The Nineteenth Amendment was ratified on August 18, 1920, giving women a constitutional voting-rights guarantee in the United States.
Tennessee became the 36th state to approve the amendment, supplying the three-fourths state majority then required for constitutional ratification. The decisive vote in the Tennessee House came from Harry T. Burn, who had initially opposed the amendment but followed a letter from his mother urging him to support women’s suffrage.
Congress had passed the amendment in June 1919, and the required number of states ratified it in August 1920. Secretary of State Bainbridge Colby certified the amendment on August 26, which is why August 26 is celebrated as Women’s Equality Day. The legal change did not instantly remove every barrier to voting.
Many women of color continued to face discriminatory registration practices, poll taxes, literacy tests, intimidation, and exclusion. Native American women also confronted citizenship and state-law barriers. Later federal legislation, especially the Voting Rights Act of 1965, was necessary to strengthen enforcement of voting rights.