Celebrate the 100th Anniversary of the Passage of the 19th Amendment

This year, 2020, marks the 100^th Anniversary of the 19^th Amendment which secured the vote for women by prohibiting the government from denying the right to vote based on a U.S. citizen’s sex. The amendment was ratified on August 18, 1920 and certified on August 26, 1920. It marked a major success for the women’s suffrage movement.

Celebrate 100 years since the passage of the 19th Amendment and learn about the Legacy of Suffrage

The amendment was a significant step forward in the fight for the vote in 1920. However, men and women of color were still denied their right in the United States through a number of voter suppression strategies until the Voting Rights Act of 1965. Learn more about the history of voting rights in the U.S. with this article from Vox.

Though the 19^th Amendment ensured the right to vote regardless of sex, women were still far from equal in 1920. Women still experienced discrimination at school, work, in sports, and in other areas of life. The fight for women’s rights and gender equality continued throughout the twentieth century, and continues today.

In celebration of the 19^th Amendment, UB Special Collections & Archives has compiled a list of digital exhibits, online guides and tools, and other resources to help you learn about and celebrate the legacy of suffrage, women’s rights, feminism, and voting rights.

Digital Exhibits and Resource Guides:

In celebration of the centennial of the 19^th Amendment and of the 100^th birthday of the League of Women Voters of Baltimore City, the UB Special Collections & Archives created the digital exhibit The League of Women Voters: The Legacy of Suffrage. Check out this exhibit to learn how the LWV of Baltimore City continued to support voters and their community in the city, state, country, and internationally!
Explore our digital exhibit: The League of Women Voters: The Legacy of Suffrage.
RLB Library created a wonderful Women’s History Resource Guide highlighting books, articles, resources, online exhibits and experiences, and more!

Check out these books and more with the Women’s History Resource Guide

Learn about the discrimination women faced at work with oral history interviews from the Baltimore Voices Company Records. Search our oral histories in the Internet Archive to access interviews with Elizabeth Dellow, Michelle Jenkins, and others, and learn about their experiences as women with unions, labor issues, sexism, and racism at work in the late 1970s and 1980s in Baltimore.
Check out our recent blog post about the Baltimore City Office of Civil Rights Records in the UB Special Collections & Archives to learn how this city agency supported women’s rights and fought discrimination

Additional Digital Exhibits, Articles, and Resources:

Because of Her Story from Smithsonian American Women’s History Initiative
#19SuffrageStories Countdown from Smithsonian’s Because of Her Story
Shall Not Be Denied: Women Fight for the Vote exhibit from the Library of Congress
Rightfully Hers: American Women and the Vote exhibit from the National Archives
2020 Women’s Vote Centennial Initiative (WVCI) shares programs, projects, and activities that commemorate the 100th anniversary of the 19th Amendment
Women’s Suffrage Centennial Commission commemorates and celebrates the 100^th Anniversary of the 19^th Amendment nationwide
The League of Women Voters: supporting voters for 100 years and counting
The 19th Amendment didn’t give women the right to vote, by Anna North, August 18, 2020 for Vox
The Voting Machine That Displayed Different Ballots Based on Your Sex, by David Kindy, June 26, 2019 for Smithsonian Magazine [SmithsonianMag.com]
Maryland suffrage News (Baltimore, Md.) 1912-1920 from Chronicling America Historic American Newspapers. A weekly newspaper founded by Edith Houghton Hooker in 1912, as the voice of the Just Government League (JGL) of Maryland. The JGL was a pro-women’s suffrage organization that she founded in 1909.
The Historic Maryland Newspapers Project from the University of Maryland, College Park: Find more historic newspapers documenting the suffrage movement in Maryland

Social Media:

Throughout August 2020 follow #19SuffrageStories on Instagram and Twitter from the Library of Congress, Smithsonian, and U.S. National Archives
Throughout August 2020 follow @rlblibrary on Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook for more from the UB Special Collections & Archives celebrating the 19^th Amendment and the Legacy of Suffrage!
During the Week of August 17-21, 2020 follow #MDSuffrage #MarylandWomenVote #ChroniclingAmerica and #HistoricMDNews to find unique stories, objects, photographs, newspaper articles, and more related to women’s suffrage in Maryland or about the broader women’s suffrage movement, all created/published in Maryland.

Our celebration of the centennial of the 19th Amendment and the Legacy of Women’s Suffrage continues with this article from the Evening Capital and Maryland Gazette newspaper of Annapolis, Md. dated 15 April 1922. The article titled “General Idea Back of the Pan-American Woman’s Conference” discusses the Pan-American Women’s Conference, an international event organized by the League of Women Voters and held in Baltimore, MD in 1922. The passage of the 19th Amendment in 1920 sparked the creation of the League of Women Voters. The League has partnered with others in the U.S. and internationally to advocate for women’s rights. Find this article and more with the Chronicling America Historic American Newspapers database.

We hope you enjoy celebrating and learning about the passage of the 19th Amendment, the legacy of suffrage, and voting rights! And remember– Baltimore votes!

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