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5th Grade ESL Tennessee History Part Four: Changing the World 
Ida Wells PHOTO: Univ. of Chicago  What happened in Tennessee from 1880-1930?1) Ida Wells, an African-American woman who lived in Memphis, Tennessee, in the 1880s, had the courage to write about the bad treatment of some of her fellow African Americans. Why did this take courage? 
Alvin York PHOTO: Library of Congress 2) Alvin York, also a Tennessean, was the most famous American hero of World War I.
 
The Old Hickory plant in the 1920's PHOTO: Tennessee State Library and Archives 3) A town called Old Hickory was built near Nashville. It was surrounded on three sides by the Cumberland River. A large gunpowder factory was built there. By November, 1918, it was producing one million pounds of gunpowder for the soldiers fighting in World War I.
This sculpture, commemorating the passage of the Nineteenth Amendment, hangs in the State Capital
4) In the 1920's, Tennessee became the 36th state to change its constitution by passing the Nineteenth Amendment. This allowed women to vote. This was called The Women's Suffrage Movement. 
Governor Austin Peay PHOTO: Austin Peay University 5) Austin Peay was the only Tennessean governor to die in office. He served as governor from 1923 to 1927. He did much to reform state government. He built many roads, saw to it that the Great Smoky Mountains National Park became preserved, and got a law passed that made the school year last at least eight months in Tennessee.
Our New Tennessee History Word
* reform: When you reform something, you change it.  Governor Austin Peay also signed into law the infamous "monkey bill", and Tennessee History for Kids has produced a video about the famous trial that occurred because of it. In "A Teacher in Trouble," History Bill turns up in Dayton and gets an earful from William Jennings Bryan and Clarence Darrow. Click here to see it using Quicktime; here using Windows Media Player; and here using youtube.
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