OPEN Votes & Voices exhibition

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National WWI Museum and Memorial

Votes & Voices opens July 29.

Following decades of vicious opposition—even among those who agreed on women’s enfranchisement —U.S. President Woodrow Wilson declared passage of the 19th Amendment “a vitally necessary war measure” on Sept. 30, 1918, nearly 18 months after the U.S. entered World War I. Wilson recognized the important sacrifice and service of women during the war, and equally understood that in order for the U.S. to “lead the world to democracy” action, not just words, was required.

Passed by Congress on June 4, 1919, the Constitutional amendment promised, “the right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by a State on account of sex.”

The amendment reached the 36 states threshold for ratification on Aug. 18, 1920 when the Tennessee House of Representatives approved the “Susan B. Anthony amendment” by two votes.

Though often remembered as the year “women won the right to vote,” in some parts of the U.S., women already had been voting on state levels and practiced “partial suffrage” for years. Other women were denied based upon their race, ethnicity and citizenship—an ongoing threat to democracy then and today.

Votes & Voices explores some of the history of the women’s suffrage movement, largely from the perspective of those who fought for enfranchisement more than 100 years ago.