Image Rebecca Felton, the first woman (briefly) in the Senate. Credit... Library of Congress

For one day.

In 1922, Georgia’s governor decided to run for the seat of a senator who had died. Seeking votes from the newly enfranchised women of his state, he appointed the 87-year-old Mrs. Felton to “serve” during a congressional recess.

He lost, but Mrs. Felton was able to take office anyway.

And she was no novice.

Besides being a suffragist and a fighter for temperance, she had worked tirelessly on the campaigns of her husband, a congressman. Complicating her legacy, she was also an outspoken white supremacist.

Her one and only speech on the Senate floor concluded with a prescient promise to future female lawmakers:

“You will get integrity of purpose, you will get exalted patriotism, and you will get unstinted usefulness.”

Jennifer Steinhauer, a reporter in our Washington bureau, wrote today’s Back Story.

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