In 1920, the United States of America will celebrate the first 100 years of the Nineteenth Amendment. Want to celebrate the day your home state ratified the Nineteenth? Here it is.

Congress approved the Nineteenth Amendment

June 4, 1919 The Nineteenth Amendment was passed by Congress. The Amendment was known as the “Anthony Amendment” after Susan B. Anthony, who influenced Senator Aaron Sargent of California to introduce it in January 1878. The Amendment had been considered intermittently by Congress multiple times since. After Congressional approval, the Amendment required ratification by 36 of the 48 states in the Union.

Ratification by State

Illinois June 10, 1919
Michigan June 10, 1919
Wisconsin June 10, 1919
Kansas June 16, 1919
New York June 16, 1919
Ohio June 16, 1919
Pennsylvania June 24, 1919
Massachusetts June 25, 1919
Texas June 28,1919
Iowa July 2, 1919
Missouri July 3, 1919
Arkansas July 28, 1919
Montana Aug. 2, 1919
Nebraska Aug. 2, 1919
Minnesota Sept. 8, 1919
New Hampshire Sept. 10, 1919
Utah Oct. 2, 1919
California Nov. 1, 1919
Maine Nov. 5, 1919
North Dakota Dec. 1, 1919
South Dakota Dec. 4, 1919
Colorado Dec. 15, 1919
Kentucky Jan. 6, 1920
Rhode Island Jan. 6, 1920
Oregon Jan. 13, 1920
Indiana Jan. 16, 1920
Wyoming Jan. 27, 1920
Nevada Feb. 7, 1920
New Jersey Feb. 9, 1920
Idaho Feb. 11, 1920
Arizona Feb. 12, 1920
New Mexico Feb. 21, 1920
Oklahoma Feb. 28, 1920
West Virginia March 10, 1920
Washington March 22, 1920
Tennessee Aug. 18, 1920 (This was the last state needed for the Nineteenth Amendment to become law!)

The Nineteenth Amendment was ratified on August 18, 1920.

August 26, 1920 The Nineteenth Amendment was officially certified by the Secretary of State. Every year on this date, we celebrate Women’s Equality Day in commemoration.

Other states ratified the Nineteenth Amendment soon after it became law.

Even if that nail-biter in Tennessee had gone the other way, the Nineteenth Amendment still would have been become law, because Connecticut ratified it less than a month later.
Connecticut Sept. 14, 1920

Vermont and Delaware also ratified the Nineteenth Amendment shortly after it became law:
Vermont Feb. 8, 1921
Delaware Mar. 6, 1923

Better late than never!

These states affirmed their support for women by ratifying the Nineteenth Amendment decades after it became law.
Maryland Mar. 29, 1941
Virginia Feb. 21, 1952
Alabama Sept. 8, 1953
Florida May 13, 1969
South Carolina July 1, 1969
Georgia Feb. 20, 1970
Louisiana June 11, 1970
North Carolina May 6, 1971
Mississippi Mar. 22, 1984

The Nineteenth Amendment was not the moment all American women won voting rights.

Although the Nineteenth Amendment wasn’t ratified until 1920, 50 years before it was ratified, some American women were voting.  Other women had to wait until almost 50 years after the Nineteenth Amendment before the voting rights the Amendment promised became a reality for them. To learn more, see When did women in your state get the right to vote?

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