Biographical Database of NAWSA Suffragists, 1890–1920
Biography of Jimmie Andrews Lipscomb, 1863–1939
By Kathelene McCarty Smith, Instruction and Outreach Archivist, The University of North Carolina at Greensboro
Woman Suffrage Activist
Jimmie Andrews Lipscomb was born in Mississippi in January 1863 to James Lindsey Andrews and Carrie Thomas Lipscomb. She was married around 1886 to William Stapleton Lipscomb and had three children, settling in Flora, Mississippi.
Jimmie was heavily involved in the state’s suffrage movement. In 1909, Jimmie attended the two-day annual Mississippi Woman Suffrage Association (M.W.S.A.) meeting held in the ladies’ parlor of the capitol building of Jackson, where she was elected First Vice President of the Mississippi Woman Suffrage Association. It was reported that the women at the convention behaved in a "gentle, dignified, modest, and strictly practical" manner. The Convention addressed the growing problem of the lack of clerical assistance to help carry out suffrage work. Association leaders believed that additional volunteers would result in an increase in relevant petitions, correspondence, and financial requests, causing their cause to "grow and spread marvelously, as soon as they are financially able to employ, and to find the right women to do this continuous and important work." Additionally, the conference agenda supported woman’s suffrage, as well as all legislation that helped women and children.
In 1910, Jimmie attended the M.W.S.A. annual meeting in Greenville, as Second Vice President of the organization. She was also present at the Seventh Annual Meeting which was held in Cleveland, Mississippi, during which Jimmie was cited for giving "generous help" to the cause. By 1912, Jimmie was becoming more heavily involved in the organization. She attended and was active in the Eighth Annual Meeting of the M.W.S.A., which was in her home town of Flora. She committed both time and money, donating five dollars over a three year time period. As the meeting was in Flora, Jimmie also took the opportunity to entertain delegates, friends, and neighbors at her country home, Mt. Ida Plantation. During the Ninth Convention held in 1913 in Jackson, she had moved from an officer to the Legislative Department.
Jimmie continued her involvement with the annual convention; and during the 1916 conference held at the City Hall in Meridian, she was on the official board. She also attended the 1917 conference in Starkville, Mississippi, in the same capacity. She spent the following years traveling and visiting her grown daughters and their families. Jimmie died in Jackson, Mississippi, in 1939 and was interred in the mausoleum at Woodbine Cemetery in Harrisonburg, Virginia.
SOURCES:
1900; Census Place: Vernon, Madison, Mississippi; Page: 11; Enumeration District: 0064;
"Accomplishments of Mississippi Women: Movements, Groups and Individuals, IWY Special Projects Committee, Mississippi Commission on the Observance of International Women’s Year." Washington, DC: National Commission on the Observance of International Women’s Year, 1978.
"Convention is Finished." Jackson Daily News, April 9, 1909.
Eighth Annual Report: Mississippi Woman Suffrage Association, April 1912.
Mississippi Woman Suffrage Association, Seventh Annual Session, Cleveland, Mississippi, April 11 – 12, 1911." Cleveland: Enterprise Print, 1911.
Harper, Ida Husted, ed. The History of Women’s Suffrage, Vol. VI, 1900 – 1920. New York: J. J. Little & Ives, 1922, p. 333. [LINK]
Minutes of the Ninth Annual Convention, Mississippi Woman Suffrage Association, Held at Jackson, Mississippi, April 15 – 17, 1913. Jackson: Tucker Printing House, 1913.
"Rites Here for Mrs. Lipscomb," Harrisonburg Daily News Record, March 8, 1939. Available through newspaperarchive.com.
Thompson, Lily Wilkinson, "Woman Suffrage in Mississippi," Jackson Daily News, October 21, 1909.