- The fight for women to vote (also known as women’s suffrage) began in the mid 19th century
- The idea of women being able to vote was considered a “radical” change of the Constitution
- Supports of the movement lectured,wrote, marched. lobbies and protested and majority of those who started, were not able to witness the outcome
- There were many people who did not agree with the movement – supporters were often jailed, made fun of and sometimes physically abused
- On August 18, 1920, Tennessee became the 36th state to accept the amendment which was three-fourth of the states needed to confirm
- Secretary of State Bainbridge Colby made the 19th amendment official on August 26, 1920.
Titles of Interest
Leaders of women’s suffrage / by Kristina Dumbeck
Spanning 72 years, the struggle for woman suffrage required the commitment of many brave and hard-working women. Each of the women in this book dedicated her life to the fight that would eventually win women the right to vote.
March of the suffragettes : Rosalie Gardiner Jones and the march for voting rights / by Zachary Michael Jack
March of the Suffragettes details the inspiring and little-known story of “General” Rosalie Gardiner Jones and the makeshift all-women’s army of old friends and newfound suffrage “pilgrims” she assembled to march nearly two hundred miles to win the vote for women. An inspiring account of social change for young and old alike, and reminds us of our historical amnesia where early feminists are concerned even as it vividly resurrects the memory of their bravery, moral courage, and indomitable fighting spirit
Roses and radicals : the epic story of how American women won the right to vote / by Susan Zimet & Todd Hasak-Lowy
The United States of America is almost 250 years old, but American women won the right to vote less than a hundred years ago – And when the controversial nineteenth amendment to the U.S. Constitution – the one granting suffrage to women – was finally ratified in 1920, it passed by a mere one-vote margin.
The amendment only succeeded because a group of women had been relentlessly demanding the right to vote for more than seventy years. The leaders of the suffrage movement were fearless in the face of ridicule, arrest, imprisonment, and even torture. Many of them devoted themselves to a cause knowing they wouldn’t live to cast a ballot. This is their story.
Votes for women! : American suffragists and the battle for the ballot / Winifred Conkling