Celebrating ratification of the women's suffrage amendment, Alice Paul sews the 36th star on a banner, in August 1920. The 36th star represented Tennessee, whose ratification led to the 19th Amendment. | AP Photo U.S. women attain voting rights, Aug. 18, 1920

On this day in 1920, Tennessee ratified the 19th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, granting American women the universal right to vote. It did so by giving the amendment the needed two-thirds majority of states to make it the law of the land. Its approval came by the narrowest of majorities: 50 of the 99 members of the Tennessee House voted for passage.

Ten days later, the amendment was formally inscribed into the Constitution through a proclamation issued by Secretary of State Bainbridge Colby. Adoption of the amendment marked some seven decades of efforts by militant suffragists — with significant help from their male allies — to enable women to vote throughout the country in local, state and federal elections.


Its two sections read: “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” and “Congress shall have power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation.”

By the beginning of the 20th century, the role of women in American society had changed drastically: Women were working more, receiving a better education and bearing fewer children. Three more states (Colorado, Utah, and Idaho) had yielded to the demand for female enfranchisement.

In 1916, the National Woman’s Party, formed in 1913, decided to adopt a more radical approach to female suffrage. Instead of merely lobbying, its members picketed the White House, marched and staged acts of civil disobedience, which landed some of them in jail.

By 1920, many male politicians were eager to resolve the long-festering suffrage issue before the fall elections, held in the aftermath of World War I. (In November, with women voting for the first time in federal-level contests, the Republicans easily recaptured the White House and extended their majorities in the House by 62 seats while gaining an additional 10 Senate seats.)

President Woodrow Wilson had convened a special session of Congress to act on the suffrage issue. On May 21, 1919, it cleared the House with 42 votes to spare. The Senate vote, which came on June 4, 1919, was 56 to 25, with most Southern Democrats voting “no.”

Mississippi became the last of the 48 states then in the Union to signal its approval. It did so on March 22, 1984, during the presidency of Ronald Reagan, after the Mississippi Legislature had rejected it on March 29, 1920.

On Feb. 17, 1922, the U.S. Supreme Court unanimously spurned a claim by Oscar Leser, a Baltimore resident, that its adoption was procured by unconstitutional means.

Leser argued the amendment “destroyed state autonomy” because it increased Maryland’s electorate without its consent. The court responded that the amendment was worded like the 15th Amendment, which by that time had expanded state electorates without regard to race for over 50 years, despite having been rejected by six states, including Maryland.

SOURCE: WWW.HISTORY.COM