On this date in 1972 – In commemoration of the signing of the Nineteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, granting women suffrage, President Richard M. Nixon proclaimed this day Women’s Rights Day. The Nineteenth Amendment was formally ratified by a sufficient number of states to add it to the Constitution on August 18, 1920, although Florida did NOT ratify it until May 13, 1969. Despite the refusal of the state legislature to ratify the amendment, women had been granted the right to vote in city elections as early as 1917, when Florence Villa, Moore Haven, Palm Beach, and Pass-a-Grille allowed them to cast their ballots. Prominent Florida women’s rights activist, Roxcy Bolton, was integral in getting President Nixon to sign the 1972 proclamation. Bolton was inducted into the Florida Women’s Hall of Fame in 1984.
~Florida Historical Society
