August 26, 2020, the US celebrated the 100th anniversary of the 19th Amendment and women’s constitutional right to vote.

Suffragists began their organized fight for women’s equality in 1848 when they demanded the right to vote during the first women’s rights convention in Seneca Falls, New York. For the next 72 years, women leaders lobbied, marched, picketed, and protested for the right to the ballot. The U.S. House of Representatives finally approved the Susan B. Anthony Amendment, which guaranteed women the right to vote, on May 21, 1919. The U.S. Senate followed two weeks later, and the 19th Amendment went to the states, where it had to be ratified by 3/4ths of the-then-48 states to be added to the Constitution. By a vote of 50-47, Tennessee became the last state needed to ratify the 19th Amendment on August 18, 1920. Secretary of State Bainbridge Colby issued a proclamation declaring the 19th Amendment ratified and part of the US Constitution on August 26, 1920, forever protecting American women’s right to vote.

Today, more than 68 million women vote in elections because of the courageous suffragists who never gave up the fight for equality. Explore the resources below to learn more about the story of the 19th Amendment and women’s fight for the ballot.

• Women’s Vote Centennial
  Official Site Commemorating 100 Years of Women’s Right to Vote
• Suffragist Memorial Website
  Turning Point Suffragist Memorial
• 20 Suffragists to Know for 2020
  National Park Service
• California and the 19th Amendment
  National Park Service
• California Women Suffrage Centennial
  California Secretary of State
• Progressive Era: 1890–1920s: Women Suffrage
  Museum of California

• Votes for Women: A Portrait of Persistence
  National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institute, Washington, DC
  March 29, 2019 – January 5, 2020
  
  
• Shall Not Be Denied: Women Fight for the Vote
  Library of Congress, Washington, DC
  June 4, 2019–September 2020

• Rightfully Hers: American Women and the Vote
  National Archives Museum, Washington, DC
  May 10, 2019 – January 3, 2021