#5523 - Women Vote

In 1848, the U.S. women’s suffrage movement convened in Seneca Falls, NY, for a women’s rights convention. Their call for women’s suffrage spread across the country in the decades that followed. Supporters of the movement soon discovered that change would be agonizingly slow. It took 70 years for the U.S. House of Representatives to approve a Constitutional amendment in 1918 that would give women the right to vote. That amendment was sent to the U.S Senate later year, and President Woodrow Wilson strongly supported passing the amendment. Even with that support, the Senate failed to pass the amendment. Suffragists continued protesting for its passage. President Wilson called for a special session of Congress, which passed the amendment in 1919. The amendment then had to be ratified by three-quarters of all states (36 of 48 states at the time), which took another year. The 19th Amendment was added to the Constitution on Aug. 26, 1920. Inspired by pictures of the era, this stamp commemorating the centennial of the amendment's ratification has an artful graphic of marching suffragists. Their clothes and the banners they carry display the official colors of the National Woman’s Party: purple, white, and gold. Scott 5523 Women Vote