Womens Equality Day - League of Women Voters of Albany County

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Honoring the Passage of the 19th Amendment

Women’s Right to Vote Was Certified on August 26, 1920

Scroll through this page to learn more about the 19th Amendment, the timeline of its passage, some of the suffragists who fought for the amendments passage, information about current voting rights legislation and resources about elections and voter registration.

What Is the 19th Amendment ?

The 19th Amendment codified women's voting rights nationwide. By 1919, while millions of American women could vote in some manner, universal suffrage was not the law of the land. Some women had full voting rights, while others could only vote in school board elections, and still millions of others had no voting rights at all.

Even after the 19th Amendment’s ratification in 1920, women of color — Asian American, Black, Latina, Native American – faced obstacles to voting through the 1960s because of citizenship issues, discriminatory practices and outright intimidation, some of which continue even today.

The 19th Amendment: "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.”

From the Library of Congress

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"Men, their rights and nothing more; women, their rights and nothing less," Susan B. Anthony, The Revolution, 1869

1840 Two of the early leading advocates for women's rights, Lucretia Mott and Elizabeth Cady Stanton, forged their friendship on a trip to London to attend the first World's Anti-Slavery Convention. Despite women's vital role in the abolition movement and a motion to include women at the convention, they were relegated to listening from the gallery and were prohibited from speaking or voting. Mott and Stanton's collaboration eventually led to the plans to organize the Senecal Falls Convention to further the cause of women's rights.

1848 Seneca Falls Women's Rights Convention The first convention in the country called exclusively to discuss the need for women’s rights was held in Seneca Falls on July 19–20, 1848. Organized by Lucretia Mott, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, and several other women, the convention is considered to be the launch of the suffrage movement. Convention attendees voted to accept the Declaration of Sentiments, written by Cady Stanton, that detailed a list of women's rights. These included access to education, the right to control one's own money or property, and the right to vote.

1850 First National Convention held in Worcester, Massachusetts Organized by Lucy Stone , the convention in Massachusetts called for women's right to own property and to vote. Speakers included: Abby Price, who argued for women's equal access to trades and professions; Dr. Harriet Hunt read the letters of rejection she had received from Harvard Medical School and insisted on women's right to higher education; and Sojourner Truth who spoke of the plight of slave women. Sojourner Truth's speech resulted "Ain't I A Woman?"in convention resolution calling for rights for enslaved women.

1851 At the Women's Rights Convention in Akron, Ohio, Sojourner Truth delivers her "Ain't I A Woman?" speech

1870 Despite not having the right to vote, Victoria Woodhulll became first woman to run for President of the United States as a candidate of the Equal Rights Party.

1872 Susan B. Anthony urged women to claim their right to vote under the 14th and 15th Amendments by registering to vote in every state. Anthony, her sisters, and 11 other women registered to vote in Rochester, New York. In November, Anthony was arrested for violating laws that allowed only men can vote when she cast her ballot in the presidential election. At the same time, Sojourner Truth appears at a polling booth in Battle Creek, Michigan, demanding a ballot; she is turned away.

1878 Senator Aaron Sargent (R-CA) introduces in Congress a resolution known as the Susan B. Anthony Amendment calling for women's suffrage. The Senate refers the resolution to the Committee on Privileges and Elections. The following day, suffragists testify for the first time before senators on the issue of woman suffrage. The wording remained unchanged when the amendment finally passed both houses of Congress in 1919, making way for the amendment to be ratified by the states.

1880 Helped by advocacy from Kate Stoneman, Albany suffragist and founder of Albany Woman's Suffrage Society, the School Suffrage Law is enacted in New York State which allowed women to vote in school elections. Catherine Mary Douge Williams, an African American suffragist and Vice President of the Albany Woman's Suffrage Society, organized women of color to register to vote in the April 14, 1880 school election. Williams would go on to deliver an address at the statewide Woman Suffrage State Convention in October 1881.

1890 Wyoming Gives Women The Right To Vote

1909 Ida B. Wells cofounds the NAACP

1913 Ida B. Wells cofounds the Alpha Suffrage Club in Chicago

1913 Ida B Wells joins the frontlines of the NAWSA suffragist parade, disobeying demands from NAWSA leadership that Black women to march in a segregated section at the end of the parade.

1916 Jeannette Rankin of Montana becomes the first female elected to Congress.

1917 The National Women’s Party organizes protests at the White House calling for women's suffrage.  The "Silent Sentinels" showed up each day holding banners demanding the right to vote for American women.

1919 The 19th Amendment is passed by both houses of Congress.

1920 August 18, 1920, Tennessee becomes the 36th state to ratify the amendment. Secretary of State Bainbridge Colby certified the ratification on August 26, 1920.

1920 Women are able to vote in the 1920 elections

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Meaning Behind the Suffrage Flag

Throughout the American Suffrage Movement, the combination of purple, white, and gold was used as an important symbol. Pins, badges, ribbons, and sashes of these colors were worn as a sign of support for suffrage. The National Woman’s Party in the United States described the meaning of these colors: “Purple is the color of loyalty, constancy to purpose... White, the emblem of purity, symbolizes the quality of our purpose; and gold, the color of light and life, is as the torch that guides our purpose...” From the San Jose Museum of Quilts & Textiles

The stars on the flag represent each state that ratified the 19th Amendment. In this photo, National Woman's Party activists watch Alice Paul sew a star onto the NWP Ratification Flag.
Suffrage Flag

Below are a few of the many women involved in the suffrage movement.

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Resources to Register to Vote in Albany County and New York State

Vote411 is a tool launched by the League of Women Voters Education Fund (LWVEF) to help voters get the information they need to be vote ready. VOTE411.org provides nonpartisan information to the public with both general and state-specific information about elections, registering to vote, polling locations, early voting/absentee ballots, and key dates for voter registration and elections.

Vote411

Scan the QR Code OR click to learn about the SAVE Act and how to take Action
QR SAVE Act

The SAVE Act is anything, but a save for voting rights. It is based on the false premise that non-citizen voting is widespread. Research from the Brennan Center for Justice found that in 2016 suspected “noncitizen votes accounted for just 0.0001 percent of the votes cast.” Scan the code to learn more about the SAVE Act and how to contact your legislators.

Scan the QR code or Click to learn more about the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act

John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act (JLVRAA) modernizes the Voting Rights Act of 1965 and helps ensure access to the ballot box for voters of color, voters with language access needs, and voters with disabilities.

Since 2013, with the Supreme Court’s Shelby County v. Holder decision, more challenges to voting have been encountered by women and communities of color. These include reduced polling locations; overly burdensome voter identification requirements; illegal purges of registered voters from voter rolls; and limiting voters’ options on how they can cast their ballot

If you want to support voters rights, encourage all citizens to vote, and work to protect democracy, become a member of the League of Women Voters (LWV). Join the League

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