Which amendment became part of the U.S. Constitution after Tennessee ratified it on August 18, 1920?

The Nineteenth Amendment became part of the U.S. Constitution after Tennessee ratified it on August 18, 1920.

The amendment bars the United States and its states from denying citizens the right to vote on the basis of sex. Congress proposed it in June 1919, and Tennessee supplied the 36th state ratification needed for adoption. Tennessee’s vote was close: 50 of 99 representatives supported ratification.

The amendment was the culmination of a decades-long campaign involving activists such as Susan B. Anthony, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Ida B. Wells, and Carrie Chapman Catt. Women’s suffrage had already been adopted in some states and territories, but national constitutional protection created a uniform federal rule.

Ratification did not immediately eliminate every barrier to voting. In practice, many women of color, especially Black women in the South, continued to face poll taxes, literacy tests, intimidation, and discriminatory registration practices. The amendment marked a major constitutional change, while later civil-rights laws were needed to challenge those restrictions.