this summer we begin our celebration of the 100th anniversary of the 19th amendment the amendment that guaranteed women the right to vote it’s often thought that the amendment was necessary because the Constitution is prohibited women from voting but American women actually have a history of voting stretching back to the early republic under the constitution voting was handled by the state some allowed white men to vote some had property requirements several states allowed free blacks to vote and one state New Jersey made history by recognizing the right of women to vote a first been reported human history it’s no accident that women voted in America before anywhere out our country was founded on the self-evident gender neutral truths of human equality and the consent of the governed New Jersey was just the first date to apply the discipline to its state constitution and laws but in 1807 rampant voter fraud some women voted as many as 6 times in a single election ended women’s suffrage in the state and New Jersey limited the vote to white property-owning male it wasn’t until 1848 the first convention of women’s rights met in Seneca Falls Native women in the late 1800s pursued three separate strategies for securing women’s suffrage one a broader interpretation of the 14th amendment which grants all citizens equal protections of the law to changing individual state law and three a constitutional amendment to override all state law after years of lobbying marching picketing and protesting for the right to the ballot there state-by-state approach works and the US House of Representatives finally approved the susan b anthony amendment which guarantees women the right to vote on May 21st 1990 the US Senate followed two weeks later and the 19th amendment went to the state where it had to be ratified by three-fourths of the then 48 states to be added to the Constitution by a vote of 50 to 49 Tennessee became the last state needed to ratify the 19th amendment on August 18 in 1920 today more than 68 women vote in elections because of the courageous suffragists who never gave up the fight for equality [Music] you
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