The Nineteenth Amendment granted American women the constitutional right to vote nationwide.
Congress approved the amendment on June 4, 1919, and Tennessee became the thirty-sixth state to ratify it on August 18, 1920. Secretary of State Bainbridge Colby certified the amendment on August 26, 1920, completing its adoption.
The amendment states that voting rights cannot be denied by the United States or any state on account of sex. It marked a major victory for the woman suffrage movement, whose organizers had campaigned for decades through petitions, speeches, marches, and state-level voting reforms.
The amendment did not instantly eliminate every barrier to voting. Many women of color continued to face discriminatory laws and intimidation, particularly in the South. Native American women also confronted citizenship restrictions until later legal changes. The Nineteenth Amendment was therefore a landmark, but not the end of the struggle for equal voting access.