today we're looking at the 19th amendment and the women's suffrage movement
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you'll find more resources that go with many of the bellringer videos on august 19 1920 the 19th
amendment to the constitution was ratified or approved with this addition to the u.s
constitution women now had the right to vote in the united states the passage of the 19th
amendment was the culmination of nearly a century of work done by the women's suffrage movement
suffrage meaning the right to cast a vote in political elections this had been a right denied
to women throughout most of recorded history the women's suffrage movement in america really took
its roots from the seneca falls convention held on july 19th and 20th of 1848 in seneca
falls new york initially called the women's rights convention the event had been organized by women
such as lucretia mott and elizabeth katie stanton who were both leading voices for women's rights
and the abolition of slavery in america as part of the convention a declaration was issued called the
declaration of sentiments within the declaration were demands for equal treatment for women in the
areas of politics education and society as a whole one major point made in the declaration
argued that women were forced to abide by or follow laws to which they had no vote or no say
in the creation of these laws very much hearkening back to arguments colonists made against britain
before the american revolution such as no taxation without representation throughout the 1850s the
women's suffrage movement continued to grow but with the outbreak of the civil war in 1861 the
movement slowed down as the nation endured four years of bloody fighting in the aftermath of the
war the united states entered into a time period of reconstruction trying to piece the country back
together and make changes to the constitution to ensure rights for formally enslaved people this is
where the women's suffrage movement hit a bump in the road the movement began to split over the 15th
amendment which sought to extend voting rights to formally enslaved men some such as elizabeth cady
stanton and progressive leader susan b anthony argued the amendment should not only extend
rights to african-american men but also to women in 1869 the national women's suffrage association
or nwsa was formed by stanton and anthony their primary objective was to get an amendment granting
women the right to vote on the other side of the 15th amendment debate was the american
woman's suffrage association or the awsa which supported the 15th amendment as is out of fear
that adding women's suffrage to the amendment would cause it not to pass by 1878 the suffrage
movement was able to lobby or influence congress enough to get them to begin to look at a possible
amendment but when the proposed amendment first reached the senate it was voted down
by 1890 the nwsa and the awsa merged together to form the national american women's suffrage
association instead of focusing their efforts at the federal level and trying to get an amendment
to the u.s constitution they now focused on targeting individual state governments
to grant women the right to vote by 1900 several states such as colorado and utah had passed laws
giving women the right to vote the movement continued to gain support and within the next
18 years over a dozen more states had given women the right to vote at the same time the equality
league of self-supporting women began to organize marches and parades to draw more attention to the
issue women regularly marched in front of the white house demanding women's suffrage
at the federal level by 1918 president woodrow wilson who had been opposed to women's suffrage
changed his position and supported an amendment to the constitution after seeing the significant
contribution women were making to the war effort as the united states entered into world war one
on may 21 1919 a resolution for the susan anthony amendment was proposed in the united
states house of representatives and passed easily the two-thirds majority vote needed
on june 4th it was voted on in the senate and again got over the two-third majority
required to be sent to the states for approval according to the constitution three quarters
of the states would now need to approve it for it to be added to the constitution which meant
that 36 of the 48 states at the time would need to approve the amendment by the following year 1920
35 states had approved it but many southern states were very opposed to the amendment and had voted
it down the entire amendment came down to what the state legislature of tennessee decided the
vote was a tie with only one representative yet to decide the entire amendment the vote
fell to a 23-year-old republican member of the tennessee general assembly harry t byrne after
initially opposing the amendment his mother wrote him and told him he needed to vote in favor of it
which he did on august 19th of 1920 making the 19th amendment law and guaranteeing women the
right to vote in america so with that hopefully you learned something and thanks for watching