Neighbor News
Women's Equality Day
Today we celebrate 102 years since the adoption of the 19th Amendment to the Constitution, which guarantees women the right to vote!
August 26th marks the day that the 19th Amendment became part of our Constitution. The 19th empowered American women with the right to vote and prohibits the states and the federal government from denying the right to vote to citizens of the United States on the basis of sex.
However, even with this Amendment, the U.S. Department of Interior noted that "many women of color remained disenfranchised until the mid-20th century: Native American women (1924); Chinese American women (1943); and Japanese and other Asian American women (1952)."
Some interesting historical facts:
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In 1878 – Republican Senator Aaron Sargent of California introduced the women’s suffrage amendment to the U.S. Senate for the first time. Stanton and Anthony drafted the wording which reads: “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.” When the 19th Amendment was finally passed the wording remained the same as originally written.
However, it took 41 years for Congress to finally passed the amendment largely because of opposition from large segments of the Democrat party and the liquor industry.
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Finally, in 1919, the House, with 200 Republicans joined by 102 Democrats voted in favor of the Amendment.
In the Senate, the Amendment passed by a vote of 56 to 25 with 82% of the Republican Senators and 41% of the Democrats voting in favor.
Out of the 36 states needed to ratify, 26 were controlled by Republicans. The last of the thirty-six states required to ratify the Amendment was Tennessee. There the vote came down to a tie , until one Republican legislator changed his vote in favor of women suffrage.
So, when you hear that your one vote does not matter – remember that that is all it took to ensure that our Nation took a giant step to ensuring that we have “a government of, by, and for [all] the people.”
Net result of more than 8 million American women voting following enactment of the 19th Amendment was a victory for President Warren G. Harding, (R ).
This Women’s Equality Day, let each of us strive to remember that when we vote we are fulfilling the legacy left by women ready to go to jail and even die for the ability to fully participate in the political process.
"The Colonel" Tom Mortenson