Women's Equality Day, 1995

_______________________________________________________________________

Part IX

The President

_______________________________________________________________________

Proclamation 6816--Women's Equality Day, 1995

___________________________________________________________________

Title 3--
The President

Proclamation 6816 of August 16, 1995

Women's Equality Day, 1995

By the President of the United States of America

A Proclamation

Seventy-five years ago this Nation took a great step
forward by ratifying the 19th Amendment to the
Constitution. Twenty-eight simple words--``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''--brought to a triumphant conclusion
the long decades of struggle waged by generations of
suffragists. Looking back from the vantage point of the
present, when the contributions and influence of women
enrich every facet of our national life, it seems
remarkable that as recently as 1920 most American women
were still denied their right to full participation in
the political activity of this country. Our history
continues to remind us that humanity's age-old enemies
of ignorance and prejudice are not easily defeated.

But defeated they were, by an army of women and men
who, inspired by the staunch courage and unswerving
commitment of leaders like Susan B. Anthony, changed
people's minds and the course of U.S. history. Using
the classic tools of democracy--assembly and petition,
exhortation and example, peaceful protest and political
shrewdness--these champions of liberty won a lasting
victory for civil rights. The fight was hard, the
margins slim, and the outcome often in doubt. But after
years of effort and sacrifice, after countless acts of
courage and conscience, advocates of women's suffrage
rejoiced as the Congress proposed an amendment to the
Constitution in 1919 and as Tennessee, the last State
needed for ratification, approved that amendment on
August 18, 1920, by a single vote, when a young
legislator heeded his mother's plea to support
suffrage. On August 26, 1920, the 19th Amendment was
finally proclaimed part of the United States
Constitution, fulfilling Susan B. Anthony's pledge that
``failure is impossible.''

Women's Equality Day, while a fitting occasion to
commemorate this great victory of wisdom over
ignorance, is also a time for sober reflection that
American democracy is a work in progress. The
Declaration of Independence was only the first step in
our long journey toward equality for all Americans. And
while we have made much progress, until all women have
an equal opportunity to develop their full potential
and to make contributions that are accepted and
welcomed by our society, our freedom as a Nation will
be incomplete.

Let us observe Women's Equality Day, then, both as a
celebration of past achievement and a promise for the
future: a promise to promote and protect with vigor and
vigilance the rights of all our citizens; a promise to
decry the policies of exclusion and to pursue the ideal
of equality for every American; and a promise to
empower all of our people to take their rightful place
as full and equal partners in the great American
enterprise.

NOW, THEREFORE, I, WILLIAM J. CLINTON, President of the
United States of America, by virtue of the authority
vested in me by the Constitution and laws of the United
States, do hereby proclaim August 26, 1995, as
``Women's Equality Day.'' I call upon the citizens of
our great Nation to observe this day with appropriate
programs and activities.

IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I have hereunto set my hand this
sixteenth day of August, in the year of our Lord
nineteen hundred and ninety-five, and of the
Independence of the United States of America the two
hundred and twentieth.