Join us at the University of Iowa for a year of events reflecting on the 100th anniversary of women’s suffrage and the right to vote.
What we are commemorating:
The 19th Amendment made it illegal to deny the vote based on a person’s sex. However, as historians like Sharon Harley vividly remind us, not all women benefited equally from the amendment. For Black women and people of color, racism remained an unjust, unyielding obstacle to the vote and to full citizenship; the struggle for full representation continues today. Therefore, we are planning and helping to advertise events that critique as well as commemorate the fight for the Amendment and its aftermath.
On August 18, 1920, the Nineteenth Amendment became law, granting large numbers of women the vote in the United States: “”The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of sex.” Iowa was the 10th state to ratify the amendment. While we still struggle in the U.S. to ensure that all people have free and equal access to the right and the means to vote, this amendment makes it possible for women from every sector of society to make a legal case for their right to vote.