The Nineteenth Amendment prohibited denying women the right to vote in the United States on account of sex.
Congress approved the amendment in June 1919, and Tennessee became the 36th state to ratify it on August 18, 1920. Secretary of State Bainbridge Colby certified the ratification on August 26, which is commemorated in the United States as Women’s Equality Day.
The amendment resulted from a decades-long woman suffrage movement involving activists such as Susan B. Anthony, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Ida B. Wells, and Carrie Chapman Catt. Its wording prevented federal and state governments from using sex as a legal reason to deny voting rights.
The amendment did not immediately remove every barrier to voting. Many women of color, especially Black women in the South, continued to face discriminatory laws and intimidation until later civil-rights legislation and enforcement expanded access to the ballot.