Justice Bell Foundation
Reclaiming Women's History. Highlighting Women's Contributions. Promoting Voter Participation.
19th Amendment Quick Facts
College students picketing the White House
Text of the 19th Amendment
Alice Paul and women celebrating the 19th Amendment
To get the word 'male' in effect out of the Constitution cost the women of the country 52 years of pauseless campaign.
During that time they were forced to conduct
56 campaigns of referenda to male voters;
480 campaigns to get Legislatures to submit suffrage amendments to voters;
47 campaigns to get State constitutional conventions to write woman suffrage into state constitutions;
277 campaigns to get State party conventions to include woman suffrage planks in party platforms, and
19 campaigns with 19 successive Congresses.
~ Carrie Chapman Catt
President of the National American Woman Suffrage Association
Founder of the League of Women Voters
Founder of the International Alliance of Women
The text: The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of sex. Congress shall have power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation.
The 19th Amendment is also known as the Anthony Amendment, named for Susan B. Anthony.
The amendment, drafted by Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton, was first introduced in the Senate in January 1878 by Senator Aaron A. Sargent of California. It failed.
May 21, 1919: the House of Representatives passed the amendment.
June 4, 1919: the Senate passed the amendment.
The amendment was sent to the states for ratification.
Thirty-six states had to ratify the amendment for it to become law.
June 10, 1919: Wisconsin was the first state to ratify the amendment. (June 24, 1919: Pennsylvania was the seventh state to ratify the amendment.)
August 18, 1920: Tennessee became the thirty-sixth state to ratify the amendment. It passed by only one vote, which was cast by TN State Representative Harry Burn.
August 26, 1920: The 19th Amendment, guaranteeing women the right to vote, was formally adopted into the U.S. Constitution by proclamation of Secretary of State Bainbridge Colby.