Nineteenth Amendment

The Nineteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution granted women's suffrage in 1920 by stipulating that the right to vote could not be denied on the basis of sex. The passage of the amendment was a result of 72 years of organizing, lobbying, and protesting on the part of the woman's suffrage movement, which originally enumerated its demand at the Seneca Falls Convention in 1848. As suffragists watched the Fourteenth (1868) and Fifteenth Amendments (1870) pass, which augmented the rights of African Americans, they remained disenfranchised. Leading suffragists Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony called for a Sixteenth Amendment that would grant women the vote, but it stalled in Congress.

A new draft amendment was introduced into Congress in 1878, eventually known as the Susan B. Anthony Amendment. The amendment, which took 42 years to pass, was reintroduced in each session of Congress but was rarely brought to a vote in either the House or the Senate. Unsuccessful votes in 1887 and 1914 reflected the necessary work still to be done by suffragists.

President Woodrow Wilson's 1918 decision to come out in favor of women's suffrage signaled a shift among politicians, and his influence spurred several undecided legislators to vote in favor of the Susan B. Anthony Amendment in the House vote of January 10, 1918. The House of Representatives passed the amendment with the necessary two-thirds margin in 1918, with 274 votes in favor and 136 votes against, although it failed in the Senate twice more. The Senate finally passed the amendment on June 4, 1919, with 56 votes in favor and 25 votes against.

To be added to the Constitution, the proposed Nineteenth Amendment was required to be ratified by three fourths of the states in the Union. With only one more state needed, Tennessee's August 18, 1920, legislative session became the final showdown for women's suffrage. A tied vote, which would have prevented ratification, was broken at the last minute by young Senator Harry Burn, who switched his position at the urging of his mother. Despite some legal delays, Tennessee finally became the 36th state to ratify the Nineteenth Amendment, and it was formally added to the Constitution on August 26, 1920.

The Nineteenth Amendment further realized the ideology of American democracy by ensuring the right of all citizens to vote. Additional changes to national voting laws would not be made until the 1960s, when African Americans were finally fully enfranchised throughout the country. The Nineteenth Amendment and the suffrage movement that brought about its passage allowed women to participate in the political process and furthered their quest for equality.