100 Years: The Right to Vote

Tuesday, Aug. 18, marks the 100th anniversary of the adoption of the 19th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, prohibiting federal and state governments from denying citizens the right to vote on the basis of sex. However, Black women continued to face obstacles in exercising their voting rights as literacy tests, poll taxes and other discriminatory measures were deployed to keep them from voting.

Learn More About the Black Women’s Suffrage Movement

Source: National Women’s History Museum

 
For Black Suffragists, the Lens Was a Mighty Sword
The New York Times
Photographs of generations of Black suffragists offer invaluable documents about their thwarted and central roles in the history of women’s rights.

African American Women Leaders in the Suffrage Movement – Turning Point
The Suffragist Memorial
This listing of African American Women Leaders in the American Woman Suffrage Movement is taken from the works of Dr. Rosalyn Terborg-Penn, former Professor of History and Coordinator of Graduate Programs in History at Morgan State University in Baltimore.

Between Two Worlds: Black Women and the Fight for Voting Rights | Suffrage in America: The 15th and 19th Amendments
U.S. National Park Service

General Suffrage Resources

19 Facts about the 19th Amendment on its 100th Anniversary
The Conversation
Submitted by Dianne Bystrom, Former Director of the Carrie Chapman Catt Center for Women and Politics, Iowa State University, and Karen M. Kedrowski, Director of the Carrie Chapman Catt Center, Iowa State University.

2020 Women’s Vote Centennial Initiative (WVCI)
The WVCI, a collaboration of women-centered institutions, organizations and scholars from across the U.S., works to ensure that this anniversary, and the 72-year fight to achieve it, are commemorated and celebrated throughout the United States.

Women’s Vote Centennial
The official site commemorating women’s right to vote

A Centennial of Women’s Sufferage: Women Leading the Way
Meet extraordinary women who made lasting contributions to human rights and the women they inspired as celebrated by the high school students of America