Women's Equality Day

It was in 1973 that President Richard Nixon proclaimed August 26, Women's Equality Day -- commemorating the day in 1920 that the 19th Amendment was ratified giving women the right to vote.

With the 19th Amendment ratification centenntial coming in August 2020, it is worth noting that the struggle to gain voting rights for women took over 72 years.

Officially, the American suffrage crusade in the United States began in 1848 with the Seneca Falls Convention, but it took women and men from every state to make it a reality. First introduced in 1878 by Republican Senator A.A. Sargent of California, it took till 1919 to become ratified.

Most students have little or no knowledge of this struggle that spanned five generations. Few know of the critical women suffrage leaders Susan B. Anthony, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Lucretia Mott, Carrie Chapman Catt, Mary Church Terrell, and Alice Paul. Many of the methods used by these women and their followers have become everyday expressions in our political environment – petitions, marches, parades, pickets, speaking tours, and even hunger strikes. Indeed, the non-violent nature of the suffragist movement provided an example followed by the Civil Rights movement.

According to the Turning Point National Suffrage Association, "over two hundred women from twenty-six states were arrested on charges such as "obstructing traffic" by picketing" in front of the Wilson White House. They were imprisoned, brutally treated, some force-feed and made to live in unsanitary conditions – all because they wanted to vote.

It was on May 21, 1919, when Congressman James R. Mann, (R-IL) proposed the House resolution to approve the 19th Amendment. The measure passed the House 304 to 89. The U.S. Senate approved the "Susan B. Anthony" Amendment on June 4, 1919, by 56-25. Once passed by Congress, it went to the states to ratify needing 36 states to approve the Amendment (two-thirds required). It was up to Tennessee's state legislators to cast the critical vote for ratification, but with the state deadlocked in a 48-48 tie. It appeared to be heading for defeat when a 23-year-old Representative Harry T. Burn, (R) cast the deciding vote in favor of woman suffrage.

U.S. Secretary of State Colby certified the Amendment on August 26, 1920. That following November, an estimated 8 million women voted, with the Democrat vote the same as in 1916 and the Republicans nearly doubling their vote electing Harding as President.

Women's Equality Day is an opportunity to remember those who fought to give women the right to vote. It is a time to reflect on on what "equal" means. It is not about one party or the other; it is time to reaffirm the words of Lincoln that ours will be a government of the people, by the people, and for [all] the people".