriage
2 Senator
3 Final years
4 Quotes
5 See also
6 References

[edit] Education, teaching, and marriage

Born Rebecca Ann Latimer in DeKalb County, Georgia, Felton attended common schools and graduated from the Madison Female College in 1852. She moved to Bartow County, Georgia in 1854 where she taught school. She was a writer, lecturer, and reformer with a special interest in agriculture, women's suffrage, temperance and racial segregation.

Felton's husband, William Harrell Felton, was a Methodist minister with a similar interest in agriculture. She served as secretary to her husband when he was elected as an Independent Democrat to the U.S. House of Representatives, serving from March 4, 1875 to March 3, 1881. He also served in the Georgia House of Representatives from 1884 to 1890, and as trustee from the state at large for the University of Georgia from 1886 to 1892. He died on September 24, 1909 at the age of 86, when Rebecca Felton was 64.

[edit] Senator

In 1922, Governor Thomas W. Hardwick was a candidate for the next general election to the Senate, when Senator Thomas E. Watson died prematurely. Seeking an appointee who would not be a competitor in the coming special election to fill the vacant seat, and a way to secure the vote of the new women voters alienated by his opposition to the 19th Amendment, Hardwick chose Felton to serve as Senator on October 3, 1922.

Congress was not expected to reconvene until after the election, so the chances were slim that Felton would be formally sworn in as Senator. However, Walter George won the special election despite Hardwick's ploy. Rather than take his seat immediately when the Senate reconvened on November 21, 1922, George allowed Felton to be officially sworn in. Felton thus became the first woman seated in the Senate, and served until George took office on November 22, 1922, one day later.

[edit] Final years

Felton was engaged as a writer and lecturer and resided in Cartersville, Georgia, until her death in Atlanta, Georgia. She was interred in the Oak Hill Cemetery in Cartersville.

[edit] Quotes

"When the women of the country come in and sit with you, though there may be but very few in the next few years, I pledge you that you will get ability, you will get integrity of purpose, you will get exalted patriotism, and you will get unstinted usefulness." -- Address to the Senate, November 21, 1922

"When there is not enough religion in the pulpit to organize a crusade against sin; nor justice in the court house to promptly punish crime; nor manhood enough in the nation to put a sheltering arm about innocence and virtue----if it needs lynching to protect woman’s dearest possession form the ravening human beasts----then I say lynch, a thousand times a week if necessary." August 11, 1897