Untitled timeline

US Constitutional Convention places voting qualifications in the hands of the states. Women in all states except New Jersey lose the right to vote.

Constitution in 1870, guaranteed African Americans the right to vote. The 15th amendment states that 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 race, color, or previous condition of servitude."

First Women's Rights convention in Seneca Fall, New York. Equal suffrage proposed by Elizabeth Cady Stanton After debate of so radical a notion, it is adopted.

also known as the Equal Rights Association, was an organization formed by women's rights and black rights activists in 1866 in the United States. Its goal was to join the cause of gender equality with that of racial equality. Tensions between proponents of the dissimilar goals caused the AERA to split apart in 1869. Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony form the American Equal Rights Association, an organization dedicated to the goal of suffrage for all regardless of gender or race.

The 15th Amendment was the third of of the Reconstruction Amendments. This amendment prohibits the states and the federal government from using a citizen's race or color or previous status as a slave as a voting qualification. Granting free men of color the right to vote could be seen as giving them the rights of citizens, an argument explicitly made by Justice Curtis's dissent in the Dred Scott v. Sandford case

Women's suffrage is the right of women to vote and to run for office. Limited voting rights were gained by women in Sweden, Finland and some western U.S. states in the late 19th century. International organizations were formed to coordinate efforts, especially the International Council of Women and the International Woman Suffrage Alliance

On Election Day in 1920, millions of American women exercised their right to vote for the first time. It took activists and reformers nearly 100 years to win that right, and the campaign was not easy: Disagreements over strategy threatened to cripple the movement more than once. But on August 26, 1920, the 19th Amendment to the Constitution was finally ratified, giving voting rights to all American women and declaring for the first time that they also deserve all the rights and responsibilities of citizenship.