[Congressional Bills 109th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.J. Res. 59 Received in Senate (RDS)]


109th CONGRESS
  1st Session
H. J. RES. 59


_______________________________________________________________________


                   IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES

                             July 26, 2005

                                Received

_______________________________________________________________________

                            JOINT RESOLUTION


 
Expressing the sense of Congress with respect to the women suffragists 
who fought for and won the right of women to vote in the United States.

Whereas one of the first public appeals for women's suffrage came in 1848 when 
        Lucretia Mott and Elizabeth Cady Stanton called a women's rights 
        convention in Seneca Falls, New York, on July 19, 1848;
Whereas Sojourner Truth gave her famous speech titled ``Ain't I a Woman?'' at 
        the 1851 Women's Rights Convention in Akron, Ohio;
Whereas in 1869, suffragists formed two national organizations to work for the 
        right to vote: the National Woman Suffrage Association and the American 
        Woman Suffrage Association;
Whereas these two organizations united in 1890 to form the National American 
        Woman Suffrage Association;
Whereas in 1872, Susan B. Anthony and a group of women voted in the presidential 
        election in Rochester, New York;
Whereas she was arrested and fined for voting illegally;
Whereas at her trial, which attracted nationwide attention, she made a speech 
        that ended with the slogan ``Resistance to Tyranny Is Obedience to 
        God'';
Whereas on January 25, 1887, the United States Senate voted on women's suffrage 
        for the first time;
Whereas during the early 1900s, a new generation of leaders joined the women's 
        suffrage movement, including Carrie Chapman Catt, Maud Wood Park, Lucy 
        Burns, Alice Paul, and Harriot E. Blatch;
Whereas women's suffrage leaders devoted most of their efforts to marches, 
        picketing, and other active forms of protest;
Whereas Alice Paul and others chained themselves to the White House fence;
Whereas the suffragists were often arrested and sent to jail, where many of them 
        went on hunger strikes;
Whereas almost 5,000 people paraded for women's suffrage up Pennsylvania Avenue 
        in Washington, DC; and
Whereas on August 26, 1920, the 19th Amendment to the United States Constitution 
        granted women in the United States the right to vote: Now, therefore, be 
        it
    Resolved by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United 
States of America in Congress assembled, That it is the sense of 
Congress that women suffragists should be revered and celebrated for 
working to ensure the right of women to vote in the United States.

            Passed the House of Representatives July 25, 2005.

            Attest:

                                                 JEFF TRANDAHL,

                                                                 Clerk.