1904
Women would not have
the right to vote for 16 more years…

On June 4, 1919,
the US Senate passed the 19th Amendment to the Constitution.
But then it had to be amended by at least 36 of America’s 48 states.
(Alaska and Hawaii, remember, were not yet states.)

Thirteen months later, Tennessee,
the necessary 36th state – ratified the amendment and
it became law the following week.

These were the first 28 states to cheerfully ratify the amendment:
Texas, Oklahoma, Missouri, Arkansas, Tennessee, Wyoming, Colorado, Utah, Ohio, Idaho, Kansas, Arizona, Oregon, Washington, Montana, North Dakota, South Dakota, Michigan, Illinois, Nebraska, Iowa, Wisconsin, Indiana, Maine, Minnesota, California, Nevada, Rhode Island, and New York.

Did you notice the supposedly “backwards and rural”
midwestern states were the quickest to get on board?

It took over 60 years for the remaining 12 states to ratify the
19th Amendment. Mississippi was the last to do so, on March 22, 1984.