Tennessee Becomes 36th State to Ratify 19th Amendment as Women Win Right to Vote

On August 18, 1920, Tennessee became the 36th state to ratify the 19th Amendment, providing the three-fourths majority of states required to add women’s suffrage to the U.S. Constitution. The decisive vote in the Tennessee House of Representatives came down to 24-year-old State Representative Harry T. Burn from McMinn County, who had voted against ratification twice before in 48-48 ties. Wearing a red rose on his lapel—the symbol of anti-suffrage forces in what became known as the “War of the Roses”—Burn surprised everyone by voting “aye” when called upon during the third vote. He carried a letter in his suit pocket from his mother, Febb E. Burn, asking him to “be a good boy” and vote for the amendment. His single vote approved the amendment in Tennessee, making it the final state needed for ratification. On August 26, Secretary of State Bainbridge Colby formally adopted the amendment into the Constitution, guaranteeing women the right to vote 72 years after the Seneca Falls Convention first demanded it.

The Tennessee ratification battle exposed the full range of corporate and political interests opposing democratic expansion. When Washington state ratified in March 1920 as the 35th state, only one more was needed, triggering a frantic search for the 36th state. Suffragists had hoped Connecticut or Vermont would ratify, but governors of those states—driven by opposition from corporate interests including railroad companies and textile manufacturers—refused to call their legislatures into session. Tennessee became the only remaining feasible option despite being far-fetched territory for suffrage. Supporters and opponents camped out at a Nashville hotel, launching intense lobbying efforts. The liquor industry, fearing women voters would support Prohibition (the 18th Amendment had been ratified in 1920), poured money into the anti-suffrage campaign. Textile manufacturers worried that enfranchised women would abolish child labor practices their profitability depended upon. Railroad interests, having purchased legislative loyalty through favorable treatment, saw women’s voting power as threatening their secure investments.

The 19th Amendment’s ratification represented a monumental expansion of democratic participation, yet its limitations revealed the boundaries of early 20th-century civil rights victories. While the amendment declared that voting rights could not be denied “on account of sex,” it did not prevent states from using literacy tests, poll taxes, and other mechanisms to disenfranchise women of color, particularly Black women in the South. Many Native American women would not gain citizenship—and thus voting rights—until 1924, and even then faced barriers. Asian American women faced exclusion through immigration and naturalization laws. The amendment’s narrow focus on sex discrimination, without addressing intersectional forms of oppression, meant that corporate and political interests could continue excluding vast populations from democratic participation through other mechanisms. Nevertheless, the 19th Amendment doubled the potential electorate and represented a hard-won victory against 72 years of institutional resistance. The amendment demonstrated that sustained pressure combining insider lobbying and militant direct action could overcome even deeply entrenched opposition from economic elites and political machines determined to preserve their monopoly on power. The suffrage movement’s victory would inspire future civil rights struggles while also revealing how incomplete formal rights could be without addressing the structural barriers that prevented their exercise.