What is the 19th Amendment?

According to the United States Constitution, the 19^th Amendment is "The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of sex. Congress shall have power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation." This amendment was ratified to extend voting privileges to women. It was proposed on June 4, 1919 and passed into law more than a year later on August 18, 1920.

The Nineteenth Amendment was brought into reality by the hard work and dedication of many activists and activist groups that supported women's suffrage. One such organization the National Woman's Party (NWP) was founded in 1917 and was one of the first groups to picket the White House. Picketers were sometimes jailed for "obstructing traffic" and held for months at a time.

Many of the ladies went on hunger strikes and some, like Alice Paul, had to be force-fed by the staff. President Woodrow Wilson announced his support of the amendment in January of 1918 and the very next day, the House of Representatives narrowly passed the amendment. In spite of this, the Senate refused to vote until they met in October. When they finally voted on the amendment it failed to pass by a margin of three votes.

In order to lobby support within congress and pass the amendment the National Woman's Party rallied citizens to vote for pro suffrage senators in the fall of 1918. After the election most of the members of congress supported women's suffrage. On June fourth the senate finally passed the amendment by a vote of fifty six to twenty five. The amendment was confirmed into law on August 18, 1920. In Leser v. Garnett, 258 U.S. 130 (1922), the constitutionality of the Nineteenth Amendment was upheld by the Supreme Court of the United States.