August 26, 2015, marked the 95th anniversary of the Woman Suffrage Movement’s great victory, the ratification of the 19th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. This campaign, which lasted 72 years, was pursued by thousands of persistent women and men who believed that women should have the right to vote in the United States.  That right was first won in various states and localities, sometimes on a limited basis. The Nineteenth Amendment became part of the U.S. Constitution on August 26, 1920. It states, “The right of 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.”

Here some are of Philadelphia’s suffragettes heading to Harrisburg to celebrate victory in the state in 1919.  Pennsylvania was the seventh state to ratify the national suffragette amendment. While the photograph was taken on June 24, 1919, a 1940 Philadelphia Evening Bulletin caption states “Scenes like this were common in Mother’s day as members of the League of Women Voters explained the mysteries of the ‘Mark X in left hand column’ to the newly enfranchised sex.”