The Nineteenth Amendment was ratified in 1920, securing U.S. women’s constitutional voting rights.
The amendment states that the right to vote cannot be denied or abridged by the United States or any 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. Secretary of State Bainbridge Colby certified the amendment on August 26, 1920.
The amendment marked a major victory for the women’s suffrage movement, whose campaign had lasted for decades. It did not immediately create equal voting access for every woman in the country. Many women of color continued to face discriminatory state laws, intimidation, violence, and administrative barriers, especially in the South. Later federal civil-rights laws helped challenge those restrictions.