[Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents Volume 31, Number 33 (Monday, August 21, 1995)]
[Pages 1443-1444]
[Online from the Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

<R04>
Proclamation 6816--Women's Equality Day, 1995

August 16, 1995

By the President of the United States

of America

A Proclamation

    Seventy-five years ago this Nation took a great step forward by 
ratifying the 19th Amendment to the Constitution. Twenty-eight simple 
words--``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''--brought to a triumphant conclusion the long decades of struggle 
waged by generations of suffragists. Looking back from the vantage point 
of the

[[Page 1444]]

present, when the contributions and influence of women enrich every 
facet of our national life, it seems remarkable that as recently as 1920 
most American women were still denied their right to full participation 
in the political activity of this country. Our history continues to 
remind us that humanity's age-old enemies of ignorance and prejudice are 
not easily defeated.
    But defeated they were, by an army of women and men who, inspired by 
the staunch courage and unswerving commitment of leaders like Susan B. 
Anthony, changed people's minds and the course of U.S. history. Using 
the classic tools of democracy--assembly and petition, exhortation and 
example, peaceful protest and political shrewdness--these champions of 
liberty won a lasting victory for civil rights. The fight was hard, the 
margins slim, and the outcome often in doubt. But after years of effort 
and sacrifice, after countless acts of courage and conscience, advocates 
of women's suffrage rejoiced as the Congress proposed an amendment to 
the Constitution in 1919 and as Tennessee, the last State needed for 
ratification, approved that amendment on August 18, 1920, by a single 
vote, when a young legislator heeded his mother's plea to support 
suffrage. On August 26, 1920, the 19th Amendment was finally proclaimed 
part of the United States Constitution, fulfilling Susan B. Anthony's 
pledge that ``failure is impossible.''
    Women's Equality Day, while a fitting occasion to commemorate this 
great victory of wisdom over ignorance, is also a time for sober 
reflection that American democracy is a work in progress. The 
Declaration of Independence was only the first step in our long journey 
toward equality for all Americans. And while we have made much progress, 
until all women have an equal opportunity to develop their full 
potential and to make contributions that are accepted and welcomed by 
our society, our freedom as a Nation will be incomplete.
    Let us observe Women's Equality Day, then, both as a celebration of 
past achievement and a promise for the future: a promise to promote and 
protect with vigor and vigilance the rights of all our citizens; a 
promise to decry the policies of exclusion and to pursue the ideal of 
equality for every American; and a promise to empower all of our people 
to take their rightful place as full and equal partners in the great 
American enterprise.
    Now, Therefore, I, William J. Clinton, President of the United 
States of America, by virtue of the authority vested in me by the 
Constitution and laws of the United States, do hereby proclaim August 
26, 1995, as ``Women's Equality Day.'' I call upon the citizens of our 
great Nation to observe this day with appropriate programs and 
activities.
    In Witness Whereof, I have hereunto set my hand this sixteenth day 
of August, in the year of our Lord nineteen hundred and ninety-five, and 
of the Independence of the United States of America the two hundred and 
twentieth.
                                            William J. Clinton

[Filed with the Office of the Federal Register, 11:32 a.m., August 17, 
1995]

Note: This proclamation was released by the Office of the Press 
Secretary on August 17, and it was published in the Federal Register on 
August 18.