August 18, 2020 marked the centennial of the addition of the 19th Amendment to the Constitution, which guarantees American women the right to vote. While the amendment passed on June 4, 1919, it fulfilled the requirement for ratification by 3/4 of the states when Tennessee chose to ratify it 14 months later. The remaining 22 of 48 states ratified the amendment over the course of the next 64 years, ending with Mississippi in 1984. (Note: Alaska and Hawai’i were granted statehood in 1959, so the 19th Amendment was already part of the Constitution they inherited).
While some women were able to vote prior to the amendment, depending on race, geography and citizenship status, the 19thAmendment clarified that states could not restrict the right to vote based on sex. Though this amendment was a strong step toward greater equality, some states implemented barriers to voting that impacted citizens – especially women of color – and effectively continued disenfranchisement. (”Myths About the 19th Amendment,” Time.com)
Though women of color were an active part of the fight for women’s suffrage, including Adelina “Nina” Otero-Warren and Mabel Ping-Hua Lee, they were still barred from voting by taxes and tests implemented on local levels and designed to suppress non-white voters. Black women continued to pursue the right to vote after the adoption of the 19th Amendment, as they were often explicitly excluded from the larger movement. It would be another 45 years before the passage of the Voting Rights Act of 1965, which offered greater advocacy and protections for previously disenfranchised voters.
Today, there has been a marked shift in representation in the halls of government, with women occupying 25 percent of U.S. Senate seats and 23 percent of seats in the U.S. House of Representatives. And although efforts to suppress voters’ rights are still present today, organizations such as the League of Women Voters and the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) continue to advocate for the protection and expansion of voters’ rights in the United States.