The Nineteenth Amendment was ratified in 1920, granting women in the United States a constitutional voting-rights guarantee.
The amendment states that voting rights cannot be denied by the United States or a state on account of sex. Congress approved it in June 1919, and Tennessee became the thirty-sixth state to ratify it on August 18, 1920, supplying the required three-fourths of the states.
The amendment was certified on August 26, 1920, a date now commemorated as Women’s Equality Day. Its adoption followed decades of organizing, petitioning, public speaking, and political campaigning by suffragists.
The amendment did not instantly eliminate every barrier to voting. Many Black women and other women of color still faced discriminatory state laws, intimidation, and administrative obstacles. Later civil-rights legislation was required to strengthen and enforce voting access.