What was the first state to ratify the 19th amendment

On the anniversary of the 19th Amendment's ratification, we look back at a young politician whose unexpected vote in the Tennessee state legislature gave all women the right to vote.

The story of Harry T. Burn, the seemingly rogue 24-year-old legislator, has become a bit embellished over the years. And in fact, women had won the right to vote in some states before the 19th Amendment was passed by Congress and ratified by three-quarters of the states then in the Union.

But in August 1920, the struggle between the suffrage movement (which wanted the vote for women) and powerful anti-suffrage forces had come down to a series of votes in Tennessee.

The suffrage movement had found a way to get Congress to approve the proposed 19th Amendment, with the endorsement of outgoing President Woodrow Wilson (who hadn’t supported it until it became needed as part of the war effort).

By the middle of 1920, a total of 35 states had voted to ratify the amendment. The problem was that 36 states were needed, and there was only one state left where a vote could be taken that year.

Four other available states—Connecticut, Vermont, North Carolina, and Florida—would not consider the resolution for various reasons. The remaining states had rejected the amendment. But Tennessee decided it would tackle the ratification vote.

Supporters from both sides camped out at a Nashville hotel and began intense lobbying efforts in what became known as the War of the Roses. Supporters of suffrage wore yellow roses in public; the anti-suffragists wore red roses.

The suffragists had lobbied Burn, the youngest member of the statehouse, but they were unsure of how he would vote.

They did know that any vote to bring the amendment to the floor would be too close to call, as well as the vote to ratify the amendment.

On August 18, the legislature voted on a motion to table, or delay, any ratification vote. It seemed as if the anti-suffragists had enough votes to delay a 19th Amendment vote after Burn arrived wearing a red rose and voted to table the amendment.

But another representative, Banks Turner, switched sides during the roll call, leaving the vote deadlocked and moving the ratification vote forward. The suffragists would need one more vote to make the 19th Amendment the law of the land, and what happened stunned the legislature.

Then, early in the voting, Burn, who came from a conservative district and wore the red rose on his lapel, surprised everyone when he said in a clear voice “aye” when asked if he would vote to ratify the amendment.

Burn also had a letter in his suit pocket, from his mother, Febb E. Burn, in which she asked him to “be a good boy” and vote for the amendment. When Turner also voted in favor of the ratification, the 70-year-old battle for suffrage was over.

Link: Read The Seven-Page Letter

Lawmakers in Tennessee tried to delay the state’s official approval, but on August 26, 1920, the official documents arrived in Washington, and they were quietly signed by the Secretary of State.

Burn later explained that he initially voted to table the vote so that it could be brought back in the next legislative session. But after it came to the floor, he had several reasons to change his vote.

“I knew that a mother’s advice is always safest for a boy to follow and my mother wanted me to vote for ratification,” he said. “I appreciated the fact that an opportunity such as seldom comes to a mortal man to free 17 million women from political slavery was mine.”

Febb E. Burn then said she was pressured in person by the governor of Louisiana’s wife to recant the letter and say it was a fraud. She refused to do so.

Scott Bomboy is the editor in chief of the National Constitution Center.

For more information on how the 19th Amendment came to be and how the text of the Amendment was drafted, see the Drafting Table tool on the Interactive Constitution: https://draftingtable.constitutioncenter.org/item/19th-amendment
 

While seeking to amend the U.S. Constitution, the women’s suffrage movement also waged a state-by-state campaign. The territory of Wyoming was the first to give women the vote in 1869. Other western states and territories followed.

States granting women the right to vote prior to the 19th Amendment:

South Dakota 1918

Full Voting Rights before 19th Amendment and before statehood

Territory of Wyoming 1869Territory of Utah 1870Territory of Washington 1883Territory of Montana 1887

Territory of Alaska 1913

Could vote for President prior to the 19th Amendment

Illinois 1913Nebraska 1917Ohio 1917Indiana 1917North Dakota 1917Rhode Island 1917Iowa 1919Maine 1919Minnesota 1919Missouri 1919Tennessee 1919

Wisconsin 1919

Gained Voting Rights after the passage:

VermontNew HampshireMassachusettsConnecticutPennsylvaniaNew JerseyDelawareMarylandWest VirginiaVirginiaNorth CarolinaSouth CarolinaGeorgiaAlabamaFloridaMississippiLouisianaArkansasTexasNew Mexico

Kentucky

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Passed by Congress December 18, 1917.Ratified January 16, 1919.

Repealed by the Twenty-first Amendment, December 5, 1933.

Section 1.
After one year from the ratification of this article the manufacture, sale, or transportation of intoxicating liquors within, the importation thereof into, or the exportation thereof from the United States and all territory subject to the jurisdiction thereof for beverage purposes is hereby prohibited.

