Kathy Egan
ECB Publishing, Inc.
In 1787, the U.S. Constitution was drafted and created the government of the United States. By 1788, all the necessary states had ratified it, so, in 1789, it became effective and the brand new U.S. government began operating under its guidance. Since that time, there have been 27 amendments to our founding document, the first ten of which are known as the Bill of Rights.
Some see the Nineteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution as the most significant, although that is subjective. The amendment, which provided American women the right to vote, has now been in place for over a hundred years; it is easy to take the right to vote for granted in today's age, but 133 years passed between the time the Constitution was drafted and the first woman was legally allowed to cast her ballot.
The road to ratification (giving consent to and making valid) was not a straight and simple one. Suffragists – women and men who supported the cause – marched, peacefully rallied and lobbied legislators for decades. In order for the amendment to become law, it was necessary for both the U.S. Senate and the U.S. House of Representatives to pass the amendment. The Senate did so first, in 1918, followed by the House in 1919.
After that legislative hurdle came the need for individual states to ratify it. Illinois, Michigan and Wisconsin were the first to say “yea,” but at the time, there were 36 states that all had to agree. Anyone who has ever served on any committee knows how overwhelming it can be to get even a few folks to agree to something. The controversial amendment still had to be passed by 33 more states.
The senate and house floors of the remaining states were sometimes hotbeds of debate over the issue, but sometimes the amendment passed without argument. The south tended to be more adamantly opposed to securing a non-traditional right to women. Georgia was the first state that refused to ratify. Alabama was the second to deny. South Carolina was the third to reject women's suffrage. Virginia, too, often considered part of the “Old South,” said it did not want to provide the right to vote to women. Maryland followed suit in the “nay” category, as did Mississippi, Delaware and Louisiana.
Tennessee, another southern state, found itself in an interesting position. Thirty-five states had approved ratification. Therefore, if Tennessee also said yes to the ratification, they would be the thirty-sixth state to approve, and the amendment would become the nineteenth addition to the U.S. Constitution. If they followed the path of several other southern states, the battle for voting rights would carry on into 1921.
Citizens and lawmakers alike were heavily involved in the battle. Tennesseans started wearing roses to signify their beliefs. Yellow roses were pro-voting rights. Red roses were in opposition. Their legislative leadership considered tabling the whole issue in order to stop the vote, perhaps hoping the whole “problem” would be taken up by another state. Finally, though, Tennessee became the final state to provide a nod of the head and ratified. Thereby, the Nineteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution was added, and the right to vote was granted to all American women.