IMPORTANT DATES IN LEAGUE HISTORY
A timeline of the League of Women Voters Minnesota
March 24, 1919
Carrie Chapman Catt proposed the formation of a "league of women voters to 'finish the fight' and to aid in the reconstruction of the nation." The occasion was the 50th Anniversary Jubilee Convention of the National American Woman Suffrage Association, in St. Louis. In proposing a "fitting commemoration," Catt asked: "What could be more natural than that women who have attained their political independence should desire to give service in token of their gratitude? What could be more appropriate than that such women should do for the coming generation what those of a preceding period did for them? ... Let us then raise up a league of women voters ...; a league that shall be non-partisan and nonsectarian in character ..."
March 24, 1919
The Minnesota Legislature granted to the women of the state the right to vote for presidential electors.
May 21, 1919
The House of Representatives passed the 19th Amendment, 304-89. Opponents blocked action in the Senate for another two weeks, delaying ratification by ensuring that most state legislatures had adjourned for the year.
June 4, 1919
The Senate passed the 19th Amendment, with two votes to spare, 40 years after its first introduction in Congress. From Paris, President Wilson sent a cable of congratulations.
September 8, 1919
The Minnesota Legislature ratified the 19th Amendment (House 120 to 6 / Senate 60 to 5)
October 29, 1919
League of Women Voters Minnesota (LWV Minnesota) was organized. (The Minnesota Suffrage Association dissolved its corporation on October 7, 1919 to become LWV Minnesota.)
February 14, 1920
League of Women Voters was officially founded as "a mighty experiment," at the "Victory Convention" of the National American Woman Suffrage Association in Chicago, Illinois. By then 33 states had ratified the suffrage amendment, but final victory was still three states away.
August 18, 1920
Tennessee became the final state to ratify the 19th Amendment, after the governor yielded to appeals to call a special session of the legislature. A young state legislator cast the deciding vote after being admonished to do so by his mother.
August 26, 1920 (Women's Equality Day)
Notice of the final ratification was received by the Secretary of State in Washington at 4:00 a.m., and the Nineteenth Amendment was proclaimed part of the Constitution. Up to that time, no other amendment had taken so long to secure. Minnesota can claim the first women voters in the nation as a stalwart group of women in South St. Paul organized a local referendum in the wee hours of the morning of August 27, 1920.
April 11-18, 1921
League of Women Voters first annual Convention, Cleveland, Ohio
The 19th Amendment:
The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or any state on account of sex. Congress shall have power to enforce this article by appropriate action.
October 20, 1922
The League of Women Voters Duluth was established
Thanks to League of Women Voters United States for providing portions of this chronology.
March 24, 1919
Carrie Chapman Catt proposed the formation of a "league of women voters to 'finish the fight' and to aid in the reconstruction of the nation." The occasion was the 50th Anniversary Jubilee Convention of the National American Woman Suffrage Association, in St. Louis. In proposing a "fitting commemoration," Catt asked: "What could be more natural than that women who have attained their political independence should desire to give service in token of their gratitude? What could be more appropriate than that such women should do for the coming generation what those of a preceding period did for them? ... Let us then raise up a league of women voters ...; a league that shall be non-partisan and nonsectarian in character ..."
March 24, 1919
The Minnesota Legislature granted to the women of the state the right to vote for presidential electors.
May 21, 1919
The House of Representatives passed the 19th Amendment, 304-89. Opponents blocked action in the Senate for another two weeks, delaying ratification by ensuring that most state legislatures had adjourned for the year.
June 4, 1919
The Senate passed the 19th Amendment, with two votes to spare, 40 years after its first introduction in Congress. From Paris, President Wilson sent a cable of congratulations.
September 8, 1919
The Minnesota Legislature ratified the 19th Amendment (House 120 to 6 / Senate 60 to 5)
October 29, 1919
League of Women Voters Minnesota (LWV Minnesota) was organized. (The Minnesota Suffrage Association dissolved its corporation on October 7, 1919 to become LWV Minnesota.)
February 14, 1920
League of Women Voters was officially founded as "a mighty experiment," at the "Victory Convention" of the National American Woman Suffrage Association in Chicago, Illinois. By then 33 states had ratified the suffrage amendment, but final victory was still three states away.
August 18, 1920
Tennessee became the final state to ratify the 19th Amendment, after the governor yielded to appeals to call a special session of the legislature. A young state legislator cast the deciding vote after being admonished to do so by his mother.
August 26, 1920 (Women's Equality Day)
Notice of the final ratification was received by the Secretary of State in Washington at 4:00 a.m., and the Nineteenth Amendment was proclaimed part of the Constitution. Up to that time, no other amendment had taken so long to secure. Minnesota can claim the first women voters in the nation as a stalwart group of women in South St. Paul organized a local referendum in the wee hours of the morning of August 27, 1920.
April 11-18, 1921
League of Women Voters first annual Convention, Cleveland, Ohio
The 19th Amendment:
The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or any state on account of sex. Congress shall have power to enforce this article by appropriate action.
October 20, 1922
The League of Women Voters Duluth was established
Thanks to League of Women Voters United States for providing portions of this chronology.