Section 2.
The Congress and the several States shall have concurrent power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation.

Section 3.
This article shall be inoperative unless it shall have been ratified as an amendment to the Constitution by the legislatures of the several States, as provided in the Constitution, within seven years from the date of the submission hereof to the States by the Congress.

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Taking their battle against alcohol from church meetings to the street, the Women’s Christian Temperance Union has been marching in big cities. They say liquor leads to drunkenness, prostitution and crime.

By 1916, 21 states had banned alcohol.
Now it looks as if the whole nation has embraced the “temperance” movement.

Today, we added a new amendment to our Constitution. It makes the “manufacture, sale or transportation of intoxicating liquors” a federal crime.

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Dissent in Abrams v. United States

The Supreme Court just rejected the appeals of four “long-haired anarchists” jailed for printing leaflets urging workers to strike in support of the Russian Revolution.

Their propaganda, said the majority, might have caused “riots and…revolution.” The authors are responsible for what could have happened because of their words.

Justices Holmes and Brandeis dissented, arguing for a much tougher standard before letting the government restrict speech. Free speech, says Holmes, creates a marketplace of ideas. We shouldn’t suppress a message unless there’s an immediate danger it will lead to a criminal act.

There’s no “clear and imminent danger” here, he says, calling the leaflets “silly.”

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1920Map: Immigration to the United States 1880-1920

Image Donated by Corbis - Bettmann

In the last 40 years, from 1880 to 1920, more than 20 million people have come to America.

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After a wave of bombings aimed at public officials, Attorney General Palmer and his young colleague J. Edgar Hoover ordered a series of sweeping arrests.

More than 5,000 suspected Communists and anarchists, many of them aliens, were rounded up in raids, often without arrest warrants. Many were beaten and detained; 556 were deported.

At first people applauded Palmer’s actions; the Communist Revolution in Russia has stirred fears here at home.

But a growing number of critics, in Congress and the country, accuse Palmer of setting aside freedoms guaranteed by the Bill of Rights. A newly formed group, the American Civil Liberties Union, is saying it’s Palmer’s “illegal” activities that are the real threat to America.

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August 18, 1920States ratify Nineteenth Amendment, granting women suffrage throughout America

U.S. Constitution National Archives and Records Administration

Passed by Congress June 4, 1919. Ratified August 18, 1920. 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. Congress shall have power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation.

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There’s jubilation in Tennessee, the final battleground for women who’ve been seeking the vote.

After Congress passed the 19th Amendment, the states still had to approve it. This summer, all eyes turned to Tennessee. Crowds jammed the Legislature: would the amendment make it?

As the “no” votes piled up, supporters watched in despair. Then 24-year-old Harry Burn, the youngest member, abruptly changed his vote to “yes.” The floor erupted in pandemonium as women in the gallery embraced and wept for joy.

Asked why he changed his mind, Harry said his ailing mother sent a letter telling him “to be a good boy” and vote for suffrage.

Leaders like Susan B. Anthony did not live to see this day. But their sisters will vote in November’s election in every state.

After 133 years, “We, the People” includes women at last.

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If the states ratify it, the Equal Rights Amendment introduced today in Congress would require government to treat men and women with exact equality.

Winning the vote three years ago was a big step. Yet women are still not full citizens. Many states still prohibit women from serving on juries, and differences continue in married women’s rights to control property and make contracts.

Alice Paul, who wrote the ERA and helped found the National Women’s Party which backs it, says the only remedy is to amend the Constitution again.

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No more Asians, and far fewer Italian and Polish immigrants: that’s the effect of the law Congress just passed, overwhelmingly. For English, German and Scandinavian immigrants, our door remains open much wider.

Clearly, many Americans are uncomfortable living alongside immigrants who don’t look or worship as they do, or whose politics they think threaten “domestic tranquility.”

Such fears have attracted millions of members to a new Klu Klux Klan, which espouses not only white supremacy but also hatred of “foreigners,” Catholics and Jews.

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All of us listening by radio already know. Biology teacher John Scopes has been convicted of violating the Tennessee law that forbids teaching any story of mankind’s creation except the one in the Bible.

What a spectacle the trial proved to be. Outside the courtroom vendors hawked toy monkeys. Those inside heard dramatic speeches by opposing attorneys Clarence Darrow and William Jennings Bryan.

Public schools have no right to teach godless ideas that could undermine children’s faith, thundered Bryan. The government has no right to tell teachers what to teach, shot back Darrow.

Important First Amendment principles are at stake. Today’s verdict won’t end the debate. Nor is it likely to ease the tension that arises each time old and new ideas tug the Constitution in different directions.