Papers of Martha Ragsdale Ragland, 1852-1997 (inclusive), 1921-1997 (bulk)

Civic worker, political campaigner, and advocate of civil rights, birth control, and women's rights, Martha (Ragsdale) Ragland was born in Paducah, Kentucky, in May 14, 1906, the daughter of Joseph Senter Ragsdale and Viva Jane (Troutt) Ragsdale. Her father later served as dean of Athens College (Athens, Alabama) where her mother was also on the faculty. She had a brother Maurice (married Betty Parsons) and a sister Murrier (married George Ferry). Ragland graduated from Vanderbilt University (B.A. 1927, M.A. Economics 1928). From 1929 to 1933 under a grant with the National Records Council, Ragland was a researcher in Washington, D.C., for Ellsworth Huntington, and co-authored a book on eugenics with him. She returned to Tennessee and married Thomas Ragland in 1932; they had two children: Thomas, born November 24, 1934, and Sandra Jane (married David Demson), born October 28, 1937. Thomas Jr., graduated from Vanderbilt University in 1957 and Sandra from Radcliffe College, magna cum laude, in 1958. Thomas Ragland, Sr. was president of the Mountain City Mill Co. while the family lived in Chattanooga, Tennessee. In 1950 when Thomas Ragland, became the manager of the Knoxville branch of the Ragland Bros. Co., a state-wide family wholesale grocery, the family moved to Knoxville. A year later, they moved to Nashville. Thomas Ragland, was active in Americans for Democratic Action, a liberal political group. In 1946, Ragland taught economics at the University of Chattanooga to a class of 150 freshman war veterans.

During the 1930s and early 1940s Ragland helped organize Planned Parenthood groups at the local and state levels, and in 1938 organized a speaking tour for Margaret Sanger in Tennessee. She was a very outspoken proponent of women's participation in politics. Ragland and Dorothy Stafford were responsible for reviving the Tennessee League of Women Voters (LWV), which had disbanded in 1920 after women received the vote. She held offices in the LWV at the local, state, and national levels (president, Tennessee League of Women Voters, 1945-1946; Nashville League of Women Voters, 1946-1947), where she worked for better housing and health services, children's issues, and for tax equalization and reform of the Tennessee constitution.

Ragland headed the women's division of the Democratic Party in the 1948 general election, and chaired the women's division in the Estes Kefauver (1948) and Albert Gore (1952) campaigns for United States Senate. In the 1956 presidential campaign she was vice-chair of National Volunteers for Stevenson-Kefauver. Ragland was a delegate to the Democratic National Convention and member of the Platform Committee in 1952, a member of the Democratic National Committee (1952-1956), and Tennessee delegate to the National Women's Conference in Houston (1977). Ragland was president of the Tennessee Political Caucus; and, with the help of Carleen Waller, organized the Volunteer Women's Roundtable (VWR) which spawned the Women's Political Caucus (WPC). Ragland worked tirelessly to promote women, motivating and encouraging many to work in politics or run for office. She often suggested names of women she thought were good candidates for positions in politics.

Ragland was also very interested in civil and human rights, education, and women's rights. She served as a U.S. delegate to the Atlantic Congress of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) countries in London (1959); a delegate to the White House Conference on International Cooperation (1965); the Tennessee Citizens Committee for Better Schools (board member, 1949-50); Tennessee Commission on Children (vice chair, 1950); Tennessee Library and Archives Commission (chair, 1951-1952); Federal Advisory Council on Employment Security (1963-69); Tennessee Advisory Committee to the United States Commission on Civil Rights (chair, 1963-1969); Southern Regional Council (board member, 1965-); Citizens' Research Foundation (trustee, 1976-1983); Tennessee United Organizations for Education; Tennessee Representative of the National Committee for Support of the Public Schools; Tennessee Council on Human Relations; and the Tennessee Friends of the Libraries. Ragland was also a member of the American Library Association and the American Political Science Association. In 1995, Ragland was inducted into the YMCA's Academy of Women of Achievement, and was included in an exhibit sponsored by the League of Women Voters called Women in Action: Rebels and Reformers. Still active in her 80s, she died on January 18, 1996.