(UNDATED) – 2020 is the 100th anniversary of the passage of the 19th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.
Passed by Congress on June 4, 1919, and ratified on Aug. 18, 1920, the 19th Amendment granted women the right to vote. The 19th Amendment, which declares “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,” went into effect Aug. 26, 1920.
Achieving this right took decades of work. In October of 1851, the Indiana Woman’s Rights Association held its first statewide convention in Dublin. This group is widely considered one of the first state-level suffrage organizations. The amendment was first introduced in congress in 1878, and after several generations of women and their supporters organized, lobbied, marched and picketed for voting rights, on Jan. 16, 1920, Indiana was the 26th state to ratify the 19th Amendment.
The Indiana Suffrage Centennial Committee has a list of resources to help people learn more about the state’s role in the fight for women’s suffrage.
The National Archives has more information about Woman Suffrage and the 19th Amendment, including related primary sources for teachers. From the National Park Service, one can discover the stories of women and men who fought for women’s suffrage rights.
They also have resources for children and adults, including essays on suffrage and lesson plans. Those interested can also check out Instagram and Twitter to see 19 stories from the Library of Congress, Smithsonian, and National Archives about voting-rights history drawn from all three institutions’ collections.
Every weekday from Aug. 3 through Women’s Equality Day on Aug. 26, a new story is featured.
Follow these accounts on social media to gain access to the stories: Library of Congress @LibraryCongress on Instagram and Twitter; Smithsonian @Smithsonian on Instagram and Twitter; and National Archives @USNatArchives on Instagram and Twitter.
