2019 Regular Session ENROLLED
SENATE CONCURRENT RESOL UTION NO. 39
BY SENATORS MIZELL, ALARIO, ALLAIN, APPEL, BARROW, BISHOP,
BOUDREAUX, CARTER, CHABERT, CLAITOR, COLOMB,
CORTEZ, DONAHUE, ERDEY, FANNIN, GATTI, HENSGENS,
HEWITT, JOHNS, LAFLEUR, LAMBERT, LONG, LUNEAU,
MARTINY, MILKOVICH, MILLS, MORRELL, MORRISH,
PEACOCK, PETERSON, PRICE, RISER, GARY SMITH, JOHN
SMITH, TARVER, THOMPSON, WALSWORTH, WARD AND
WHITE AND REPRESENTATIVES AMEDEE, CARPENTER, DAVIS,
DUBUISSON, EMERSON, HILFERTY, HODGES, HORTON,
JACKSON, NANCY LANDRY, MARCELLE, MOORE, NORTON,
SMITH, STOKES, THOMAS AND WHITE
A CONCURRENT RESOL UTION
To recognize the Centennial Anniversary of the ratification of the Nineteenth Amendment
to the United States Constitution.
WHEREAS, the fight for women's suffrage was a lengthy one and brought many
disparate groups and individuals to a common cause, believing in and working for the
enfranchisement of women in the United States; and
WHEREAS, no one event resulted in the passage of the Nineteenth Amendment to
the U.S. Constitution, rather the movement for women's suffrage began in 1848, more than
seventy years before the final ratification; and
WHEREAS, the march toward women's suffrage began at a convention in Seneca
Falls, New York, which involved a hundred advocates and produced a Declaration of
Sentiments, which outlined grievances and set an agenda for the movement; and
WHEREAS, over the next more than forty years, including an eighteen-year hiatus
occasioned by the Civil War, the movement grew and gained momentum; and
WHEREAS, in 1869, a split occurred in the suffragist movement, resulting in
Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton forming the "National Woman Suffrage
Association", whose primary goal was to achieve voting rights for women by means of a
congressional amendment to the Constitution, which would then require three-quarters of
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the states to ratify the amendment before its inclusion in the Constitution; and
WHEREAS, Lucy Stone, Henry Blackwell, and others formed the American Woman
Suffrage Association, which focused on achieving voting rights for women through
individual state constitutions; and
WHEREAS, in 1872, Susan B. Anthony was arrested for voting in the presidential
election for Ulysses S. Grant; and
WHEREAS, once the two major groups fighting for women's suffrage merged into
the National Woman Suffrage Association, the movement became considered mainstream
and in 1896, the National Association of Colored Women was formed, and in 1913, with the
formation of what would be known as the National Woman's Party, the movement's players
were all engaged in the fight for women's suffrage; and
WHEREAS, Colorado became the first state to adopt an amendment granting women
the right to vote in 1893, followed by Utah, and Idaho; and
WHEREAS, in 1918, President Woodrow Wilson announced that women's suffrage
was urgently needed as a "war measure", and in 1919, the amendment, which was originally
written by Susan B. Anthony in the previous century, was passed by Congress, sent to the
states to be ratified, and was subsequently ratified by twenty-two states, including New
York; and
WHEREAS, on August 26, 1920, the Nineteenth Amendment to the U.S.
Constitution, having been ratified by the requisite number of states, became a part of the
Constitution, and women in the United States were at last fully enfranchised; and
WHEREAS, this lengthy struggle for the right to vote culminated in women voting
in the 1920 presidential election, which Warren G. Harding won; and
WHEREAS, over this current year and 2020, events are planned around the country
to celebrate this momentous enactment; and
WHEREAS, the struggle for women's suffrage was lengthy and bitter, and the
eventual triumph by the movement lagged behind many states that had granted women the
right to vote in state elections, overturned a decision by the United States Supreme Court that
granting women the right to vote was unconstitutional, and followed numerous countries
around the world who had fully enfranchised women prior to 1920.
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THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED that the Legislature of Louisiana does hereby
recognize the Centennial Anniversary of the ratification of the Nineteenth Amendment to
the United States Constitution on August 26, 1920, following ratification by Tennessee, as
the requisite number of states had then ratified, and fully enfranchised women in the United
States.
PRESIDENT OF THE SENATE
SPEAKER OF THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
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