The latest information from this front comes from Democracy Docket. Here is an excerpt:
On June 4, 1919, Congress passed the 19th Amendment, which would grant women the right to vote. Ratified a year later, the amendment has a complicated history: it was the success of decades of organizing by the women’s suffrage movement and vastly expanded access to the ballot box for white citizens, but it left women of color behind. The suffragists who led the movement made intentional compromises to exclude women of color from their victories, and the legacy of this two-track path to voting rights still has ramifications today. Let’s take a look back at how the Amendment was passed, and what the state of voting rights for all women looks like now.
What is the 19th Amendment?
“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. Congress shall have power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation.”
The 19th Amendment banned the government, both federal and state, from denying otherwise eligible citizens the right to vote due solely to their gender. Women were voting in America before the 19th Amendment: Colonial women had the right to vote before the American Revolution, and many states had laws granting their female citizens suffrage (or the right to vote) in some or all elections. In fact, this partial suffrage is what allowed women to demonstrate their political power as they pushed for the 19th Amendment to be ratified. Thousands of women had run for office all over the country since the mid-1800s, and their political influence was clear even in states that disenfranchised them.
Read the full article here.
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