Ratification in Kentucky Splits Former Allies

Although many states convened special legislative sessions to vote on ratification, Kentucky waited until the first day of its regular 1920 session to pass the measure by a comfortable margin of 72 to 25 in the Kentucky House and 30 to 8 in the Senate. Madeline McDowell Breckinridge, president of the Kentucky Equal Rights Association, proudly preserved this copy of the House Roll Call. Her predecessor, foremost southern suffragist Laura Clay (1849–1941), opposed the amendment as an attack on state’s rights.