On what date did the Nineteenth Amendment become part of the United States Constitution?

The Nineteenth Amendment became part of the United States Constitution on August 18, 1920.

The amendment prohibited the federal government and the states from denying the right to vote on the basis of sex. Congress approved the proposed amendment in June 1919, and Tennessee became the thirty-sixth state to ratify it on August 18, reaching the required three-fourths threshold.

The constitutional text is brief, but the campaign behind it lasted decades. Activists including Susan B. Anthony, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Ida B. Wells, Alice Paul, and Carrie Chapman Catt used petitions, speeches, marches, litigation, and civil disobedience to press for voting rights.

August 26, 1920, is also important because Secretary of State Bainbridge Colby certified the ratification, making the amendment’s legal completion and official certification separate dates. The amendment expanded voting rights nationally, though discriminatory barriers still prevented many women of color from voting for decades.