100th Anniversary of Women’s Right to Vote

Published: August 26, 2020

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Proclamation declaring the 19th Amendment ratified and part of the U.S. Constitution

Suffragists launched their organized fight for women’s equality in July 1848 during the first women’s rights convention in Seneca Falls, New York.

For the next 72 years, leaders of the National Woman's Party (NWP) lobbied, marched, picketed, and protested for the right to the vote. The U.S. House of Representatives finally approved the Susan B. Anthony Amendment on May 21, 1919, followed by the Senate on June 4, 1919. The Amendment then went to the states, where it had to be ratified by 3/4ths of the states to be added to the Constitution.

Read the full text of the Susan B. Anthony Amendment in the Congressional Record

    58 Cong. Rec. (Bound) - House of Representatives: May 21, 1919

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    58 Cong. Rec. (Bound) - Senate: June 4, 1919

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Tennessee was the last state to ratify the 19th Amendment on August 18, 1920, by a vote of 50-47.

On August 26, 1920, the 19th Amendment was formally adopted into the U.S. Constitution by proclamation of Secretary of State Bainbridge Colby.


Cover of program for the National American Women's Suffrage Association procession, showing woman, in elaborate attire, with cape, blowing long horn, from which is draped a votes for women banner, on decorated horse, with U.S. Capitol in background.

Official program - Woman suffrage procession, Washington, D.C. March 3, 1913 / Dale.


Related Publications

Public Law 95-447 - Susan B. Anthony Dollar Coin Act of 1978
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Public Law 116-71 - Women's Suffrage Centennial Commemorative Coin Act
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DCPD-201600239 - Proclamation 9423-Establishment of the Belmont-Paul Women's Equality National Monument
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S. Doc. 112-9 - Constitution of the United States of America: Analysis, and Interpretation - Centennial Edition - Nineteenth Amendment - Women's Suffrage Rights
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S. Doc. 116-3 - Constitution of the United States and the Declaration of Independence, Pocket Edition
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Find photos in this article and other free to use and reuse photos of women’s history from the Library of Congress.


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