How was the Nineteenth Amendment ratified?

0:05Let me tell you about the ratification of the 19th Amendment. As you know in order to get the Constitution amended, the re-quarters of the states have to ratify the proposal, and that's a lot, three quarters. For some states it was easy because they already allowed women to vote. That was no problem, but getting the last state turned out to be very difficult and there were some states where it was very clear they weren't going to be able to get that state to go for it, but they thought Tennessee is the one where we think we've got a shot at it and so women from all over the country came to Tennessee to try to persuade the legislature that we really do need to have an amendment of this kind. In the days just before the end of their session and it was the middle of summer, very hot. There were people trying very hard to count

1:03the votes and they weren't sure that they had it. They thought probably they didn't. They thought probably when the vote came in it was going to be a tie, an absolute tie, but a tie is not good enough. They needed a majority. The session starts. They've got all the supporters of the 19th Amendment up in the gallery with fans going back and forth and they start calling out the names one by one and when they get to Harry Byrne, he was the youngest member of the legislature and he was thought to be a no vote, but much to everybody's surprise, he voted yes, so suddenly pandemonium breaks out in the gallery because they know we've got it and then they find out why they had it. His mother wrote him a letter the day before, saying and I'm quoting her here,

1:58be a good boy and vote for the 19th Amendment. It's one of those things where mother knows best. He did what his mother said, and as a result the 19th Amendment was ratified on that day. His mother she was actually an impressive woman. She ran her own farm and she was a businesswoman and a farmer. She was cool.