LIBRARY
Women's History Month: Women Win the Right to Vote
19th Amendment
The 19th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution was ratified on August 26, 1920. This Amendment gave women the right to vote. Although the amendment gave the right to vote to all women, due to obstacles such as poll taxes and literacy tests, mostly in the South, Black or African-American women were prevented from exercising their right to vote. Native Americans who were denied citizenship and often required to show property ownership were also denied the right to vote. The Voting Rights Act of 1965 tried to clear the way for all Americans to vote. Issues with voting continue today, especially for racial minorities. Take a few moments to learn more about the 19th Amendment and the suffragettes who fought to win the vote for women.
- PBS Video Series: The VoteThe Vote tells the dramatic story of the hard-fought campaign waged by American women for the right to vote, a transformative cultural and political movement that resulted in the largest expansion of voting rights in U.S. history.
Famous Suffragettes Biographies
Alice Paul by ISBN: 9780199958436Publication Date: 2014-06-01Alice Paul has long been an elusive figure in the political history of American women. Raised by Quaker parents in Moorestown, New Jersey, she would become a passionate and outspoken leader of the woman suffrage movement. In 1913, she reinvigorated the American campaign for a constitutional suffrage amendment and, in the next seven years, dominated that campaign and drove it to victory with bold, controversial action -wedding courage with resourcefulness and self-mastery.
Just Another Southern Town: Mary Church Terrell and the struggle for racial justice in the nation's capital by ISBN: 9780199371525Publication Date: 2016-02-01In January of 1950, Mary Church Terrell, an 86-year-old charter member of the NAACP, headed into Thompson's Restaurant, just a few blocks from the White House, and requested to be served. She and her companions were informed by the manager that they could not eat in his establishment, because they were "colored." Terrell, a former suffragette and one of the country's first college-educated African American women, took the matter to court. Three years later, the Supreme Court vindicated her outrage: District of Columbia v. John R. Thompson Co., Inc. was decided in June 1953, invalidating the segregation of restaurants and cafes in the nation's capital.
Votes for Women! by ISBN: 9781883846961Publication Date: 2004-01-01Organized and methodical, Carrie Chapman Catt led the National American Woman Suffrage Association for over twenty years, culminating in the passage of the Nineteenth Amendment.
- Frances E. W. HarperAlthough she did not live to see women win the right to vote, Frances established the National Association of Colored Women and was an outspoken suffragist. She was the most famous Black poet of her time.
- Lucy StoneArdent abolitionist, suffragist and powerful speaker in the womens' rights movement.
19th Amendment
Nine African-American women posed, standing, full length, with Nannie Burroughs holding banner reading, "Banner State Woman's National Baptist Convention" (1905-1915). Library of Congress, Lot 12572, https://www.loc.gov/item/93505051/
(1917) The first picket line - College day in the picket line. Washington D.C, 1917. Feb. [Photograph] Retrieved from the Library of Congress, https://www.loc.gov/item/97500299/.
Famous Suffragettes Videos
- Sojourner TruthShe was born a slave, but after escaping bondage in 1843, she traveled the country campaigning for women's rights and became known as a great orator.
- Ida B. WellsFamous African-American journalist and suffragist.
- Perfect 36: When Women Won the VoteAll 36 states had to ratify the 19th Amendment. Mary Church Terrell was from Memphis, Tennesee. In the last state to ratify the 19th Amendment, Mary Terrell played an important role in the final battle of the ratification process.
- Part 1: The Story of Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony: RevolutionKen Burns documentary.