Which amendment gave women the constitutional right to vote across the United States in 1920?

The Nineteenth Amendment gave women the constitutional right to vote across the United States in 1920.

Congress approved the amendment in 1919, and Tennessee became the 36th state to ratify it on August 18, 1920. That ratification supplied the three-fourths majority then required for an amendment to become part of the Constitution. Secretary of State Bainbridge Colby certified it on August 26.

The amendment states that voting rights cannot be denied or abridged by the United States or a state on account of sex. It was the result of decades of organizing, petitions, public demonstrations, and state-level campaigns by women’s suffrage activists.

The amendment did not immediately eliminate every barrier to voting. Many women of color, especially Black women in the South, still faced discriminatory laws, intimidation, and violence. The Voting Rights Act of 1965 later provided stronger federal protections against racial discrimination in voting.