Nineteenth Amendment--Women's Suffrage Rights

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                         WOMEN'S SUFFRAGE RIGHTS

                               __________

                          NINETEENTH AMENDMENT


  Section 1. The right 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.
  Section 2. Congress shall have power to enforce this article by
appropriate legislation.

                            WOMEN'S SUFFRAGE

        The Amendment was adopted after a long campaign by its advocates
who had largely despaired of attaining their goal through modification
of individual state laws. Agitation in behalf of women's suffrage was
recorded as early as the Jackson Administration but the initial results
were meager. Beginning in 1838, Kentucky authorized women to vote in
school elections and its action was later copied by a number of other
States. Kansas in 1887 granted women unlimited rights to vote in
municipal elections. Not until 1869, however, when the Wyoming Territory
accorded women suffrage rights on an equal basis with men and continued
the practice following admission to statehood, did these advocates
register a notable victory. Progress continued to be discouraging, only
ten additional States having joined Wyoming by 1914, and, judicial
efforts having failed,\1\ and a vigorous campaign brought congressional
passage of a proposed Amendment and the necessary state
ratifications.\2\

        \1\Minor v. Happersett, 88 U.S. (21 Wall.) 162 (1875), a
challenge under the privileges of immunities clause of the Fourteenth
Amendment.
        \2\E. Flexner, Century of Struggle--The Woman's Rights Movement
in the United States (1959).
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        Following the Supreme Court's interpretation of the Fifteenth
Amendment, the state courts which passed on the effect of the Amendment
ruled that it did not confer upon women the right to vote but only the
right not to be discriminated against on the basis of their sex in the
setting of voting qualifications,\3\ a formalistic distinction to be
sure but one which has restrained the possible applications of the
Amendment. In only one case has the Supreme

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Court itself dealt with the Amendment's effect, holding that a Georgia
poll tax statute which exempted from payment women who did not register
to vote did not discriminate in any manner against the right of men to
vote, although it did note that the Amendment ``applies to men and women
alike and by its own force supersedes inconsistent measures, whether
federal or State.''\4\

        \3\State v. Mittle, 120 S.C. 526 (1922), writ of error
dismissed, 260 U.S. 705 (1922); Graves v. Eubank, 205 Ala. 174 (1921);
In re Cavelier, 287 N.Y.S. 739 (1936).
        \4\Breedlove v. Suttles, 302 U.S. 227, 283-84 (1937).