Image description: Mrs. John Rogers Jr. campaigns for the right to vote sometime between 1910 and 1915. This photo was taken by the Bain News Service.
View other Bain News Service photos showing life in the 1910s.
Photo from the Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division
Every year on August 26th, the United States honors and celebrates Women’s Equality Day. This Sunday marks the 92nd anniversary of the 19th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. The 19th Amendment guarantees American women the right to vote, and was passed on August 26, 1920.
The passing of the amendment came after 70 years of fighting for women’s rights. Women’s rights were first addressed at the 1848 Seneca Falls Convention, where more than 300 men and women met at the very first women’s rights convention.
Image description: These small silver “Jailed for Freedom” pins in the shape of prison doors with heart-shaped locks were presented to suffragettes in celebration of their release from prison at a meeting in December 1917.
The women, members of the National Woman’s Party, had been arrested outside the White House for protesting against the government’s failure to pass a constitutional amendment giving women the right to vote. They are considered to have been the first people to ever picket the White House.
In June 1917, the D.C. police began arresting picketers for obstructing sidewalk traffic. Over 150 women were sentenced to terms ranging from 60 days to 6 months in the Occoquan Workhouse. When their demands to be treated as political prisoners were ignored, they went on hunger strikes and were forcibly fed. The publicity surrounding their ordeal generated public sympathy for the suffragists and their cause. Learn more about the National Woman’s Party.
Today is Women’s Equality Day, commemorating the success of the women’s suffrage movement. Read the original documents proposing an amendment to the Constitution.
From the National Archives’ Today’s Document blog:
Suffrage did not come easy.
The 19th Amendment was ratified on August 18, 1920. These photos and documents within the records of the National Archives show that the right to vote was not easily won.
