After many years of organizing, campaigning, and protesting, the 19th Amendment was ratified on August 18, 1920, giving American women the right to vote. 

A hundred years later, the Partnership celebrated the legacies of the women who fought so hard for this right at the 19th Amendment Centennial Celebration on August 18. During the virtual event, speakers from all over the Houston region shared insights about the past, present and future of women's voting rights. 

Here a few key facts that were shared during the celebration: 

•    The first wave of feminism was born out of the abolitionism movement. America’s first feminist, Sarah Grimke, was a Southern-born woman that left the South due to her objection of slavery and her slave-owning parents. In the North, she wrote extensively about women’s rights and the need to abolish slavery. 

•    The Seneca Falls Convention in 1848 is considered to be the birthplace of the women’s rights movement in the United States. The purpose of the convention was to publicize the second class status of women and begin the fight to remedy it. 

•    Sojourner Truth was the first Black woman to be invited to the White House. As a freed slave, she became a staunch suffragist. Sojourner was able to bring an unique prospective to the women’s suffrage movement. Her speech, “Ain’t I a Women” was delivered at the 1851 Women's Rights Convention held in Akron, Ohio. It is now considered one of the most famous abolitionist and women’s rights speeches in U.S. history.  

•    In 1872, Victoria Woodhull became the first woman to run for President of the United States.

•    The League of Women Voters was founded by Carrie Chapman Catt on February 14, 1920, just six months before the 19th Amendment was ratified by Congress. It was created as nonpartisan organization that encourages an informed and active participation in all stages of government. There are chapters across the U.S., including here in Houston.

•    The Voting Rights Act of 1965 outlawed poll taxes, literacy tests and other legal barriers that were used to keep Black Americans from exercising their right to vote. Before President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the act into law, less than 1/3 of the African American population was registered to vote. By 1969, that number had increased to 61%.

As the centennial of the 19th Amendment falls on an election year, the panelists talked about the importance of voting and how exercising this right is a vital way that both men and women can honor the legacies of the brave suffragettes.

“When I think about what the women that came before us did 100 years ago, I am almost moved to tears," said MaryJane Mudd, President of the League of Women Voters of Houston. "The sacrifices they had to make should not be forgotten. And we need to honor their legacies and sacrifices by voting. So please get out and vote."  

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