# Viola Ross Napier

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American politician

Viola Ross Napier Member of the Georgia House of Representatives In office 1923–1926 Personal details Born Viola Ross (1881-02-14)February 14, 1881 Macon, Georgia, U.S. Died June 27, 1962(1962-06-27) (aged 81) Spouse Hendley V. Napier Jr. Children 4 Alma mater Wesleyan College Occupation lawyer

**Viola Ross Napier** (1881–1962) was, along with Bessie Kempton, one of the first two women elected to the [House of Representatives](/source/Georgia_House_of_Representatives) in the [U.S. state](/source/U.S._state) of [Georgia](/source/Georgia_(U.S._state)) following the passage of the [19th Amendment](/source/Nineteenth_Amendment_to_the_United_States_Constitution) to the [U.S. Constitution](/source/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](/source/Georgia_Court_of_Appeals) and the [Georgia Supreme Court](/source/Supreme_Court_of_Georgia_(U.S._state)).[1] In 1993 she was posthumously inducted into the [Georgia Women of Achievement](/source/Georgia_Women_of_Achievement).

## Early life

Viola Felton Ross was born in [Macon, Georgia](/source/Macon%2C_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](/source/Wesleyan_College),[2] 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.[3]

## 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 [19th Amendment](/source/Nineteenth_Amendment_to_the_United_States_Constitution) 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 [House of Representatives](/source/Georgia_House_of_Representatives) in Georgia. During her time in the [Georgia General Assembly](/source/Georgia_General_Assembly), she introduced several bills that were sponsored by the [League of Women Voters](/source/League_of_Women_Voters), an organization that encouraged women to use their new power to participate in shaping public policy.[4] 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 [Washington Memorial Library](/source/Middle_Georgia_Regional_Library_System) in Macon.[5]

## References

1. **[^](#cite_ref-1)** Carpenter, Cathy. ["Viola Ross Napier"](http://www.georgiaencyclopedia.org/articles/history-archaeology/viola-ross-napier-1881-1962). *georgiaencyclopedia.org*. Retrieved 18 December 2014.

1. **[^](#cite_ref-2)** ["Viola Ross Napier Class of 1901"](https://web.archive.org/web/20160304060347/http://www.wesleyancollege.edu/profiles/violarossnapier.cfm). *wesleyancollege.com*. Archived from [the original](http://www.wesleyancollege.edu/profiles/violarossnapier.cfm) on March 4, 2016. Retrieved 18 December 2014.

1. **[^](#cite_ref-3)** ["Napier, Viola Ross"](https://www.georgiawomen.org/viola-ross-napier). *Georgia Women of Achievement*. Retrieved 18 December 2014.

1. **[^](#cite_ref-4)** Schuyler, Lorraine Gates (2008). [*Weight of Their Votes: Southern Women and Political Leverage in the 1920s: Southern Women and Political Leverage in The 1920s*](https://books.google.com/books?id=TkGUx9GCo5sC&q=Viola+Ross+Napier+georgia+bills&pg=PA159) (illustrated ed.). Univ of North Carolina Press, 2008. p. 159. [ISBN](/source/ISBN_(identifier)) [9780807876695](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:BookSources/9780807876695). Retrieved 18 December 2014.

1. **[^](#cite_ref-5)** Napier, Viola Ross, *Viola Ross Napier papers, 1898-1993*, [OCLC](/source/OCLC_(identifier)) [38476122](https://search.worldcat.org/oclc/38476122), 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.

## External links

- [Viola Ross Napier](https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/21007861) at [Find a Grave](/source/Find_a_Grave)

- [Portrait of Napier at Georgia Capitol](https://vault.georgiaarchives.org/digital/collection/cac/id/6/rec/117) via [Georgia Archives](/source/Georgia_Archives)

v t e Georgia Women of Achievement 1990s 1992 Martha Berry Lucy Craft Laney Juliette Gordon Low Flannery O'Connor 1993 Dicksie Bradley Bandy Mary Musgrove Cassandra Pickett Durham Viola Ross Napier Ma Rainey 1994 Julia Flisch Carson McCullers Margaret Mitchell Ruth Hartley Mosley Emily Harvie Thomas Tubman 1995 Selena Sloan Butler Anna Colquitt Hunter Hazel Jane Raines 1996 Susan Cobb Milton Atkinson Nellie Peters Black Ellen Craft Corra Harris Lugenia Burns Hope 1997 Rebecca Latimer Felton Mary Ann Harris Gay Nancy Hart Lucy Barrow McIntire 1998 Lettie Pate Whitehead Evans Julia Collier Harris Rhoda Kaufman Carrie Steele Logan 1999 Moina Michael Lillian Smith 2000s 2000 Sallie Ellis Davis Laura Askew Haygood Ellen Axson Wilson 2001 Julia L. Coleman Catherine Evans Whitener 2002 Wessie Gertrude Connell Lula Dobbs McEachern Alice Harrell Strickland 2003 Madeleine Kiker Anthony Helena Maud Brown Cobb Julia Lester Dillon Leila Ross Wilburn 2004 Mathilda Beasley Louise Frederick Hays Helen Dortch Longstreet Sarah McLendon Murphy Emily Barnelia Woodward 2005 Alice Woodby McKane Nina Anderson Pape Jeannette Rankin 2006 Eliza Frances Andrews Grace Towns Hamilton Sarah Porter Hillhouse 2007 Margaret O. Bynum Edith Lenora Foster Helen Douglas Mankin Sara Branham Matthews 2008 Elfrida De Renne Barrow Amilee Chastain Graves Susan Dowdell Myrick 2009 Caroline Pafford Miller Jane Hurt Yarn Harriet Powers 2010s 2010 Mary Ann Lipscomb Celestine Sibley Madrid Williams 2011 Lillian Gordy Carter Mary Francis Hill Coley May duBignon Stiles Howard 2012 Sarah Randolph Bailey Beulah Rucker Oliver Ethel Harpst 2013 Lollie Belle Wylie Mary Gregory Jewett Henrietta Stanley Dull 2014 Rebecca Stiles Taylor Ella Gertrude Clanton Thomas Bazoline Estelle Usher 2015 Allie Carroll Hart Frances Freeborn Pauley Nell Kendall Hodgson Woodruff 2016 Sarah Harper Heard Ellamae Ellis League Katie Hall Underwood 2017 Carolyn Mackenzie Carter Clermont Huger Lee Lucile Nix 2018 Ludie Clay Andrews Susie Baker King Taylor Mamie George S. Williams 2019 Leila Denmark Mary Dorothy Lyndon 2020s 2020 Clarice Cross Bagwell Katharine DuPre Lumpkin Juanita Marsh Jean Elizabeth Geiger Wright 2021 Ruby M. Anderson Mary G. Bryan Laura Pope Forester Allie Murray Smith 2022 Lizzie Lurline Collier Josephine Fields Sanders Hedy West Josephine Wilkins 2023 Phyllis Jenkins Barrow Alice Coachman Luck Flanders Gambrell Dorothy Rogers Tilly 2024 Beatrice Hirsch Haas Adella Hunt Logan Valerie Murphey Elizabeth "Bessie" Tift 2025 Jessye Norman Alma Thomas

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