19th Amendment to the United States Constitution (1920)

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.

Title: 19th Amendment to the United States Constitution (1920)
Description: The Nineteenth Amendment granted women the right to vote by prohibiting the denial of suffrage based on sex. The amendment was passed by Congress on June 4, 1919, and ratified August 18, 1920. The 19th Amendment effectively only guaranteed voting rights for white women. Women of color remained disenfranchised for years after. Poll taxes, literacy and property tests, violence and intimidation were all used to keep women of color from exercising their right to vote. It was not until the Voting Rights Act of 1965 that the 19th Amendment became a reality for all women.
Date: 1920-08-18
Author: United States. Congress
Legal Concept: Civil Rights; Voting Rights; Gender
Subject: Women
Temporal Coverage: Jim Crow Era; Exclusion Era; Allotment and Assimilation Era; Progressive Era; Long Civil Rights Movement; Prohibition Era; Interwar Period
Spatial Coverage: United States
Related Documents: For Democracy (1917); Illinois Women Participants in Suffrage Parade (1913); Suffrage Paraders (1913)
Document Type: Constitutional Amendment
Document Category: Primary Source
Bluebook Citation: U.S. Const. amend. XIX
Digital Repository: National Archives
URL: https://www.archives.gov/founding-docs/amendments-11-27

Title: 19th Amendment to the United States Constitution (1920)
Description: The Nineteenth Amendment granted women the right to vote by prohibiting the denial of suffrage based on sex. The amendment was passed by Congress on June 4, 1919, and ratified August 18, 1920. The 19th Amendment effectively only guaranteed voting rights for white women. Women of color remained disenfranchised for years after. Poll taxes, literacy and property tests, violence and intimidation were all used to keep women of color from exercising their right to vote. It was not until the Voting Rights Act of 1965 that the 19th Amendment became a reality for all women.
Date: 1920-08-18
Author: United States. Congress
Legal Concept: Civil Rights; Voting Rights; Gender
Subject: Women
Temporal Coverage: Jim Crow Era; Exclusion Era; Allotment and Assimilation Era; Progressive Era; Long Civil Rights Movement; Prohibition Era; Interwar Period
Spatial Coverage: United States
Related Documents: For Democracy (1917); Illinois Women Participants in Suffrage Parade (1913); Suffrage Paraders (1913)
Document Type: Constitutional Amendment
Document Category: Primary Source
Bluebook Citation: U.S. Const. amend. XIX
Digital Repository: National Archives
URL: https://www.archives.gov/founding-docs/amendments-11-27

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