HR0623 101ST GENERAL ASSEMBLY

HR0623 LRB101 15594 MST 64940 r

HOUSE RESOLUTION

WHEREAS, The 19th Amendment to the United States Constitution granted American women the right to vote, a right known as women's suffrage, and was ratified on August 18, 1920; the year 2020 marks the 100th anniversary of the passage of the 19th Amendment, guaranteeing and protecting women's constitutional right to vote; this historic centennial offers an unparalleled opportunity to commemorate a milestone of democracy and to explore its relevance to the issues of equal rights today; and

WHEREAS, The efforts of millions of American women, starting in the nineteenth century, played a decisive role in winning the right to vote; many of these women lived and fought for suffrage in Illinois, making the Prairie State a nationwide leader in the successful effort; and

WHEREAS, In Illinois, the first women's suffrage association was established in Earlville in LaSalle County in 1855, just seven years after the first women's rights convention in Seneca Falls, New York, which called for suffrage for women; the Illinois Woman Suffrage Association, the first statewide suffrage organization, was established in 1869; the organization became the Illinois Equal Suffrage Association in 1981; and

WHEREAS, Illinois women's rights advocates included Jane Addams, Frances Willard, and Ruth Hanna McCormick; these women fought for the rights of all people; additionally, pioneer and crusader Susan Brownell Anthony paved the way for the first nationwide women's movement in the United States and led that movement for over 50 years, which culminated in the adoption of the 19th Amendment that gave women the right to vote in the United States; and

WHEREAS, With the continued work of women's suffrage organizations throughout Illinois led by prominent citizens, women in Illinois secured the right to vote; along with Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Susan B. Anthony founded the National Woman Suffrage Association in 1869; they also produced The Revolution, a weekly publication that lobbied for women's rights, and a three volume History of Woman Suffrage; and

WHEREAS, Susan B. Anthony and the National Woman Suffrage Association gathered enough influence to lobby the U.S. Congress for a constitutional amendment and saw the introduction of the first women's suffrage amendment to the United States Constitution in January 1878, which stated, "The Right of citizens to vote shall not be abridged by the United States or by any state on account of sex."; and

WHEREAS, With the continued work of several organizations, including the Illinois Equal Suffrage Association, the Illinois Federation of Women's Clubs, and the Chicago Political Equality League, the women's suffrage amendment to the United States Constitution was introduced in every session of Congress for the next 41 years until women in Illinois secured the right to vote; and

WHEREAS, It was not until 1920, 14 years after Susan B. Anthony's death, that the 19th amendment to the U.S. Constitution granted American women the right to vote; the ratification on August 18, 1920 ended almost a century of protest; the Congress of the United States passed the 19th Amendment on May 21, 1919, and the Senate passed the 19th Amendment two weeks later; and

WHEREAS, In 1913, Illinois enacted the Presidential Suffrage Bill, which gave Illinois women the right to vote in federal and municipal elections that were not otherwise restricted to men only by the Illinois Constitution; and

WHEREAS, On June 10, 1919, Illinois lawmakers in Springfield made the Land of Lincoln the first state in the nation to ratify the 19th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, the constitutional amendment that granted the right to vote to women in all elections nationwide, including federal elections for offices such as U.S. President; and

WHEREAS, Illinois holds a significant and unique role in the passage and ratification of the 19th Amendment to the Constitution of the United States; we remember in this commemoration the hopes and dreams of the hundreds of thousands of Illinois women of all political parties who organized themselves, from the 1870s into the 1910s, into the half-century-long effort to win the right to vote in America; therefore, be it

RESOLVED, BY THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES OF THE ONE HUNDRED FIRST GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE STATE OF ILLINOIS, that we commemorate the 100th anniversary of women's suffrage and recognize 2020 as a year to celebrate a woman's right to vote and the important role Illinois played in achieving that right in the United States; and be it further

RESOLVED, That we recognize the Women's Vote Centennial Initiative, a collaboration of women-centered institutions, organizations, and scholars from across the U.S., which work to ensure that this anniversary and the 72-year fight to achieve it are remembered.