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. BurnFebb E. BurnTennessee General AssemblyCarrie Chapman CattSue Shelton Whitewomens-suffrageconstitutional-amendmentdemocratic-expansioncorporate-oppositionhistoric-victory
On June 4, 1919, the U.S. Senate voted in favor of the 19th Amendment to the Constitution, which stated that “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.” The Senate vote came nearly 18 months …
U.S. SenateU.S. House of RepresentativesWoodrow WilsonNational American Woman Suffrage AssociationNational Woman's Partywomens-suffrageconstitutional-amendmentdemocratic-expansioncongressional-action
On January 9, 1918, President Woodrow Wilson announced his support for a women’s suffrage constitutional amendment, reversing years of opposition in the face of mounting public outrage over the treatment of suffragist prisoners. Wilson’s reversal came less than two months after the …
On November 14, 1917, 33 suffragist prisoners at Occoquan Workhouse in Fairfax County, Virginia, endured a night of systematic torture and abuse that became known as the “Night of Terror.” On orders from prison warden W. H. Whittaker, workhouse guards brutalized the women in what …
Lucy BurnsDora LewisAlice CosuW. H. WhittakerAlice Paul+1 morewomens-suffragestate-violencetorturepolitical-prisonersinstitutional-brutality
On June 22, 1917, police arrested six suffragists for picketing the White House, initiating a campaign of state repression against the Silent Sentinels that would eventually result in 168 National Woman’s Party members serving time in prison. The arrests came after the United States entered …
Alice PaulLucy BurnsNational Woman's PartyWoodrow WilsonWashington DC Policewomens-suffragestate-repressionpolitical-prisonerscivil-disobedienceselective-prosecution
On January 10, 1917, Alice Paul and the National Woman’s Party (NWP) became the first people ever to picket the White House, initiating an 18-month campaign of nonviolent protest that would eventually involve over 2,000 women. The “Silent Sentinels,” as they became known, stood …
Alice PaulLucy BurnsNational Woman's PartyWoodrow Wilsonwomens-suffragecivil-disobediencemilitant-tacticsdemocratic-expansionwilson-administration
On November 14, 1916, Inez Milholland collapsed and died at age 30 during a western suffrage lecture tour, making her a martyr for the women’s suffrage movement. Milholland, the glamorous lawyer and activist who had led the March 3, 1913 suffrage parade in Washington, D.C. astride a white …
Throughout the 1910s, as women’s suffrage gained momentum following state victories in the West and increasing militant activism in the East, multiple corporate interests mobilized systematic opposition to protect their economic interests from potential voter-supported reforms. The liquor …
Liquor IndustryTextile ManufacturersRailroad CompaniesNational Association Opposed to Woman Suffragewomens-suffragecorporate-oppositioninstitutional-resistanceeconomic-interestsanti-democratic-forces
On March 3, 1913, the day before Woodrow Wilson’s presidential inauguration, Alice Paul and Lucy Burns, newly-appointed chairs of NAWSA’s Congressional Committee, organized the first major civil rights march on Washington, D.C. Lawyer and activist Inez Milholland, riding a white horse …
Alice PaulLucy BurnsInez MilhollandIda B. WellsWoodrow Wilsonwomens-suffragestate-violenceracial-segregationmedia-strategyinstitutional-resistance
On November 7, 1893, Colorado held a referendum on women’s suffrage that resulted in voter approval, making it the first time in U.S. history that voters—as opposed to legislators—approved women’s voting rights. The referendum passed with support from the short-lived Populist Party, …
On February 18, 1890, the National American Woman Suffrage Association (NAWSA) was formed through the merger of the rival National Woman Suffrage Association (NWSA) and American Woman Suffrage Association (AWSA), healing a 21-year split that had fractured the women’s rights movement since …
Alice Stone BlackwellElizabeth Cady StantonSusan B. AnthonyLucy StoneHenry Blackwell+1 morewomens-suffragemovement-organizationdemocratic-expansionstrategic-realignment
On November 18, 1874, the Woman’s Christian Temperance Union (WCTU) was founded in Cleveland, Ohio, in response to the “Woman’s Crusade,” a series of temperance demonstrations that had swept through New York and much of the Midwest in 1873-74. The WCTU initially focused …
Frances WillardAnnie WittenmyerWoman's Christian Temperance UnionLiquor Industrywomens-suffragetemperance-movementcorporate-oppositionsocial-reformliquor-industry
On November 5, 1872, Susan B. Anthony voted in the presidential election between Ulysses S. Grant and his opponent in Rochester, New York, along with 14 other women, in a deliberate act of civil disobedience designed to test whether the 14th Amendment granted women voting rights as citizens. Four …
Susan B. AnthonyWard HuntJohn Van VoorhisSylvester LewisUlysses S. Grantwomens-suffragejudicial-capturecivil-disobedienceconstitutional-lawdemocratic-exclusion
On December 10, 1869, Wyoming Territory’s all-male territorial legislature passed “An Act to Grant to the Women of Wyoming Territory the Right of Suffrage, and to Hold Office,” making Wyoming the first place in the United States to grant women full voting rights since New Jersey …
On May 15, 1869, the women’s rights movement fractured when Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony formed the National Woman Suffrage Association (NWSA) after breaking with the American Equal Rights Association (AERA) over support for the 15th Amendment. The proposed amendment would …
Susan B. AnthonyElizabeth Cady StantonLucy StoneHenry BlackwellFrederick Douglass+2 morewomens-suffrageinstitutional-racismdemocratic-expansionreconstructionpolitical-fracture
On May 29, 1851, Sojourner Truth delivered a landmark speech at the Women’s Rights Convention in Akron, Ohio, becoming the only woman who spoke at the convention who had ever been held in slavery. Born into slavery in Ulster County, New York around 1797, Truth had experienced a religious …
Sojourner TruthFrances Dana GageMarius Robinsonwomens-suffrageracial-justicedemocratic-exclusionintersectionalityabolitionist-movement
The Seneca Falls Convention, held July 19-20, 1848, at the Wesleyan Methodist Church in Seneca Falls, New York, marked the first organized women’s rights convention in the United States. Organized primarily by Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Lucretia Mott along with local Quaker women, the …
Elizabeth Cady StantonLucretia MottFrederick DouglassJane HuntMary Ann McClintock+1 morewomens-suffragedemocratic-expansioncivil-rightsinstitutional-resistanceabolitionist-movement