Issue link: https://newsleader.uberflip.com/i/360116
In America's Women: 400 Years of Dolls, Drudges, Helpmates, and Heroines, Gail Collins quoted the ailing Stanton. "Logically, our enfranchisement ought to have occurred ... in Reconstruction days. Yet, the fight to get women the right to vote, like all things too long postponed, now gets on everybody's nerves." Seventeen years after Stanton's death in 1902, and 13 years after Susan B.'s death in 1906, the 19th Amendment to the Constitution was proposed: THE RIGHTS 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. It was initiated by those who inherited the Stanton-Anthony mantle because a state-by- state initiative to allow women the right to vote had stalled as a result of intense opposi- tion from the South and the East. The constitutional measure (nicknamed the Anthony Amendment) passed the U.S. House and Senate in 1919, but it still needed to be rat- ified by 36 of the existing 48 states. Tennessee approved it in 1920, the last state needed for the count. The following year, Florida passed a law giving all residents the right to vote. The Florida Legislature symbolically rati- fied the 19th Amendment to the Constitution in 1969, without the signature of then-Gov. Claude Kirk. ONGOING VISIONS Arriving by car, plane and bus on July 26, many groups came to the Sarasota Hyatt for the 94th anniversary celebration of Susan B. Anthony's victory. The Women's Equity Luncheon included delegates from the National Commission on the Status of Women, along with representatives from state and local commissions. (From left) Dr. Anila Jain, honorary co-chairwoman; Sally Matson, actress; Maj. Connie Shingledecker; and Betty Schoenbaum, honorary co-chairwoman, pose at the Women's Equity Luncheon. Photo by Fran Palmeri Sarasota News Leader August 8 & 15, 2014 Page 112