Ratification of the Nineteenth Amendment by the Florida Legislature

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Ratification of the Nineteenth Amendment by the Florida Legislature, 1969

(From: Acts of the Territorial Legislature and Acts of the Legislature 1822-Present, Series S 222)

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The movement for women's rights in the United States truly began in July 1848 with the Seneca Falls Convention. About 240 people attended the meeting, which had been organized by Lucretia Mott and Elizabeth Cady Stanton. The attendees drafted the Seneca Falls Declaration of Sentiments, which listed grievances, and a series of resolutions, which called for specific reforms. Ironically, a resolution advocating women's suffrage barely passed, because many delegates believed it to be too radical. The suffrage movement grew slowly during the rest of the 1800s, partly because of the existence of several rival organizations. In 1890, the different organizations united to form the National American Woman Suffrage Association. During the Progressive Era, support for women's suffrage increased, and a number of individual states adopted full voting rights for women. After avoiding the issue for several years, President Woodrow Wilson moved to support women's suffrage, and the Nineteenth Amendment would pass the congress in 1919, and be ratified the following year.

Florida was not one of the states that ratified the Nineteenth Amendment during 1919-1920. In fact, neither house of the Florida legislature had even voted on the measure. Though the legislature would pass a law in 1921 that provided the vote to all residents, it was not until 1969 that it symbolically ratified the Nineteenth Amendment. Reproduced here is the text of Senate Concurrent Resolution No. 1172, which was passed by Florida's Senate and House of Representatives on May 13, 1969, and approved on May 22 without the signature of Governor Claude Kirk.

A text version of this page of the Ratification of the Nineteenth Amendment by the Florida Legislature is included below the graphic image.

SENATE CONCURRENT RESOLUTION NO. 1172 A concurrent resolution ratifying the Nineteenth Amendment to the Constitution of the United States relating to the right of all citizens to vote

WHEREAS, the Congress of the United States of America in both houses by a constitutional majority of two-thirds thereof has amended the Constitution of the United States in the following words:

"Senate Joint Resolution proposing an amend- ment to the Constitution of the United States relating to the right of all citizens to vote.

"Resolved by the Senate and House of Represen- tatives of the United states of America in Congress Assembled (two-thirds of each House concurring there- in), that the following article is proposed as an amendment to the Constitution of the United States, which shall be valid to all intents and purposes as part of the Constitution when ratified by the legis- latures of three-fourths of the several States with- in seven years of its submission by the Congress:

AMENDMENT XIX "The right of the citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of sex.

Congress shall have power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation." NOW, THEREFORE,

1172

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