After the Supreme Court denied women voting rights under the Fourteenth Amendment in 1875, suffragists began a campaign to grant voting rights under state law and by a federal constitutional amendment. In every Congress from 1878 to 1919, a resolution proposing a constitutional amendment to enfranchise women was introduced in either the House or Senate. Finally in 1919, both houses of Congress passed the Nineteenth Amendment, and three-fourths of the states necessary ratified it the following year.
General Records of the U.S. Government, National Archives and Records Administration
The Nineteenth Amendment, Passed by Congress, June 4, 1919
Extending the Vote to Women
Begun in the mid-19th century, the women’s suffrage movement was eclipsed by the Civil War. When the Fifteenth Amendment ensured all citizens the right to vote regardless of race, it was not interpreted to include women. Suffrage leaders intensified their lobbying efforts on Congress. The Nineteenth Amendment, granting franchise to women, passed in 1919, with ratification completed in 1920.
After the Supreme Court denied women voting rights under the Fourteenth Amendment in 1875, suffragists began a campaign to grant voting rights under state law and by a federal constitutional amendment. In every Congress from 1878 to 1919, a resolution proposing a constitutional amendment to enfranchise women was introduced in either the House or Senate. Finally in 1919, both houses of Congress passed the Nineteenth Amendment, and three-fourths of the states necessary ratified it the following year.
General Records of the U.S. Government, National Archives and Records Administration
