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Another Step Forward
The 100th Anniversary of Women's Suffrage
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Today, August 18, marks the 100th anniversary of the ratification of the 19th Amendment, removing all bans on women's right to vote—and another step in our historical journey to realize the promise in our Declaration of Independence.
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(Above: Suffragists parade down Fifth Avenue in 1917. Their signs contain over one million signatures of New York women demanding the vote. The New York Times Photo Archive/Wikimedia Commons)
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For over a century, American women were taxed and made subject to laws, yet had no voice in the democratic process, a definite violation in the promise of our Declaration. Although some western states, notably Wyoming, Utah, Colorado, and Idaho, allowed full women’s suffrage before this date, most of the United States previously had partial or full restrictions on women voting.
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Demands for Political Equality
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In early America, suffrage was largely dependent on an individual’s assets – voting was limited to those who owned a certain amount of property.
In most cases, this rule excluded those who weren’t white men, but laws varied enough to allow women and/or free black men to vote in several locations.
Although some states eliminated property qualifications throughout the 1800s, many still prohibited women from voting. During this time, some of the most prominent leaders for women’s rights—Susan B. Anthony, Frederick Douglass, and Elizabeth Cady Stanton—galvanized support for women's suffrage, all centering their arguments around our founding principles.
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"It was we, the people, not we, the white male citizens, nor yet we, the male citizens; but we, the whole people, who formed this Union. And we formed it, not to give the blessings or liberty, but to secure them...”
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After the Civil War, suffragists unsuccessfully challenged voting bans on the premise of the Fourteenth Amendment’s privileges and immunities clause. In Minor v. Happersett, the Supreme Court ruled that "the Constitution of the United States does not confer the right of suffrage upon anyone," because suffrage was not an inherent part of citizenship.
The setback inspired redirection in the movement towards an increased focus on the passage of a suffrage amendment to the Constitution.
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Victory for Women's Suffrage
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Thanks in part to the new statehood of pro-suffrage western states, the proposed Nineteenth Amendment passed the House and Senate in 1919 before being put to a vote in the 48 states.
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Tennessee was the final state needed to achieve a 3/4 majority.The amendment's success in Tennessee is credited in part to Harry Burn and his mother, Feb. Harry, a young lawmaker from Niota, changed his vote to favor the amendment upon the urging of his mother. His vote was key to the narrow success of the amendment in the state, and Feb's influence exemplified the keen (but repressed) political impact of American women prior to ratification.
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Upon its successful ratification in Tennessee on August 18, 1920, the amendment was officially made law, just in time for the 1920 election.
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Realizing the Declaration's Promise
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Today, we celebrate the passage of the 19th Amendment and the perseverance it took to gain women's suffrage and move toward equality as stated in the Declaration of Independence.
In 1920, America's suffragists and their foremothers made the guiding principles of our founding document a reality for women, that governments derive "their just powers from the consent of the governed."
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(Above: Women sew stars on a suffrage flag tracking ratification of the 19th Amendment, Harris & Ewing, 1920)
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This was another important step in our uneven, but ongoing progress toward realizing our country's vision, that "all men [and women] are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness."
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History can always teach us something about the present, but only if it remains a priority. Without knowledge of our predecessors' struggles, we have no basis to make important decisions about our country's future.
JMC supports those teachers who are championing education in America's history and its founding principles. Our growing network of more than 900 dedicated professors are making a difference on hundreds of campuses across the country. So far, they have taught more than one million students. Will you help us reach more?
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About the Jack Miller Center
The Jack Miller Center is a 501(c)(3) public charity with the mission to reinvigorate education in America's founding principles and history. We work to advance the teaching and study of America's history, its political and economic institutions, and the central principles, ideas and issues arising from the American and Western traditions—all of which continue to animate our national life.
We support professors and educators through programs, resources, fellowships and more to help them teach our nation's students.
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