Date in History: 1920

Tuesday, September 7th, 1920 was a new day for Jefferson County women as they voted for the first time in their life. The nineteenth amendment guaranteeing women the right to vote had just been ratified on August 18th of that year as Tennessee became the 36th and final state to pass the measure, thus providing the required three-fourths majority for new constitutional amendments.

The September 1920 election held in Fort Atkinson was a quiet primary affair deciding state, congressional, legislative, and county offices. Women who registered ahead of time could vote, but large numbers of women had failed to register since the amendment had only just been ratified three weeks earlier. Still, in Fort Atkinson, of the exactly 1,000 votes cast in that September 1920 election, 302 of them were from women.

This historic document aired on the radio as an Historic Minute on 09/01/2003.

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