Viola Ross Napier

{{short description|American politician}} {{Infobox officeholder | name = Viola Ross Napier | image = Viola Ross Napier.png | image_size = | caption = | office = Member of the [[Georgia House of Representatives]] | term_start = 1923 | term_end = 1926 | birth_name = Viola Ross | birth_date = {{birth date|1881|02|14}} | birth_place = [[Macon, Georgia]], U.S. | death_date = {{death date and age|1962|6|27|1881|02|14}} | death_place = | party = | occupation = lawyer | spouse = Hendley V. Napier Jr. | children = 4 | relations = | alma_mater = [[Wesleyan College]] }}

'''Viola Ross Napier''' (1881–1962) was, along with Bessie Kempton, one of the first two women elected to the [[Georgia House of Representatives|House of Representatives]] in the [[U.S. state]] of [[Georgia (U.S. state)|Georgia]] following the passage of the [[Nineteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution|19th Amendment]] to the [[U.S. Constitution]] which gave women the right to vote. Napier was also the first female lawyer to argue in front of the [[Georgia Court of Appeals]] and the [[Supreme Court of Georgia (U.S. state)|Georgia Supreme Court]].<ref>{{cite web|last1=Carpenter|first1=Cathy|title=Viola Ross Napier|url=http://www.georgiaencyclopedia.org/articles/history-archaeology/viola-ross-napier-1881-1962|website=georgiaencyclopedia.org|access-date=18 December 2014}}</ref> In 1993 she was posthumously inducted into the [[Georgia Women of Achievement]].

==Early life==

Viola Felton Ross was born in [[Macon, Georgia]] on February 14, 1881. Her grandfather from her mother's side was one of the city's founders. After graduating in 1901 from [[Wesleyan College]],<ref>{{cite web|title=Viola Ross Napier Class of 1901|url=http://www.wesleyancollege.edu/profiles/violarossnapier.cfm|website=wesleyancollege.com|access-date=18 December 2014 |url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160304060347/http://www.wesleyancollege.edu/profiles/violarossnapier.cfm |archive-date=March 4, 2016}}</ref> she became a schoolteacher. During her teaching career she met and married a lawyer, Hendley Napier Jr., in 1907. They had four children together. Shortly after, her husband died as a result of the flu epidemic of 1919. After losing both her husband and father-in-law, she decided to go back to school; she attended Judge "Lije" Maynard's night school in Macon, studying to become a lawyer.<ref>{{cite web|title=Napier, Viola Ross|url=https://www.georgiawomen.org/viola-ross-napier|website=Georgia Women of Achievement|access-date=18 December 2014}}</ref>

==Legislature life==

It was uncommon for women in the early 1900s to become lawyers, and Napier found it difficult to obtain a job. She decided to open her own practice. She became the first female lawyer to argue in front of both the Georgia Court of Appeals and the Georgia Supreme Court. She also became the first woman to successfully obtain a pardon for a convicted client before they served any part of their sentence.

After the approval of the [[Nineteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution|19th Amendment]] in 1920, which allowed women to vote, the editor of the Macon News persuaded Napier to run for General Assembly and became one of the first two women elected to the [[Georgia House of Representatives|House of Representatives]] in Georgia. During her time in the [[Georgia General Assembly]], she introduced several bills that were sponsored by the [[League of Women Voters]], an organization that encouraged women to use their new power to participate in shaping public policy.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Schuyler|first1=Lorraine Gates|title=Weight of Their Votes: Southern Women and Political Leverage in the 1920s: Southern Women and Political Leverage in The 1920s|date=2008|publisher=Univ of North Carolina Press, 2008|isbn=9780807876695|page=159|edition=illustrated|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=TkGUx9GCo5sC&q=Viola+Ross+Napier+georgia+bills&pg=PA159|access-date=18 December 2014}}</ref> The bills covered compulsory education, child labor reform, and recommendations from the Children’s Code Commission. She secured adoption of laws requiring better fire protection in orphanages, schools and children's hospitals. She also sponsored a bill to improve education for the blind, the handicapped, and the underprivileged, and introduced a bill to prevent child labor.

Napier remained in the House of Representatives for a second term and was defeated when she ran for a third term.

A collection of her papers are held at the Middle Georgia Archives in the [[Middle Georgia Regional Library System|Washington Memorial Library]] in Macon.<ref>{{citation | author=Napier, Viola Ross | title=Viola Ross Napier papers, 1898-1993 | oclc=38476122 |quote=The collection consists of papers of Viola Ross Napier from 1898-1993. The papers include correspondence, legal documents, legislative records, newspaper clippings, and photographs. The materials mainly document Napier's law practice and legislative service. Part of the correspondence (1978-1993) relates to recognition of Napier's civic and political contributions by various organizations and agencies. }}</ref>

==References== {{Reflist}}

==External links== *{{Find a Grave|21007861}} *[https://vault.georgiaarchives.org/digital/collection/cac/id/6/rec/117 Portrait of Napier at Georgia Capitol] via [[Georgia Archives]]

{{DEFAULTSORT:Napier, Viola Ross}} [[Category:1881 births]] [[Category:1962 deaths]] [[Category:Members of the Georgia House of Representatives]] [[Category:Women state legislators in Georgia (U.S. state)]] [[Category:Wesleyan College alumni]] [[Category:20th-century American women politicians]] [[Category:Politicians from Macon, Georgia]] [[Category:20th-century members of the Georgia General Assembly]]