Suffragettes parade through New York City. Bettmann/Contributor/Getty Images The 19th Amendment giving women the right to vote was ratified on August 18, 1920. Suffragettes were arrested, imprisoned, and otherwise targeted as they fought for voting rights.
Black women and other women of color largely couldn’t vote until decades later. Just over 100 years ago, women were still barred from voting in the polls. Suffragettes at the US Capitol in 1914.
Universal History Archive/Universal Images Group via Getty ImagesSuffragettes like Susan B. Anthony, Alice Paul, Lucy Burns, and “General” Rosalie Jones fought for women’s voting rights through public demonstrations and political advocacy, facing arrest, jail time, and widespread harassment in order to further their cause. Suffragettes held a parade in New York City on May 6, 1912.
A suffragette parade in New York City in 1912. Bettmann/Contributor/Getty ImagesPublic demonstrations helped convey the message that women didn’t just belong in the home. This colorized photo shows suffragists wearing “votes for women” sashes and holding American flags as they marched.
Some women had voting rights before the 19th Amendment was passed, but most couldn’t cast a ballot. Suffragists displaying banners in Greenwich Village, New York City, in 1912. Bettmann/Contributor/Getty ImagesThe slogan “We were voters out west! Why deny our rights in the east?” refers to how women in the “Wild West” were not prohibited from voting.
In Wyoming, for example, women had been casting ballots since 1869. The iconic “Votes for women” sashes were a mainstay in suffragettes’ public demonstrations. The New York Women’s Suffrage Parade circa 1913.
Paul Thompson/Topical Press Agency/Getty ImagesAt a New York Women’s Suffrage Parade in 1913, a group of authors, dramatists, and editors donned sashes and marched with other suffragettes. “General” Rosalie Jones earned her nickname by leading the “Suffrage Army” in marches across the US. “General” Rosalie Jones and her “army.
“APIn 1913, suffragists led by “General” Rosalie Jones marched from New York to Washington, DC, on the eve of Woodrow Wilson’s inauguration. Black suffragists were forced to march in the back because organizers feared upsetting suffragists from Southern states. The protest, between 5,000 and 10,000 people, overshadowed the presidential inauguration.
Women from different parts of the US would meet up in Washington, DC, to push for voting rights. Suffragettes at the Capitol building in 1913. Bettmann/Contributor/Getty ImagesThey protested at the Capitol building in 1913 while wearing buttons and ribbons for the cause.
Demonstrators carried signs with slogans like “I wish Ma could vote. “A group of suffragettes march in a parade carrying a banner circa 1913. Hulton Archive/Getty ImagesThey also carried American flags, despite accusations that criticizing the government and pushing for women’s suffrage was unpatriotic.
Another 1913 banner quoted poet Lord Alfred Tennyson: “The woman’s cause is man’s; they rise or fall together. “Women riding to New York’s City Hall in 1913. PhotoQuest/Getty ImagesSuffragists carried the banner on a hay wagon float in a parade to City Hall in New York City.
In 1917, suffragists from New York picketed outside the White House. New York suffragists picket demonstration outside the White House in 1917. APThey held signs reading “Mr.
President, you say ‘liberty is the fundamental demand of the human spirit,'” “Mr. President, how long must women wait for liberty?” and “Mr. President, you say ‘we are interested in the United States politically speaking, in nothing but human liberty.
‘”Suffragist Jeannette Rankin became the first woman to hold federal office when she was elected to the House of Representatives in 1916. Jeannette Rankin makes her first speech to the United States House of Representatives. CORBIS/Corbis via Getty ImagesFour years before the 19th Amendment was ratified, Jeannette Rankin represented her home state of Montana in the House of Representatives.
She was the only member to vote against participating in both world wars. “I may be the first woman member of Congress, but I won’t be the last,” she said when she was elected in 1916. On October 27, 1917, 20,000 suffragists marched down Fifth Avenue in New York City.
Komako Kimura, a Japanese suffragist. Bettmann/Contributor/Getty ImagesKomako Kimura, a Japanese suffragist and founder of the Real New Women’s Association (Shin Shin Fujinkai), joined the march while visiting the US to fundraise and talk strategy with American suffragettes. The activism occasionally landed the suffragists in prison.
Suffrage banner bearers being arrested during protests outside the White House. Topical Press Agency/Stringer/Getty ImagesThe National Woman’s Party was the first group to picket outside the White House, using President Wilson’s words against him on banners. At first, suffragettes were fined for blocking the sidewalk.
After multiple fines that they refused to pay, they were eventually arrested and sentenced to prison time in Occoquan Workhouse. Katherine Morey, a suffragist from Boston, was arrested along with Lucy Burns at a demonstration in Washington, DC, in 1917. Katherine Morey on the way to police station with a Washington policeman.
Bettmann/Contributor/Getty ImagesTheir case was never brought to trial. After the “Night of Terror” where imprisoned suffragists were beaten and mistreated, the public demanded their release. Alice Paul, Lucy Burns, and 20 other suffragists were let out of prison in November 1917.
After they were released from prison, the suffragists went on speaking tours while wearing their prison uniforms to share their experiences. Suffragists attend a meeting of the National Women’s Party in New York wearing their prison garb to describe their experiences. Hulton-Deutsch/Hulton-Deutsch Collection/Corbis via Getty ImagesThe National Women’s Party called the speaking tours the “Prison Special.
“Suffragists picketed outside the Metropolitan Opera House in 1919 where President Wilson was speaking to the League of Nations. From left to right: Ella C. Thompson, Alex Shields, Alice Paul, and Wilma Keams.
Bettmann/Contributor/Getty ImagesThe protestors were attacked by the surrounding crowd and later arrested. Women attended the GOP Convention in 1920 to rally support for the 19th Amendment granting them the right to vote. Chairwoman Alice Paul, second from left, pictured with Sue White, Benigna Green Kalb, James Rector, Mary Dubrow, and Elizabeth Kalb.
APThey held a banner with a Susan B. Anthony quote in front of the National Women’s Party headquarters in Washington, DC: “No self respecting woman should wish or work for the success of a party that ignores her sex. “Tennessee became the 36th state to ratify the 19th Amendment on August 13, 1920, making women’s suffrage legal throughout the US.
Women stand and cheer at the National Women’s Party headquarters in 1920. Stock Montage/Getty ImagesAlice Paul stood on the balcony of the National Women’s Party headquarters and dropped down a banner with 36 stars representing the states that ratified the amendment, which declared, “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. “Since alcoholic beverages were still banned under Prohibition, Alice Paul toasted the good news with grape juice.
Alice Paul makes a toast to Tennessee’s ratification of the 19th Amendment. Bettmann/Contributor/Getty ImagesThe 18th Amendment prohibited “the manufacture, sale, or transportation of intoxicating liquors” in the US until it was repealed in 1933. White women cast their first votes in the presidential election of November 2, 1920, but it would be decades before all women could vote.
Women cast their first votes for president in 1920. Bettmann/Contributor/Getty ImagesNot all women could vote that year. Women of color largely did not gain the right to vote until the Voting Rights Act of 1965 and voting rights amendments in 1975.
The 19th Amendment marked the end of one battle, and the beginning of countless more. Noted suffrage leaders Carrie Chapman Catt and Mary Garrett Hay cast their votes for president in 1920. Bettmann/Contributor/Getty ImagesWomen still face discrimination and double standards in the workforce, parenting, healthcare, and more as the fight for equality continues.
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