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The Nineteenth Amendment (Amendment XIX) to the United States Constitution prohibits each state and the federal government from denying any citizen the right to vote because of that citizen's sex. It was ratified on August 18, 1920.
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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.
Congress shall have power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation.
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History
On January 9, 1918, President Woodrow Wilson announced his support of the amendment. The next day, the House of Representatives narrowly passed the amendment, but the Senate refused to debate it until October. When the Senate voted on the amendment in October, it failed by three votes.[1]
In response, the National Woman's Party urged citizens to vote against anti-suffrage Senators up for reelection in the 1918 midterm elections. Following those elections, most members of Congress were pro-suffrage. On May 21, 1919, the House of Representatives passed the amendment by a vote of 304 to 89 and the Senate followed suit on June 4, by a vote of 56 to 25.[2]
On August 18, 1920, the Tennessee General Assembly, by a one-vote margin became the thirty-sixth state legislature to ratify the proposed amendment, making it the Nineteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. On August 26, 1920, Secretary of State Bainbridge Colby certified the amendment's adoption.
In Leser v. Garnett, 258 U.S. 130 (1922), the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that the Nineteenth Amendment had been properly adopted.[3]
Proposal and ratification
The Congress proposed the Nineteenth Amendment on June 4, 1919 and the following states ratified the amendment.[4]
- Illinois (June 10, 1919, reaffirmed on June 17, 1919)
- Michigan (June 10, 1919)
- Wisconsin (June 10, 1919)
- Kansas (June 16, 1919)
- New York (June 16, 1919)
- Ohio (June 16, 1919)
- Pennsylvania (June 24, 1919)
- Massachusetts (June 25, 1919)
- Texas (June 28, 1919)
- Iowa (July 2, 1919)[5]
- Missouri (July 3, 1919)
- Arkansas (July 28, 1919)
- Montana (August 2, 1919)[5]
- Nebraska (August 2, 1919)
- Minnesota (September 8, 1919)
- New Hampshire (September 10, 1919)[5]
- Utah (October 2, 1919)
- California (November 1, 1919)
- Maine (November 5, 1919)
- North Dakota (December 1, 1919)
- South Dakota (December 4, 1919)
- Colorado (December 15, 1919)[5]
- Kentucky (January 6, 1920)
- Rhode Island (January 6, 1920)
- Oregon (January 13, 1920)
- Indiana (January 16, 1920)
- Wyoming (January 27, 1920)
- Nevada (February 7, 1920)
- New Jersey (February 9, 1920)
- Idaho (February 11, 1920)
- Arizona (February 12, 1920)
- New Mexico (February 21, 1920)
- Oklahoma (February 28, 1920)
- West Virginia (March 10, 1920, confirmed on September 21, 1920)
- Washington (March 22, 1920)
- Tennessee (August 18, 1920)
Ratification was completed on August 18, 1920. The amendment was subsequently ratified by the following states:
- Connecticut (September 14, 1920, reaffirmed on September 21, 1920)
- Vermont (February 8, 1921)
- Delaware (March 6, 1923, after being rejected on June 2, 1920)
- Maryland (March 29, 1941 after being rejected on February 24, 1920; not certified until February 25, 1958)
- Virginia (February 21, 1952, after being rejected on February 12, 1920)
- Alabama (September 8, 1953, after being rejected on September 22, 1919)
- Florida (May 13, 1969)[6]
- South Carolina (July 1, 1969, after being rejected on January 28, 1920; not certified until August 22, 1973)
- Georgia (February 20, 1970, after being rejected on July 24, 1919)
- Louisiana (June 11, 1970, after being rejected on July 1, 1920)
- North Carolina (May 6, 1971)
- Mississippi (March 22, 1984, after being rejected on March 29, 1920)
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