The centennial of the 19th Amendment provides the legal profession the opportunity to celebrate 100 years of women’s constitutional right to vote, educate the public about the 19th Amendment and the battle for women’s suffrage, and promote laws that ensure women’s full and equal exercise of their right to vote and to participate in our democracy.
Although the 19th Amendment declared that the right to vote cannot be denied on the basis of sex, it did not guarantee voting access. Citizenship laws, poll taxes, threats, and violence barred African American, Latina, Native American, Asian American, immigrant, and poor women.
An exhibition of the SmithsonianNational Portrait Gallery, Votes for Women: A Portrait of Persistence featured more than 120 portraits and objects spanning 1832 to 1965 that explore the American suffrage movement. Leading up to the centennial of the 19th Amendment, this exhibition seeks to tell a more complete story of the movement through portraits of women who represent different races, ages, and fields of endeavor.
August 18, 2020, marks the 100th anniversary of the ratification of the 19th Amendment, which granted voting rights to women in America. The passage of the 19th Amendment was not brought about by a singular event, individual, or group.