Biographical Database of NAWSA Suffragists, 1890-1920
Biography of Julia Harrison Norris, 1874-1964
By Jennifer Coggins, archivist
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, North Carolina
Julia Harrison was born August 12, 1874 in Tampa, Florida to Charles Harrison (1851-1920), a judge, and Anna Givens Harrison (1853-1946). She married Amos Hendry Norris (1873-1950), the owner of a mill supply company, on November 28, 1893. The couple had one child, who died in infancy. Julia Harrison Norris was active in a number of community, state, and national organizations. She was a member of the First Methodist Church of Tampa, where she was the church organist and a Sunday School teacher. At various times she was president of the Tampa Civic Association, Parliamentarian of Tampa's Woman's Club, Treasurer of the Tampa League of Women's Clubs, president of the Hillsborough County Federation of Women's Clubs, and vice chair of the Tampa Urban League. In 1919, she was elected chair of the National American Woman Suffrage Association's Legislative Committee.
In 1920, Tampa citizens voted to replace the city's aldermanic system of government with a board of commissioners. The change was supported by the local Commission Government Club, composed of both men and women members, including Amos Norris. Prior to the election to fill the commission seats, the club agreed that, in nominating their slate of candidates, they would not nominate any women candidates. However, Amos Norris nominated his wife, Julia Harrison Norris, for a seat on the Commission. Despite the protest of other members of the club, including women members who considered her nomination an "unfortunate mistake," Julia Harrison Norris remained in the race. She lost in the primary, receiving 957 votes out of 22,339 cast.
Julia Harrison Norris was active in the United Daughters of the Confederacy (UDC), a women's organization focused on memorializing the Confederacy, promoting the Lost Cause view of the Civil War, and providing support to Confederate veterans and their families. She served two terms as president of the Tampa Chapter of the organization. She also served in a number of official roles in the Florida Division of the UDC, including President, Treasurer General, chair of a committee advocating for a home for Confederate veterans, and chair of the Education Committee. The work of the latter committee included awarding college scholarships for women and men, sponsoring essay contests, placing portraits of Confederate leaders in Florida schools, and providing schools with books that supported the organization's pro-Confederate view. In the early 1930s, she served as chair of the Mrs. Norman V. Randolph Relief Fund (named for former chair Janet Weaver Randolph), which provided financial assistance to widows of Confederate veterans.
In 1934, NAACP Executive Secretary Walter White asked Blanche Armwood Washington, a prominent Black civic leader, activist, and educator in Tampa, to seek Norris's public support for the Costigan-Wagner Anti-Lynching bill. He wrote:
it will mean a very great deal to have a distinguished southern woman like Mrs. Norris, especially with her connection with the United Daughters of the Confederacy, as one of those to appear before the Judiciary Committee. [. . .] It is well-within the range of possibilities that Mrs. Norris' testimony may be the turning point in removing the sectional and racial issue in consideration of the Bill sufficiently to insure its passage.
Washington reported that Norris "readily consented to lend her wonderful strength and influence to the promotion of this program." However, Norris soon after indicated she could not travel to DC to testify due to illness, and wrote to White expressing reservations about endorsing the bill. She wrote that she was "bitterly opposed to lynching," but could not support a federal bill:
My objection to this Bill is that it puts the enforcement almost entirely in the hands of the Federal Government, and I do not believe that the National Government is in a position to enforce it as effectively as the states. My forefathers fought for the principle of self-determination and state's rights, and I just as firmly believe in it today. It seems to me the better mode of procedure to prevent lynching is first through a campaign of education in each state, and the passage of state laws to prevent it, and I should be very glad to work on such a movement in Florida.
Responding to Norris after his return from the hearings, White explained that the proposed bill only empowered the federal government to intervene when a state refused or failed to do so. He also noted that, despite previous objections to federal lynching legislation for the reasons she expressed, few states had pursued anti-lynching measures of their own. The bill did not pass.
Norris's ex-husband, Amos, died in 1950. Julia Harrison Norris died on January 3, 1964 at age 89.
Sources:
Mary Claire Crake, "'In Unity There is Strength': Women's Clubs in Tampa During the 1920s," Tampa Bay History 11, no. 2 (1989): 5-21.
Eloise N. Cozens. Florida Women of Distinction. Lawrence Kansas: Coronado Publishing Company, 1956.
Mary Jane Brown. "Eradicating this Evil": Women in the American Anti-Lynching Movement, 1892-1940, PhD dissertation, the Ohio State University, 1998.
"Find A Grave Index," database, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:QVK3-9G6Y : 11 July 2016), Julia Harrison Norris, 1964; Burial, Tampa, Hillsborough, Florida, United States of America, Oaklawn Cemetery; citing record ID 35918590, Find a Grave, http://www.findagrave.com.
"United States Census, 1930," database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:STM5-L2M : accessed 12 November 2017), Amos H Norris, Tampa, Hillsborough, Florida, United States; citing enumeration district (ED) ED 17, sheet 5A, line 44, family 140, NARA microfilm publication T626 (Washington D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, 2002), roll 318; FHL microfilm 2,340,053.
"Florida Marriages, 1837-1974," database, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:FW31-662 : 12 December 2014), Amos H. Norris and Miss Julia A. Harrison, 28 Nov 1893; citing Tampa, Hillsborough, Florida; FHL microfilm 979,059.
NAACP Papers, Part 7: The Anti-Lynching Campaign, 1912-1955, Series B: Anti-Lynching Legislative and Publicity Files, 1916-1955, Group I, Series C, Administrative File: Subject File-Congressional Action. Accessed via ProQuest History Vault.
Blanche Armwood Washington to Walter White, 26 January 1934
Walter White to Blanche Armwood Washington, 5 February 1934
Blanche Armwood Washington to Walter White, 9 February 1934
Walter White to Blanche Armwood Washington, 15 February 1934
Julia Harrison Norris to Walter White, 17 February 1934
Walter White to Julia Harrison Norris, 5 March 1934