Inequality Within Women's Equality Day - 19th Amendment
PHOTO: EVERGIB
August 26, 1920 may have marked 100 years since the day that Secretary of State Bainbridge Colby certified the ratification of 19th Amendment giving women the right to vote, but that did not include ALL women. It proclaimed that the federal government couldn’t deny the right to vote to citizens of the United States on the basis of sex. The law was passed by Congress June 4, 1919, and ratified on August 18, 1920. Black women faced discrimination with exclusion from women’s white-led suffrage groups as well as being told to walk at the back of suffrage parades.
“…while white women were granted the right to vote, Asian-American women could not vote until 1952, Native American women were not guaranteed the right to vote in all 50 states until 1962, and the majority of Black women did not have the right to vote until 1965. Our work as suffragettes is far from over as we still face prejudice in the forms of gerrymandering, closing of polling places in disproportionately Black and Brown communities and now, attacks on our right to vote by mail. Today marks a significant milestone that marks how far women have come in the past hundred years, but it also marks how far we still have to go.”
The fight for equality continues today, nonpartisan grassroots organization Vote Equality US promotes and advocates for the 28th Amendment (Equal Rights) - read more about it here and how you can get involved.
If you want to learn more about the Women’s Suffrage movement check out #19SuffrageStories.