On this day in Alabama history: Alabama Legislature ratified the 19th Amendment

Sept. 19, 1953

The fight for the right for women to vote officially ended in 1920 when Tennessee became the 36^th state to ratify the 19^th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. In Alabama, there was an active suffragist movement, led by the Alabama Equal Suffrage Association, but opposition by some Alabama groups resulted in the Legislature not taking up the amendment, and after Tennessee signed on the issue was moot. Thirty-three years later, the Legislature decided to “record its approval of extending the right of suffrage to women” and officially ratified the 19^th Amendment. Although the Alabama Equal Suffrage Association dissolved in 1920, many of its leaders and members joined the newly founded League of Women Voters, which remains active today in Alabama elections.

Read more at Encyclopedia of Alabama or Landmarks of Dekalb County.

Mrs. Pattie Jacobs, President of Alabama Equal Suffrage Association.(Library of Congress, Records of the National Woman’s Party Collection, NPS)

The Birmingham headquarters for the Alabama Equal Suffrage Association opened in 1912. AESA’s demonstrations in Birmingham included “voiceless speech” in department store windows displaying suffrage materials and a mobile library with materials to spread the organization’s message. (From Encyclopedia of Alabama, courtesy of Birmingham Public Library Archives)

For more on Alabama’s Bicentennial, visit Alabama 200.