this day in history, august 18, 1920: suffragists celebrate news that the nineteenth amendment to the u.s. constitution has finally been ratified, with tennessee becoming the needed 36th state to approve what had already passed both houses of congress in may and june of 1919.
alice paul, founder and then leader of the national woman’s party, can be seen second from the left in the first photo (which was taken two months prior to the others), and unfurling and in front of a flag (which shows a star for each state to have ratified the amendment) in the second and third.
continuing in the struggle for meaningful universal franchise, the league of women voters, which emerged from the national american woman suffrage association post ratification, filed a lawsuit against north carolina this week to challenge a law that, passed in the wake of the supreme court striking down a key provision of the voting rights act, disproportionately restricts the voting rights of the state’s minority voters.
for more on the suffrage movement, see ken burns’ pbs documentary “not for ourselves alone”
A great one from yesterday
August 18, 1920: The Nineteenth Amendment is Ratified
IT HAS BEEN LESS THAN 100 YEARS SINCE WOMEN HAVE BEEN ABLE TO VOTE.
