The U.S. Congress passed the 19th Amendment recognizing women’s right to vote 100 years ago today, June 4, 1919. At 56-25, it barely reached the two-thirds majority necessary. The Amendment was ratified on August 19, 1920. The battle for women’s suffrage actually began nearly a century earlier, when women played a prominent role in other reform groups including the abolitionist movement and temperance leagues. However, it was not until the Seneca Falls (New York) Convention of 1848 that women began to organize for the vote. The push for women’s suffrage took a back seat during the Civil War, and split when leading advocates for women’s rights opposed granting those same rights to blacks in the 15th Amendment. But the movement revived in the early 1900s, beginning at the state level and eventually gaining national momentum, aided by the role women played in WWI. Read more about the fight for women’s suffrage in On the Shore (see NOVELS).
