Women's Suffrage

Suffragists had fought for women’s right to vote since the middle of the nineteenth century. When the fifteenth amendment guaranteed blacks the right to vote, many women believed that their turn would come soon. But another fifty years would pass before Congress approved the Nineteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, guaranteeing equal voting rights for women. In this chapter, you’ll explore the political battles over women’s suffrage, the work of North Carolina activist Gertrude Weil, and the reasons for North Carolina’s refusal to ratify the amendment.



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