19th Amendment Ratified: Women Win the Vote
Tennessee became the 36th state to ratify the Nineteenth Amendment on August 18, 1920, providing the three-quarters majority needed to make women's suffrage the law of the land. The vote in the Tennessee legislature came down to a single legislator: 24-year-old Harry Burn, the youngest member of the body, who had been voting against ratification until he received a letter from his mother. "Dear Son," she wrote, "vote for suffrage and don't keep them in doubt." He switched his vote. The amendment doubled the eligible electorate overnight and ended a 72-year campaign that had begun at the Seneca Falls convention in 1848. Over eight million women voted in the 1920 presidential election.
August 18, 1920
106 years ago
Key Figures & Places
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