The 19th Amendment states that: "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." Women’s suffrage, or the right to vote, was not part of the original U.S. Constitution, which left the issue of who could vote to the states. Female property owners voted in New Jersey, for example, until 1807 when state law restricted the vote to white men. Women’s suffrage became a nationwide reality more than 70 years later when Tennessee’s legislature ratified the 19th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution on August 20, 1920.
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Women of Protest: Photographs from the Records of the National Woman’s Party
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A collection of 448 photos, mostly from 1913-1922, documenting the National Woman’s Party’s advocacy for ratification of the 19th Amendment.
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Votes for Women: The Struggle for Women’s Suffrage
LOC Short Description
A selection of images related to women’s voting rights, including portraits of women who campaigned for the right to vote, photos of suffrage efforts, and related political cartoons, along with a women’s suffrage timeline.
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Topics in Chronicling America - The Nineteenth Amendment
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A guide to searching Chronicling America: American Historic Newspapers for articles related to the 19th amendment, with a selection of links to sample articles.
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American Memory: Votes for Women
LOC Short Description
This collection presents selected items that relate to women’s suffrage.
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Constitution Annotated- 19th Amendment
LOC Short Description
This website presents the U.S. Constitution broken down by articles and amendments, annotated with analysis of the 19th Amendment.