WASHINGTON, D.C. – Senator Marsha Blackburn’s (R-Tenn.) bipartisan legislation honoring the 100th anniversary of women gaining the right to vote with a commemorative coin has passed Congress and is on its way to the President’s desk to be signed into law.

The Women’s Suffrage Centennial Commemorative Coin Act, cosponsored by Senator Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.), will create a silver $1 coin minted by the U.S. Treasury. Reps. Elise Stefanik (R-N.Y.) and Brenda Lawrence (D-Mich.) led companion legislation in the House of Representatives.

“Every woman in Congress has the women of the suffrage movement to thank for our right to represent our constituents today,” said Senator Blackburn, the first woman elected to the U.S. Senate in Tennessee. “The 2020 centennial of the Nineteenth Amendment is a rare moment to celebrate the milestone in American history that made it possible for women to finally have a voice in government. Ninety-nine years after women gained the right to vote, I became the first woman from Tennessee to serve in the United States Senate. I am honored to have worked with Senator Gillibrand and Reps. Stefanik and Lawrence to commemorate the pioneers and trailblazers who made it possible for us to be members of these chambers.”

“Almost a century ago, after women across the nation spoke out and fought for their right to vote, the 19th Amendment was finally passed. It was one of the greatest milestones in American history, and we should do everything we can to celebrate it,” said Senator Gillibrand. “As a New Yorker, I am especially proud to celebrate a historic movement that was born and planned in our state. Though there is still work to be done to ensure that every vote is counted, I’m thrilled that our bipartisan bill to create a commemorative coin in honor of the suffragists has passed Congress. I urge the President to quickly sign this bill into law and pay tribute to the unparalleled contributions that the suffragists had to our nation’s history.”

“I am honored to celebrate the important work of women’s suffrage activists through the Women’s Suffrage Commemorative Coin Act,” said Congresswoman Stefanik. “One of the most vocal advocates for women’s suffrage, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, was born and raised in Johnstown, New York, and I am looking forward to celebrating the 100th anniversary of the passage of the 19th amendment in my district next year. I’m grateful to my colleagues for supporting this bipartisan legislation, and it is my hope that this bill will encourage women across the country to continue to be active participants in civic life.”

“Ninety-nine years after women gained the right to vote, the 116th Congress brought in a record number of women members and the most diverse Congress in history,” said Representative Lawrence. “As the Chair of the Bipartisan Women’s Caucus and the Co-Chair of the Democratic Women’s Caucus, I‘m proud to stand on the shoulders of the suffragists who played a vital role in rallying support for the 19th Amendment to the Constitution of the United States. As we approach the historic suffrage centennial, it is my hope that this bipartisan legislation will not only tell the story of the courageous activists who played a pivotal role in the fight for women’s rights, but will remind all Americans that the right to vote was a decades-long struggle.”

BACKGROUND

Senators Blackburn and Gillibrand introduced S. 1235, the Women’s Suffrage Centennial Commemorative Coin Act, on April 30, 2019. The measure honors the centennial and the legacy of the suffrage activists with a commemorative coin minted by the U.S. Department of Treasury. All twenty-five female Senators support the legislation. For the first time in U.S. history, one-fourth of the members of the U.S. Senate are female.

The women’s suffrage movement began in July 1848 with the first women’s rights convention held in Seneca Falls, New York. The fight concluded in August 1920 in Nashville, Tennessee, 140 years after the signing of the Declaration of Independence. Tennessee was the 36th and final state needed to ratify the Nineteenth Amendment.