100th Anniversary of the 19th Amendment

Floor Speech

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Ms. BALDWIN. Mr. President, I am proud to rise today to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the day my home State of Wisconsin became the first State in the Nation to ratify the 19th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, giving women the right to vote.

Although the outcome was a historic victory, women did not gain the right to vote without a struggle. The road to Wisconsin's ratification of the 19th Amendment was paved with more than 70 years of advocacy and speeches, marches and rallies, legislation and lawsuits by strong Wisconsin suffragists. Many of the battles were lost before they were won.

When Wisconsin became a State in 1848, only White male landowners over 21 years of age could vote. In 1869, women won the right to run for local school boards in Wisconsin but ironically could not vote for themselves. In 1886, Wisconsin voters approved a statewide referendum allowing women to vote in school elections. When women tried to exercise their new rights for the first time in 1887, however, many women's ballots were discarded because there was no way to verify that women voted only in school elections. Racine suffragist Olympia Brown sued to have her ballot accepted, but the State supreme court said the law was vague and needed to be rewritten. Fourteen years later, the Wisconsin Legislature approved the creation of separate ballots for women that only included school elections.

In 1911, Wisconsin suffragists persuaded the legislature to authorize a statewide referendum on voting rights for women, but it was soundly defeated by an electorate that didn't include women. Two years later, the legislature again called for a referendum on women's suffrage, but it was vetoed by the Governor. In 1915, another attempt at a referendum was rejected by lawmakers.

Women's suffrage fared much better when the debate over voting rights shifted from individual States to the national stage. Congress passed the 19th Amendment on June 4, 1919. Less than a week later, on June 10th, the Wisconsin Legislature ratified the amendment, narrowly beating out its neighbor to the south. Illinois had actually ratified the amendment an hour before Wisconsin, but a paperwork error delayed the filing of the Illinois documents. By August 26, 1920, the necessary 36 States had ratified the 19th Amendment, and women were granted full voting rights.

As we celebrate the centennial of this historic moment, it is important to acknowledge that ratification of the 19th Amendment did not extend voting rights to all women. Advocacy for suffrage for Black women was often abandoned in an attempt to gain support for ratification in the South. African-American women faced disenfranchisement tactics that ranged from separate long lines and civics tests to poll taxes and even beatings. Many of these tactics continued until passage of the Voting Rights Act of 1965.

Wisconsin owes its unique position in history to the voices of powerful Wisconsin women who not only spoke truth to power but who also shattered the glass ceiling in their professional lives. Belle Case LaFollette, originally from Summit, was the first woman to graduate from law school in Wisconsin. Laura Ross Wolcott from Milwaukee was Wisconsin's first woman physician. Olympia Brown of Racine was the first woman to be ordained a minister in the entire country. Nationally renowned suffragist Carrie Chapman Catt from Ripon was indispensable to passage of the amendment. As the first woman to represent Wisconsin in the U.S. House of Representatives and now the U.S. Senate, I am humbled to walk the path these strong women helped forge for their successors.

One hundred years ago, after decades of struggle by brave women and men, our Nation finally extended to women the most fundamental right in our democracy--the right to vote. As we celebrate this historic milestone in our Nation's history, let us vow to continue to fight for full equality for women, including access to health care, in workplace salaries, and in representation the Halls of Congress.

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