Full Text of HR0623 101st General Assembly
HR0623 101ST GENERAL ASSEMBLY |
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| 1 | | HOUSE RESOLUTION
| 2 | | WHEREAS, The 19th Amendment to the United States | 3 | | Constitution granted American women
the right to vote, a right | 4 | | known as women's suffrage, and was ratified on August 18, 1920; | 5 | | the
year 2020 marks the 100th anniversary of the passage of the | 6 | | 19th Amendment, guaranteeing
and protecting women's | 7 | | constitutional right to vote; this historic centennial offers | 8 | | an
unparalleled opportunity to commemorate a milestone of | 9 | | democracy and to explore its
relevance to the issues of equal | 10 | | rights today; and
| 11 | | WHEREAS, The efforts of millions of American women, | 12 | | starting in the nineteenth century,
played a decisive role in | 13 | | winning the right to vote; many of these women lived and fought | 14 | | for
suffrage in Illinois, making the Prairie State a nationwide | 15 | | leader in the successful effort; and
| 16 | | WHEREAS, In Illinois, the first women's suffrage | 17 | | association was established in Earlville in LaSalle
County in | 18 | | 1855, just seven years after the first women's rights | 19 | | convention in Seneca Falls, New
York, which called for suffrage | 20 | | for women; the Illinois Woman Suffrage Association, the first
| 21 | | statewide suffrage organization, was established in 1869; the | 22 | | organization became the Illinois
Equal Suffrage Association in | 23 | | 1981; and |
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| 1 | | WHEREAS, Illinois women's rights advocates included Jane | 2 | | Addams, Frances Willard, and Ruth
Hanna McCormick; these women | 3 | | fought for the rights of all people; additionally, pioneer and
| 4 | | crusader Susan Brownell Anthony paved the way for the first | 5 | | nationwide women's movement in
the United States and led that | 6 | | movement for over 50 years, which culminated in the
adoption of | 7 | | the 19th Amendment that gave women the right to vote in the | 8 | | United States; and | 9 | | WHEREAS, With the continued work of women's suffrage | 10 | | organizations throughout Illinois led
by prominent citizens, | 11 | | women in Illinois secured the right to vote; along with | 12 | | Elizabeth Cady
Stanton, Susan B. Anthony founded the National | 13 | | Woman Suffrage Association in 1869; they
also produced The | 14 | | Revolution, a weekly publication that lobbied for women's | 15 | | rights, and a three
volume History of Woman Suffrage; and | 16 | | WHEREAS, Susan B. Anthony and the National Woman Suffrage | 17 | | Association gathered enough
influence to lobby the U.S. | 18 | | Congress for a constitutional amendment and saw the | 19 | | introduction of
the first women's suffrage amendment to the | 20 | | United States Constitution in January 1878, which
stated, "The | 21 | | Right of citizens to vote shall not be abridged by the United | 22 | | States or by any state
on account of sex."; and |
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| 1 | | WHEREAS, With the continued work of several organizations, | 2 | | including the Illinois Equal
Suffrage Association, the | 3 | | Illinois Federation of Women's Clubs, and the Chicago Political
| 4 | | Equality League, the women's suffrage amendment to the United | 5 | | States Constitution was
introduced in every session of Congress | 6 | | for the next 41 years until women in Illinois secured the
right | 7 | | to vote; and | 8 | | WHEREAS, It was not until 1920, 14 years after Susan B. | 9 | | Anthony's death, that the 19th
amendment to the U.S. | 10 | | Constitution granted American women the right to vote; the | 11 | | ratification on August 18, 1920 ended almost a century of | 12 | | protest; the Congress of the United States passed the 19th | 13 | | Amendment on May 21, 1919, and the Senate
passed the 19th | 14 | | Amendment two weeks later; and
| 15 | | WHEREAS, In 1913, Illinois enacted the Presidential | 16 | | Suffrage Bill, which gave Illinois women
the right to vote in | 17 | | federal and municipal elections that were not otherwise | 18 | | restricted to men
only by the Illinois Constitution; and
| 19 | | WHEREAS, On June 10, 1919, Illinois lawmakers in | 20 | | Springfield made the Land of Lincoln the
first state in the | 21 | | nation to ratify the 19th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, | 22 | | the
constitutional amendment that granted the right to vote to | 23 | | women in all elections nationwide,
including federal elections |
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| 1 | | for offices such as U.S. President; and
| 2 | | WHEREAS, Illinois holds a significant and unique role in | 3 | | the passage and ratification of the 19th
Amendment to the | 4 | | Constitution of the United States; we remember in this | 5 | | commemoration the
hopes and dreams of the hundreds of thousands | 6 | | of Illinois women of all political parties who
organized | 7 | | themselves, from the 1870s into the 1910s, into the | 8 | | half-century-long effort to win the
right to vote in America; | 9 | | therefore, be it
| 10 | | RESOLVED, BY THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES OF THE ONE | 11 | | HUNDRED FIRST GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE STATE OF ILLINOIS, that | 12 | | we commemorate the
100th anniversary of women's suffrage and | 13 | | recognize 2020 as a year to celebrate a woman's right to
vote | 14 | | and the important role Illinois played in achieving that right | 15 | | in the United States; and be it further
| 16 | | RESOLVED, That we recognize the Women's Vote Centennial
| 17 | | Initiative, a collaboration of women-centered institutions, | 18 | | organizations, and scholars from
across the U.S., which work to | 19 | | ensure that this anniversary and the 72-year fight to achieve | 20 | | it are remembered.
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