On what date was the Nineteenth Amendment certified as part of the U.S. Constitution?

The Nineteenth Amendment was certified as part of the U.S. Constitution on August 26, 1920.

The amendment prohibits the United States and its states from denying citizens the right to vote on the basis of sex. Secretary of State Bainbridge Colby formally certified its adoption after Tennessee became the 36th state to ratify it on August 18, 1920. The certification date is commemorated in the United States as Women’s Equality Day.

Several dates connected with the amendment are easy to confuse. Congress approved the proposed amendment in 1919: the House passed it on May 21 and the Senate on June 4. Tennessee supplied the decisive ratification on August 18, while August 26 marked federal certification.

The amendment represented the culmination of decades of organizing by figures including Susan B. Anthony, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Alice Paul, and Carrie Chapman Catt. It expanded constitutional voting protection, although many women of color still faced discriminatory laws and practices that blocked or restricted their access to the polls.