06/04/2026
The 19th Amendment was passed by both houses of Congress in 1919, which began the state ratification process that would lead to the Amendment's certification in the Constitution on August 26, 1920.
But the battle for women's right to vote didn't end there. While it represented a major victory for the movement after nearly 70 years of activism, the 19th Amendment did not simply grant universal suffrage for all women.
Native American women were not considered US citizens until 1924, but until as late as 1962, individual states still prevented them from voting.
Asian American immigrant women were excluded from voting until the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1952 allowed them to gain citizenship.
Black women faced Jim Crow-era barriers like poll taxes, voter ID requirements, and acts of violence that threatened their ability to cast a ballot until the Voting Rights Act of 1965.
Latina women faced literacy tests and other language-based setbacks that prevented them from voting until a 1975 extension of the Voting Rights Act.
As we celebrate this monumental achievement for women, we also recognize that only some of the women who fought for suffrage were able to exercise their newly-won right to vote. Despite being some of the movement's fiercest advocates, suffragists like Mabel Ping-Hua Lee, Zitkála-Šá, and Luisa Capetillo could not cast their first ballots in the 1920 election because of their race.
Today, we honor the women who not only fought for the 19th Amendment's passage, but also after it, as their efforts on behalf of their communities paved the way for the freedoms of all American women.
📷: Abby Scott Baker (seated), Anita Pollitzer (standing), Alice Paul (seated), Florence Boeckel (seated), and Mabel Vernon (standing) conferring over ratification of the 19th Amendment at the National Woman's Party headquarters, 1919.
