Expressing the sense of Congress with respect to the establishment of an appropriate day for the commemoration of the women suffragists who fought for and won the right of women to vote in the United States.
PL 109-49 (H.J.Res.59), enacted 08/02/2005

119 STAT. 457
PUBLIC LAW 109–49—AUG. 2, 2005
Public Law 109–49
109th Congress
Joint Resolution
Expressing the sense of Congress with respect to the women suffragists who fought
for and won the right of women to vote in the United States.
Whereas one of the first public appeals for women’s suffrage came
in 1848 when Lucretia Mott and Elizabeth Cady Stanton called
a women’s rights convention in Seneca Falls, New York, on July
19, 1848;
Whereas Sojourner Truth gave her famous speech titled ‘‘Ain’t
I a Woman?’’ at the 1851 Women’s Rights Convention in Akron,
Ohio;
Whereas in 1869, suffragists formed two national organizations
to work for the right to vote: the National Woman Suffrage
Association and the American Woman Suffrage Association;
Whereas these two organizations united in 1890 to form the
National American Woman Suffrage Association;
Whereas in 1872, Susan B. Anthony and a group of women voted
in the presidential election in Rochester, New York;
Whereas she was arrested and fined for voting illegally;
Whereas at her trial, which attracted nationwide attention, she
made a speech that ended with the slogan ‘‘Resistance to Tyranny
Is Obedience to God’’;
Whereas on January 25, 1887, the United States Senate voted
on women’s suffrage for the first time;
Whereas during the early 1900s, a new generation of leaders joined
the women’s suffrage movement, including Carrie Chapman Catt,
Maud Wood Park, Lucy Burns, Alice Paul, and Harriot E. Blatch;
Whereas women’s suffrage leaders devoted most of their efforts
to marches, picketing, and other active forms of protest;
Whereas Alice Paul and others chained themselves to the White
House fence;
Whereas the suffragists were often arrested and sent to jail, where
many of them went on hunger strikes;
Whereas almost 5,000 people paraded for women’s suffrage up
Pennsylvania Avenue in Washington, DC; and
Whereas on August 26, 1920, the 19th Amendment to the United
States Constitution granted women in the United States the
right to vote: Now, therefore, be it
Resolved by the Senate and House of Representatives of the
United States of America in Congress assembled, That it is the
sense of Congress that women suffragists should be revered and
Carrie Chapman
Catt.
Maud Wood
Park.
Lucy Burns.
Alice Paul.
Harriot E.
Blatch.
Susan B.
Anthony.
National Woman
Suffrage
Association.
American
Woman Suffrage
Association.
Sojourner Truth.
Lucretia Mott.
Elizabeth Cady
Stanton.
Aug. 2, 2005
[H.J. Res. 59]
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119 STAT. 458
PUBLIC LAW 109–49—AUG. 2, 2005
LEGISLATIVE HISTORY—H.J. Res. 59:
CONGRESSIONAL RECORD, Vol. 151 (2005):
July 25, considered and passed House.
July 28, considered and passed Senate.
celebrated for working to ensure the right of women to vote in
the United States.
Approved August 2, 2005.
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