19th Amendment Ratification

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Similarly to many other social justice movements in the United States of America, the fight for women’s suffrage was a long one that required extreme efforts from a grand number of individuals. As the movement progressed, Congress passed and proposed the 19th amendment, to which different states in America stepped up to ratify women’s suffrage. The primary archival source I will be analyzing is a statement signed by the Governor of Tennessee, Albert Houston Roberts, explaining the state's ratification of the 19th amendment. This document in specific would be a life altering one for women all over the country. There’s no denying the fact that all of the states involved in this ratification played a huge role in the 19th amendment, however, Tennessee …show more content…
As previously stated, although the achievement of obtaining women’s suffrage couldn’t have been done without countless people around the country, Tennessee’s role would stand out because of its position and timing in ratifying the 19th amendment. The letter signed by Governor Albert Houston Roberts of Tennessee, states, “. . . the attached paper is a true and perfect copy of Senate Joint Resolution Number 1, ratifying the amendment to the Constitution of the United States, declaring that the rights of the 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. . .” (Tennessee’s Ratification of the 19th Amendment | DocsTeach, n.d.). Despite the fact that many other states provided similar documents containing similar statements, this document was pivotal because it was at its time the 36th state out of the 48 to ratify the long awaited amendment. The archive from the National Archives that includes this document provides a description for it that explains, “This 1920 statement verified that Tennessee had ratified the 19th