While Women’s History Month is officially over, I’d like to continue highlighting some amazing women who made history in Tennessee. The following women were inducted into the Tennessee Women’s Hall of Fame, a nonprofit organization that was active from 2010 through 2015.
First, Lizzie Crozier French. At the front of Market Square in Knoxville stands the Tennessee Woman Suffrage Memorial, a statue of three women who fought for women’s right to vote, including Lizzie Crozier French. French founded the Knoxville Female Institute, a women’s school for higher learning, and the Tennessee Suffrage Association. She was born in 1851, and her father served in the U.S. House of Representatives. She delivered a speech that allowed women to attend the University of Tennessee in 1892. French was a key figure in the suffragist movement that enabled white women the right to vote in 1920.
Secondly, there is Dr. Wilsie S. Bishop. ETSU’s very own, now retired, Chief Operating Officer and Vice President made the Hall of Fame for being the first woman to hold her titles at the school. She began her career at ETSU as a temporary faculty member in the College of Nursing and progressed through leadership roles, eventually retiring after a 43-year career. Her diverse experiences in various roles at the college helped her understand the responsibilities and challenges she encountered while overseeing different departments. In addition to being inducted into the Women’s Hall of Fame, she received the 2019 James T. Rogers Distinguished Leadership Award.
Next is Pat Summit. Tennessee native and infamous, especially in Knoxville, Pat Summit led the Lady Vols basketball team to victory, winning 8 NCAA Division 1 basketball championships. The list of Coach Summit’s achievements in women’s basketball is nearly endless. She acquired over one thousand wins, and she never had a losing season. Pat was the head coach in the 1984 Olympics, where the U.S. Women’s basketball team received a gold medal. She received the Presidential Medal of Freedom from Barack Obama in 2012. While Coach Summit passed away after her battle with early-onset dementia, her legacy lives on through the Pat Summitt Alzheimer’s Clinic at the University of Tennessee Medical Center. More can be learned about the legendary Pat Summit and other great coaches at the Women’s Basketball Hall of Fame in Knoxville.
Last but not least, there is Rosetta Miller-Perry. While born in Pennsylvania, Miller-Perry attended the University of Memphis, gaining her B.S. in Chemistry. “She was among the first African-American students to graduate from Memphis State University fifty years ago.” She is also a Navy veteran, but what makes Rosetta a notable figure in women’s history was her active involvement in the Civil Rights Movement and founding the Tennessee Tribune, “a newspaper highlighting the African-American and minority community locally, regionally and nationally.” After attending Howard University Law School, she moved permanently to Tennessee, where she became “Director of the United States Equal Employment Opportunity Commission under Clarence Thomas, now a Supreme Court Justice.” Today, Perry remains at “the helm of the publication.”
