After 72 years of struggle, the Nineteenth Amendment of the United States constitution was quietly signed into law on August 26, 1920. The amendment, which granted women the right to vote in the United States, was announced following its ratification by two-thirds of the state legislatures. Georgia, South Carolina, Mississippi, Delaware, and Louisiana rejected it.

The Amendment was the culmination of a massive, peaceful civil rights movement that had its formal beginnings in 1848 at the world's first women's rights convention in Seneca Falls, New York. The language of the amendment was exactly the same as first proposed by Susan B. Anthony in 1878:

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. Congress shall have power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation.

In 1971, Congresswoman Bella Abzug sponsored Public Law 93-392, which designates August 26 as "Women's Equality Day." Every President issues a proclamation honoring Women's Equality Day. The observance of this day not only commemorates the passage of the 19th Amendment, but also calls attention to women's continuing efforts toward full equality.