Aug. 18 marks the anniversary of the ratification of the 19th Amendment, which finally granted women the vote. It’s a big deal — the right to vote is more important now than ever — so naturally, lots of folks are planning on marking the occasion with a Facebook post or two. If you’re looking for suffragette quotes to share on social media in honor of the day, look no further; I’ve got 16 of ‘em for you, all lined up and ready to go.
The final wording of the Amendment — which, by the way, was exactly the same as the wording in the 1878 version — reads as follows:
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.
Congress shall have power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation.
Short and sweet, it reads similarly to the 15th Amendment, which was ratified on Feb. 3, 1870:
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 race,color, or previous condition of servitude.
The Congress shall have power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation.
And now, we’re coming up on 97 years of 19th Amendment goodness — and no amount of “repeal the 19th" nonsense is going to stop us.
Here are 16 quotes from famous suffragettes to share in order to mark the occasion, whether Twitter, Facebook, Insta, or Snapchat is your jam. And — more importantly — get out there and vote in whatever elections you’ve got coming up, whether it’s the 2018 midterms or anything else!
1“The way to right wrongs is to turn the light of truth upon them.”
2"Sooner or later we all discover that the important moments in life are not the advertised ones, not the birthdays, the graduations, the weddings, not the great goals achieved. The real milestones are less prepossessing. They come to the door of memory unannounced, stray dogs that amble in, sniff around a bit and simply never leave. Our lives are measured by these."
3“If the first woman God ever made was strong enough to turn the world upside down all alone, these women together ought to be able to turn it back, and get it right side up again! And now they is asking to do it, the men better let them.”
6"Let woman's claim be as broad in the concrete as the abstract. We take our stand on the solidarity of humanity, the oneness of life, and the unnaturalness and injustice of all special favoritism, whether of sex, race, country, or condition. If one link of the chain is broken, the chain is broken. A bridge is no stronger than its weakest part, and a cause is not worthier than its weakest element. Least of all can woman's cause afford to decry the weak. We want, then, as toilers for the universal triumph of justice and human rights, to go to our homes from this Congress demanding an entrance not through a gateway for ourselves, our race, our sex, or our sect, but a grand highway for humanity."
9"We are all bound up together in one great bundle of humanity, and society cannot trample on the weakest and feeblest of its members without receiving the curse in its own soul."
10"If Congress refuse to listen and to grant what women ask, there is but one course left to pursue. What is there left for women to do but to become the mothers of the future government?"
12"It will not do to say that it is out of woman's sphere to assist in making laws, for if that were so, then it should be also out of her sphere to submit to them."
15"Now all we need is to continue to speak the truth fearlessly, and we shall add to our number those who will turn the scale to the side of equal and full justice in all things."
16“It was we, the people; not we, the white male citizens; nor yet we, the male citizens; but we, the whole people, who formed the Union. And we formed it, not to give the blessings of liberty, but to secure them; not to the half of ourselves and the half of our posterity, but to the whole people."
