Reply #5: Wow. One State wouldn't ratify the voting amendment until 1984! [View All]

[Robbien]

Proposed by the 66th Congress in 1919, the amendment was declared to have been ratified by the legislatures of 36 of the 48 states in a proclamation of the Secretary of State dated August 26, 1920.

With the exception of Connecticut, Vermont and Delaware, all the states who didn't agree with women's right to vote were southern states —Maryland, Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi and Florida. Tennessee was the only state in the south to agree with the rest of the country. That state ratified with the others by Aug. 18, 1920.

Not so for the remaining 12 states. They didn't complete ratification for many years after that date. Florida didn't approve the amendment until May 13, 1969 and the last state to hold out was Mississippi, March 22, 1984 (after having last rejected it on March 29, 1920).

Also, many of the women who started the movement didn't live to see the 1920 amendment get added to the constituion. My thanks to them all.