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1
HOUSE RESOLUTION

 
2    WHEREAS, The 19th Amendment to the United States
3Constitution granted American women the right to vote, a right
4known as women's suffrage, and was ratified on August 18, 1920;
5the year 2020 marks the 100th anniversary of the passage of the
619th Amendment, guaranteeing and protecting women's
7constitutional right to vote; this historic centennial offers
8an unparalleled opportunity to commemorate a milestone of
9democracy and to explore its relevance to the issues of equal
10rights today; and
 
11    WHEREAS, The efforts of millions of American women,
12starting in the nineteenth century, played a decisive role in
13winning the right to vote; many of these women lived and fought
14for suffrage in Illinois, making the Prairie State a nationwide
15leader in the successful effort; and
 
16    WHEREAS, In Illinois, the first women's suffrage
17association was established in Earlville in LaSalle County in
181855, just seven years after the first women's rights
19convention in Seneca Falls, New York, which called for suffrage
20for women; the Illinois Woman Suffrage Association, the first
21statewide suffrage organization, was established in 1869; the
22organization became the Illinois Equal Suffrage Association in
231981; and
 

 

 

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1    WHEREAS, Illinois women's rights advocates included Jane
2Addams, Frances Willard, and Ruth Hanna McCormick; these women
3fought for the rights of all people; additionally, pioneer and
4crusader Susan Brownell Anthony paved the way for the first
5nationwide women's movement in the United States and led that
6movement for over 50 years, which culminated in the adoption of
7the 19th Amendment that gave women the right to vote in the
8United States; and
 
9    WHEREAS, With the continued work of women's suffrage
10organizations throughout Illinois led by prominent citizens,
11women in Illinois secured the right to vote; along with
12Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Susan B. Anthony founded the National
13Woman Suffrage Association in 1869; they also produced The
14Revolution, a weekly publication that lobbied for women's
15rights, and a three volume History of Woman Suffrage; and
 
16    WHEREAS, Susan B. Anthony and the National Woman Suffrage
17Association gathered enough influence to lobby the U.S.
18Congress for a constitutional amendment and saw the
19introduction of the first women's suffrage amendment to the
20United States Constitution in January 1878, which stated, "The
21Right of citizens to vote shall not be abridged by the United
22States or by any state on account of sex."; and
 

 

 

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1    WHEREAS, With the continued work of several organizations,
2including the Illinois Equal Suffrage Association, the
3Illinois Federation of Women's Clubs, and the Chicago Political
4Equality League, the women's suffrage amendment to the United
5States Constitution was introduced in every session of Congress
6for the next 41 years until women in Illinois secured the right
7to vote; and
 
8    WHEREAS, It was not until 1920, 14 years after Susan B.
9Anthony's death, that the 19th amendment to the U.S.
10Constitution granted American women the right to vote; the
11ratification on August 18, 1920 ended almost a century of
12protest; the Congress of the United States passed the 19th
13Amendment on May 21, 1919, and the Senate passed the 19th
14Amendment two weeks later; and
 
15    WHEREAS, In 1913, Illinois enacted the Presidential
16Suffrage Bill, which gave Illinois women the right to vote in
17federal and municipal elections that were not otherwise
18restricted to men only by the Illinois Constitution; and
 
19    WHEREAS, On June 10, 1919, Illinois lawmakers in
20Springfield made the Land of Lincoln the first state in the
21nation to ratify the 19th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution,
22the constitutional amendment that granted the right to vote to
23women in all elections nationwide, including federal elections

 

 

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1for offices such as U.S. President; and
 
2    WHEREAS, Illinois holds a significant and unique role in
3the passage and ratification of the 19th Amendment to the
4Constitution of the United States; we remember in this
5commemoration the hopes and dreams of the hundreds of thousands
6of Illinois women of all political parties who organized
7themselves, from the 1870s into the 1910s, into the
8half-century-long effort to win the right to vote in America;
9therefore, be it
 
10    RESOLVED, BY THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES OF THE ONE
11HUNDRED FIRST GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE STATE OF ILLINOIS, that
12we commemorate the 100th anniversary of women's suffrage and
13recognize 2020 as a year to celebrate a woman's right to vote
14and the important role Illinois played in achieving that right
15in the United States; and be it further
 
16    RESOLVED, That we recognize the Women's Vote Centennial
17Initiative, a collaboration of women-centered institutions,
18organizations, and scholars from across the U.S., which work to
19ensure that this anniversary and the 72-year fight to achieve
20it are remembered.