Understanding The Civil Right Amendment that Removes Voting Restrictions on Women

Many amendments were made over the course of time, but two of the most important civil rights amendments were the 19th and the 24th amendment. What is the 19th Amendment? It 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 sex.What does this mean? It means that our right to vote cannot be taken away from us just because of our gender.

It protects their rights because it makes it unlawful to take away any woman's right to vote because of her gender. Women had been fighting for their suffrage , the right to vote, for years and when they finally get their right voting offices turn them away because of their gender. With this amendment their right to vote will be secure and protected anywhere they wanted to vote they could not be turned away just because of their sex.

This amendment was made possible by the support of Susan B. Anthony, Elizabeth Stanton, Lucretia Mott, and Lucy Burns. Not as many men were involved in the support of the amendment but one important man named Woodrow Wilson helped support the amendment. They supported it because they were fighting for women's suffrage, or the right to vote. They began to notice that women weren't being given the same rights as men when black men were given the right to vote before white women were given suffrage. Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Lucretia Mott organized the first Women's right convention and stood up for their right to vote. But many people did not support the 19th amendment Much of the South opposed the 19th amendment and Republicans as well. The south didn't support the passage of the 19th amendment because it was “another expansion of the right to vote.” ( historynet ). Just recently the right to vote had been expanded to black men, through the 15th amendment and now it was being expanded to women as well, so the South did not approve. Republicans disapproved because they didn't believe voting was part of the accepted role of a women. The senate turned down the amendment multiple times. Finally The 19th amendment was ratified in 1920.

Additionally, the 24th amendment made just as big of an impact as the 19th amendment. It says The right of citizens of the United States to vote in any primary or other election for President or Vice President, for electors for President or Vice President, or for Senator or Representative in Congress, shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or any State by reason of failure to pay poll tax or other tax.”

It protects the citizens right to vote because some poll taxes were extremely high and lower class citizens would be unable to vote because they couldn’t afford to pay the tax even though they now everyone had the right to vote. With the passing of this amendment No one could be turned away from voting just because they couldn't afford to pay the tax, therefore giving everyone, even the poor, their right to vote back. Many people supported this amendment especially people of lower class because their right to vote had been stripped away from them due to this tax. When congress realized what states were doing to prevent lower class people from voting they immediately made it illegal to turn someone away for it. Congress supported it because at this time it was everyone's civil right to vote, the passage of the 15th and 19th amendment allowed blacks and women to vote. For their newly given right to be taken away because of high polling taxes was not fair so congress supported passing the law that allowed them to vote even if they couldn't pay the poll tax.

People also didn't support the passing of this amendment. Such as the people of Virginia, Texas, Alabama, Arkansas, and Mississippi. They didn't support it because this amendment meant that they could not tax people to vote and it would further allow people who they thought weren't worthy enough, such as women and blacks, to vote. It was introduced August 27, 1962 and ratified on January 23, 1964.