Tennessee provided the final ratification needed for the 19th Amendment in 1920.
Tennessee ratified the amendment on August 18, 1920, becoming the thirty-sixth state to approve it. Because three-fourths of the states were then required for a constitutional amendment, Tennessee's vote supplied the necessary threshold and made the amendment part of the Constitution.
The vote was close. In the Tennessee House of Representatives, 50 of 99 members voted in favor. Representative Harry Burn changed his position after receiving advice from his mother, Febb Burn, who urged him to support woman suffrage. Governor Albert Roberts certified the ratification, and Secretary of State Bainbridge Colby formally proclaimed the amendment on August 26.
The amendment prohibited the federal government and the states from denying citizens the right to vote on the basis of sex. It did not instantly remove every barrier to voting: discriminatory registration rules, violence, and other restrictions continued to exclude many women, especially women of color, for decades.