The Nineteenth Amendment - women's suffrage - was ratified on August 26, 1920, when Tennessee put the campaign to secure ratification of two-thirds of the states over the top. It seems like another world, until one realizes, as Hillary Clinton noted of her mother, that a fair number of little old ladies among us were born before women could vote.
Here's the NY Times coverage:
Washington, Aug. 26 -- The half-century struggle for woman suffrage
in the United States reached its climax at 8 o'clock this morning, when
Bainbridge Colby, as Secretary of State, issued his proclamation
announcing that the Nineteenth Amendment had become a part of the
Constitution of the United States.
The signing of the proclamation took place at that hour at
Secretary Colby's residence, 1507 K Street Northwest, without ceremony
of any kind, and the issuance of the proclamation was unaccompanied by
the taking of movies or other pictures, despite the fact that the
National Woman's Party, or militant branch of the general suffrage
movement, had been anxious to be represented by a delegation of women
and to have the historic event filmed for public display and permanent
record.
Secretary Colby did not act with undue haste in signing the
proclamation, but only after he had given careful study to the packet
which arrived by mail during the early morning hours containing the
certificate of the Governor of Tennessee that that State's Legislature
had ratified the Congressional resolution submitting the amendment to
the States for action.
None of the leaders of the woman suffrage movement was present when the proclamation was signed. "It was quite tragic," declared Mrs. Abby Scott Baker of the
National Woman's Party. "This was the final culmination of the women's
fight, and, women, irrespective of factions, should have been allowed
to be present when the proclamation was signed. However the women of
America have fought a big fight and nothing can take from them their
triumph."
Leaders of both branches of the woman's movement- the
militants, headed by Miss Alice Paul, and the conservatives, led by
Mrs. Carrie Chapman Catt -- some of whom had been on watch nearly all
night for the arrival of the Tennessee Governor's certification,
visited the State Department, and the militants sought to have
Secretary Colby go through a duplication of the signing scene in the
presence of movie cameras. This Mr. Colby declined to do, on the ground
that it was not necessary to detract from the dignity and importance of
the signing of the proclamation by staging a scene in imitation of the
actual signing of the proclamation....
At the same time Mr. Colby congratulated the women of the
country on the successful culmination of their efforts in the face of
discouragements, and declared the day "marks the opening of a great and
new era in the political life of the nation."
"I confidently believe," said the Secretary, "that every
salutary, forward and upward force in our public life will receive
fresh vigor and reinforcement from the enfranchisement of the women of
America. To the leaders of this great movement I tender my sincere
congratulations. To every one, from the president, who uttered the call
to duty, whenever the cause seemed to falter, to the humblest worker in
this great reform, the praise not only of this generation but of
posterity will be freely given."...
Late this afternoon Mrs. Carrie Chapman Catt, head of the
National American Suffrage Association, and Mrs. Helen H. Gardiner,
another active worker in that organization, were received at the White
House by President and Mrs. Wilson. The National Woman's Party, known
as the militants and a rival organization to that headed by Mrs. Catt,
was not represented.....
A mass meeting [and jubilee at Poll's Theatre tonight] was attended by women from every section of
the country and a number of officials of the administration, including
members of the Cabinet, were present.
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