Lucy Somerville Howorth

Lucy Somerville Howorth (July 1, 1895 – August 23, 1997) was an American lawyer, feminist and politician. On August 18, 1917, in the State Capitol gallery in Nashville, Tennessee, she witnessed the Nineteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution being ratified, giving women the right to vote. This inspired her lifelong fight for the civil rights of minorities and women. She is also known for her New Deal legislative efforts. Early life Lucy Somerville was born on July 1, 1895, in Greenville, Mississippi. The daughter of Nellie Nugent Somerville, nationally known as a temperance and woman suffrage leader and the first woman to serve in the Mississippi Legislature, she was raised in an atmosphere of female equality, a rarity at that time. She attended Randolph-Macon Women's College, now Randolph College, in Lynchburg, Virginia, (1912–16) where she was a member of Alpha Omicron Pi fraternity, Pi Gamma Mu international honor society and the Phi Beta Kappa society. After completing her A.B. she continued her education at Columbia University as a graduate student in psychology and economics. While living in New York City, she would attend political rallies and meetings; she also regularly visited settlement houses and sweatshops where she first saw how bosses mistreated working women and minorities. These experiences sparked her lifelong interest in civil rights.