Today In History: Women Are Granted the Right to Vote

It is not right that women should have no voice in these matters of great concern to us. President Wilson has his mind on the war at the moment, but I, and many others, refuse to let him ignore our cause -- universal suffrage for all adult citizens, in all states. I am going to Washington to join the picket line in front of the White House. 

-- From "Courage",  Muriel in Crossing Stones, by Helen Frost, pp. 50-51.

On August 18th, 1920 the Nineteenth Amendment to the Constitution was ratified by the United States Congress. It ensured the right of women to vote, following a long fight for suffrage whose roots date back to 1777 when all states passed laws that denied women the ballot. In 1872 American women's rights activist Susan B. Anthony cast her vote to test whether she could vote under the Fourteenth Amendment which guaranteed "citizens" (defined as "male") the right to vote -- only to be convicted of "unlawful voting." The federal women's suffrage amendment, written by Susan B. Anthony and introduced to Congress in 1878, was passed by the House of Representatives and Senate in 1919, but would take another year to be active across the country. While Wyoming was the first state to grant settler women the right to vote in all elections as of 1890, southern states, particularly Tennessee, North Carolina, and Georgia,  lagged far behind.

In addition to Susan B. Anthony, prominent women's suffrage leaders included Millicent Garrett Fawcett, Emmeline Pankhurst, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Lucy Stone, Sojourner Truth, Frances Willard, and Victoria Woodhull. At the landmark Seneca Falls, New York Convention in 1848, three hundred men and women signed the Declaration of Sentiments, a plea to end discrimination against women, but the battle for equal rights would continue well into the 21st century -- influencing decisions on women and their role in government, industry, the military, and many other walks of life.  At the heart of democracy were voting rights.

The following articles are drawn from Proquest Historical Newspapers, which informs and inspires classroom teaching and learning.

• Mrs Charles, W. B. (1918, Feb 10). Suffrage News and Views: Argument for the Federal Suffrage Amendment -- Then and Now. Nashville Tennessean and the Nashville American (1910-1920).
• Support Pledged to Suffrage by Republican Party: National Committee, with Women Sitting in Conference. (1919, Jan 11). The Christian Science Monitor (1908-).
• Rich, C. (1920, Sep 05). Brief History of the Suffrage Movement in Tennessee: Tennessee Leaders Who Rejoiced at Suffrage Amendment Ratification. Nashville Tennessean (1920-1922).
• Women See End of Long Fight for Vote: Suffrage Leaders Believe 36 States Will Ratify by Next Spring. (1919, Oct 06). St. Louis Post - Dispatch (1879-1922). 
• N. C. Bars Woman Suffrage -- Up to Tennessee; Volunteer State Expected to Act Some Time Today; Surface Indications Seem Against Ratification by Tennessee through Suffrage Advocates Still Express Confidence. (1920, Aug 18). The Atlanta Constitution (1881-1945). 
• Women to Vote Entire Ticket Sept. 15, Plan: Illinois Prepared for Full Suffrage. (1920, Aug 19). Chicago Daily Tribune (1872-1922).
• Thayer, L. H. (1920, Aug 22). A Chapter That Will Appear in Every American History of Future -- How Women Won the Vote.  Boston Daily Globe (1872-1922.) 
• The Woman's Party: The History of the Militant Suffragists in America. (1921, Mar 27). San Francisco Chronicle (1869-1922).
• Hathaway, C. (1926, Aug 22). Women Progress Under Suffrage: Six Years of National Enfranchisement Have Seen Political and Economic Gains -- Their Accomplishments Analyzed. New York Times (1923-). 
• Schuessler, J. (2019, Aug 16). Nevertheless, They Persisted: Three Washington Exhibitions Explore the Complex History of the Women's Suffrage Movement and the 19th Amendment. New York Times (1923-) .

Tips:

• Brumbaugh, S. B. (1946). Democratic Experience and Education in the National League of Women Voters. Bureau of Publications, Teachers College, Columbia University.  TCANA ; LB5 .C5 no. 916. e-book.
• Cooper, I. (2014). A Woman in the House (and Senate) : How Women Came to the United States Congress, Broke Down Barriers, and Changed the Country. Abrams Books for Young Readers.  Curriculum ; HQ1236.5.U6 C667 2014.
• Goodier, S., & Pastorello, K. (2017). Women Will Vote : Winning Suffrage in New York State (1st ed.). Three Hills, an imprint of Cornell University Press.  e-book.
• Kent, D. (2017). Elizabeth Cady Stanton : Founder of the Women’s Suffrage Movement. Enslow Publishing. e-book.
• Metz, L. (2014). The Women’s Suffrage Movement. Rosen Publishing Group. e-book.
• Sandler, M. W. (2019). 1919 The Year That Changed America. Bloomsbury Children’s Books. Juvenile ; E784 .S25 2019.
• Taub, S. (2024). Suffs. (1st ed.). Theatre Communications Group, Incorporated. e-book.
• Votes for Women : The Fight for Suffrage. (1993). Golden Owl Pub Co.  Curriculum ; JF848 .V68 1993.
• Woman's Journal and Suffrage News, 1870-1917. Boston, Mass. vols. 1-48.
• Women's Suffrage and the Nineteenth Amendment. Educational Resources. National Archives.

Images:

• Photograph of Flag Bearer for Women’s Rights Standing Near White House; 1/30/1917; Photographs of U.S. and Foreign Personalities, World Events, and American Economic, Social, and Cultural Life, ca. 1953 – ca. 1994; Records of the U.S. Information Agency, Record Group 306; National Archives at College Park, College Park, MD.  National Archives Identifier 594266.
• Poster Image: Women and the Right to Vote, Canva.

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