August 26th is Women’s Independence Day!

To celebrate the ratification of the 19th Amendment to the Constitution of the United States, the Texas Legislature has designated August 26th as Women's Independence Day. Prior to the 19th Amendment, the right to vote for women was determined by the individual states.  This created a system of voting rights for women that varied across the country.  In many western states women had full voting rights, while others limited or outright banned women from voting.  In Texas women had the right to vote in municipal elections, but not statewide, primary, or Presidential elections.  In 1878 Senator Aaron A. Sargent from California introduced what would become the 19th Amendment to the Constitution of the United States.  It took 41 years and a World War to get Congress to submit the amendment to the states for ratification, and another year for 3/4th of the states to ratify it to make it official.  Texas was the 9th state to ratify the amendment on June 29th 1919. Tennessee was the 36th State and got the amendment over the 3/4th threshold needed for ratification. The last state to ratify the amendment was Mississippi on March 29th, although at that point it was already part of the United States Constitution.

The Ratification of the 19th Amendment to the Constitution of the United States was the culmination of the hard work and dedication of women like Susan B. Antony, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, and Lucy Stone and the women of the National American Women Suffrage Association.  These women dedicated their lives used the courts, civil disobedience, protest and boycotts to fight for women's suffrage.  Unfortunately none of them lived to see the passage of the 19th Amendment, but they are remembered as pioneers for women's rights.