Posted by vrcvanderbilt on Friday, June 15, 2018 in HART, News, Student/Alumni, Vanderbilt University, VRC.

HART alumnus Alan LeQuire’s latest sculpture, the Burn Memorial Statue, was unveiled on June 9 in downtown Knoxville next to the East Tennessee History Center and across from Krutch Park. The bronze sculptural group of Harry Burn and his mother Febb Burn celebrate Tennessee’s pivotal role in the 19th amendment and women’s suffrage across the country.

“Tennessee had the honor of being in the eye of the storm for several weeks as the pro and anti forces across the country descended on Nashville,” said Wanda Sobieski, president of the Suffrage Coalition, during the evening’s unveiling ceremony.

In August of 1920, the Tennessee House was deadlocked 48-48 on the issue and seemed poised to reject the ratification of the 19th amendment, which still required a 36th and final state’s approval before it could become a part of the U.S Constitution. Harry Burn, at that time a 24-year-old freshman state representative from Niota, was originally opposed to the measure.

That changed when he received a letter from his mother, Febb, urging him “to do the right thing and become the deciding vote in granting women’s suffrage across the country,” Sobieski said. Each figure is cast as life-size plus another one-third, and “the statue base will include information about the mother and son’s place in history.”

On Women’s Equality Day (August 26) two years ago, LeQuire unveiled another large-scale public monument to suffragists in Nashville. This monumental bronze work is in Centennial Park near the Parthenon and features heroic-scale portraits of five women from across the state and country who were leading suffragists and fought valiantly in the final ratification battle in Nashville in August 1920.

*Alan LeQuire sculpting in clay on the Burn Memorial Statue in his Nashville studio

*Yellow roses adorn Alan LeQuire’s bronze statue of Harry Burn and his mother Febb on June 9, the day of its unveiling in Knoxville, TN