Ratification by three-fourths of the states is required for a constitutional amendment. Rhode Island was the twenty-fourth of 48 states to ratify the Nineteenth Amendment guaranteeing woman suffrage. The amendment was adopted on August 18, 1920, when Tennessee became the thirty-sixth state to ratify it. The last state to ratify the Nineteenth Amendment was Mississippi, in 1984.
Records of the U.S. Senate, National Archives and Records Administration
Rhode Island ratification of the Nineteenth Amendment, January 6, 1920
The Nineteenth Amendment
The movement to ensure federal voting rights for women began in the 1840s and culminated, after decades of struggle by generations of suffragists, with ratification of the Nineteenth Amendment in 1920. Eclipsed by the Civil War, the woman suffrage effort intensified after the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments were interpreted to apply only to men. Supporters of woman suffrage pursued diverse strategies until Congress passed a resolution for a constitutional amendment in 1919 and the states ratified it the following year.
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.
Nineteenth Amendment of the United States Constitution
Ratification by three-fourths of the states is required for a constitutional amendment. Rhode Island was the twenty-fourth of 48 states to ratify the Nineteenth Amendment guaranteeing woman suffrage. The amendment was adopted on August 18, 1920, when Tennessee became the thirty-sixth state to ratify it. The last state to ratify the Nineteenth Amendment was Mississippi, in 1984.
Records of the U.S. Senate, National Archives and Records Administration
