Hello and welcome to this day in esoteric political history from radiotopia.

My name is Jody Avergan.

This day, August 25th, 1920, a package of documents is on a train on its way from Tennessee to Washington, D.C.

It contains the ratification papers by the Tennessee legislature of the 19th Amendment

granting women the right to vote.

Tennessee's ratification meant that three quarters of the states were on board with

this amendment which meant that it would go forward.

The next day, Secretary of State Bainbridge

Colby, we've been tracking great names on this podcast, so Bainbridge Colby,

Secretary of State signed the proclamation at 8 a.m. in his home that November around the country women would cast the ballot in a national election for the first time

So let's talk about the 19th Amendment the nearly hundred years that it took from the start of the suffrage movement to the ratification and of course the hundred years since.

I'm joined as always by Nicole Hammer of Columbia. Hello Mickey.

Hello, Jody.

And Dr. Kelly Carter Jackson of Wellesley College is back with us.

Hello, Kelly.

Hey, how you doing?

So, Nicki, there's been a lot of coverage,

rightfully so of the 19th Amendment in this moment,

you know, the 100th anniversary.

Some of the smaller details of this story,

and particularly the sort of signing of it are really fascinating to me so I thought we could maybe start with those.

Yeah, I mean, Bainbridge Colby is actually a really interesting character here because you know it had been this big moment when Tennessee ratified the amendment because that meant,

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