Minnesota was the 15th state to ratify the 19th Amendment to the Constitution, which guarantees all American women the right to vote, on September 8, 1919. Achieving this milestone took decades of agitation and protest. Beginning in the mid-19th century, several generations of woman suffrage supporters lectured, wrote, marched, lobbied, and practiced civil disobedience to achieve what many Americans considered a radical change to the Constitution.
The 19th amendment passed Congress in June of 1919. When Tennessee became the 36th state to ratify the amendment on August 18, 1920, the amendment finally obtained the required agreement of three-fourths of the states. U.S. Secretary of State Bainbridge Colby certified the ratification on August 26, 1920.
