09/13/2026
This Day in Macon History: In 1922, Macon's own Viola Ross Napier shattered one of Georgia's biggest political glass ceilings. Alongside Bessie Kempton of Fulton County, Napier became one of the first two women elected to the Georgia General Assembly on September 13, 1922—just two years after the 19th Amendment granted white women the right to vote.
Born in Macon in 1881 to a family deeply rooted in the city's founding, Napier initially worked as a schoolteacher. When the 1919 flu pandemic tragically claimed both her husband and father-in-law in two weeks, the widowed mother of four was left to provide for her young family alone.
Knowing a teacher's wage wouldn't suffice, she studied law at night, working at her dining room table with a baby on her lap, and passed the bar in 1920. When local firms refused to hire a female attorney, she opened her own practice, often serving women and low-income clients. She went on to become the first female lawyer to argue before both the Georgia Court of Appeals and the Georgia Supreme Court.
Encouraged by the Macon News editor, Napier ran for office on a $48 budget and won. In the State Capitol, she used her voice to champion pioneer legislation for child labor prevention, fire safety in orphanages, and improved education for blind, handicapped, and underprivileged youth.
During her tenure, she championed pioneering legislation for public education, child labor protections, and state healthcare reform. Napier was posthumously inducted into the Georgia Women of Achievement Hall of Fame in 1993 (https://youtu.be/phEaMHrshEM?si=fewES8X2NWP2gXPb). Her portraits now hang in the Macon City Hall and in the State Capitol in Atlanta.
