On what date did the Nineteenth Amendment go into effect in the United States?

The Nineteenth Amendment went into effect in the United States on August 18, 1920.

The amendment prohibits the federal government and the states from denying citizens the right to vote on the basis of sex. Its adoption followed decades of organizing, public campaigning, legal challenges, and state-level changes in voting rights.

Congress approved the amendment in 1919. Tennessee became the 36th state to ratify it on August 18, 1920, providing the three-fourths majority required for adoption. The amendment’s ratification was formally certified on August 26, a date now commemorated as Women’s Equality Day.

The amendment was a major constitutional milestone, but it did not remove every barrier to voting. Many African American women, Native American women, Asian American women, and Hispanic American women continued to face discriminatory laws or citizenship restrictions. Later civil-rights measures addressed some of those barriers.