The Nineteenth Amendment was ratified in 1920.
Tennessee became the 36th state to ratify the amendment on August 18, 1920, supplying the three-fourths majority then required. Secretary of State Bainbridge Colby certified it on August 26, and that date is commemorated in the United States as Women’s Equality Day.
The amendment states that the right of U.S. citizens to vote cannot be denied or abridged by the United States or a state on account of sex. Its ratification followed decades of organizing by women’s-rights advocates, including Susan B. Anthony, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Ida B. Wells, and Carrie Chapman Catt.
The amendment did not instantly remove every barrier to voting. Many Black women and other women still faced poll taxes, literacy tests, intimidation, discriminatory registration practices, or citizenship restrictions. The amendment is therefore a major constitutional milestone, but not the complete end of voting discrimination.