Office of the City Clerk - Record #: R2019-409

• Record #: R2019-409
• Type: Resolution
• Status: Adopted
• Intro date: 6/12/2019
• Final action: 6/12/2019
• Title: Recognition of June 10, 2019 as "Day to Celebrate Women's Right to Vote" and commemoration of Women's Suffragate Movement
• Sponsors: Lightfoot, Lori E. , King, Sophia D., Hairston, Leslie A.

Date	Journal Page Number	Action By	Action	Result
6/12/2019		City Council	Rules Suspended - Immediate Consideration
6/12/2019	226	City Council	Adopted	Pass

RESOLUTION
WHEREAS, Illinois had long been at the forefront of the movement to provide women the right to vote;
WHEREAS, in Illinois the first women's suffrage association was established in EarlviHe in LaSalle County in 1855, just seven years after the first women's rights convention in Seneca Falls, New York which called for suffrage for women;.
WHEREAS, the first statewide suffrage organization, the Illinois Woman Suffrage Association, was established in Chicago in 1869, becoming the Illinois Equal Suffrage Association in 1891;
WHEREAS, also in 1891, Illinois enacted a law allowing women the right to vote for elective school offices;
WHEREAS, in Chicago on January 30,1913, Ida B. Wells-Barnett and Belle Squire established the Alpha Suffrage Club, believed to be the first black women's suffrage association in the United States;
WHEREAS, on June 26,1913, Illinois enacted the Presidential Suffrage Bill which gave Illinois women the right to vote in federal and municipal elections, not otherwise restricted to men under the Illinois Constitution;
WHEREAS, with the enactment of that law, Illinois became the first state east of the Mississippi River to give women such right to vote for President of the United States, and is credited with being a major positive influence in advancing the women's suffrage movement in the United States;
WHEREAS, on June 4,1919, the proposed 19th Amendment to the United States Constitution was passed by the United States Congress and sent to the states for ratification;
WHEREAS, 100 years ago on June 10,1919, Illinois became the first state to ratify the 19th Amendment, one hour prior to neighboring Wisconsin;
WHEREAS, Illinois led the way for the necessary three-fourths ofthe states to ratify the 19th Amendment, which became part ofthe Constitution on August 26, 1920;
WHEREAS, many Chicago women of all classes, races, ethnicities, and politics worked tirelessly to secure the right to vote, including Mary Livermore, Myra Bradwell, Kate Dogg...