April First

April First

Suffrage

In 1917 President Woodrow Wilson called for a Constitutional amendment and though the House passed a woman suffrage amendment in 1918, it failed in the Senate largely because of the opposition from southern states. Finally on June 4, 1919, the suffrage amendment passed both houses of Congress and was sent to the states for ratification. Many states quickly approved the amendment and on August 13, 1920 Tennessee became the 36th state to approve the amendment. Two weeks later, on August 26, Secretary of State Bainbridge Colby signed the certification that the required number of states had ratified the Nineteenth Amendment. However, in early 1920, five states rejected the amendment, among them was Mississippi. Cartoonist Clifford Berryman portrays the Mississippi rejection as an April Fool's joke played on the women's suffrage movement.

Berryman, Clifford Kennedy, 1869-1949

National Archives
https://catalog.archives.gov/id/6011595

6011595